#I sincerely don't know how divisive this will or won't be

[the-empress-7]

I'm not hating you and other anons or anything, I just want to make this question: Do you really don't like all of Meghan's clothes?

Because I love some things that she wears. Of course some might be inappropriate to some events, but that's where the division should be, like "With that look she proved that she can dress well, pity she chose to use in this event". And some clothes, in my opinion, are good but too big for her.

Sometimes it is easy to get lost in our criticism. And believe me, I don't like her, I just always try to balance my comments with what I would if she was another person, Chaterine for exemple.

I hope I don't sound rude or judgy! Sorry if I offend anyone.

It's a fair question and I really don't mind answering.

The last time I liked an outfit of hers was from the Ireland tour in 2018. There are quite a few looks from when she was early in her royal days that I still love to this day. I am going through all the outfits she has worn since she moved to the US and I can sincerely say that I have not liked a single one of them. 95% of the time my issue is with the fit, she dresses with little to no self awareness of her body and that's why the outfits end up being fashion fails for me. She wears clothes that are not only unflattering, but they end up highlighting her worst features.

Her navy suit from yesterday was the best of the bunch from yesterday, but I consider it a fail because she went with a very bare shoulders look for a meeting with a senior government official and then school children. Another way to say it is that if you wear a great outfit to the wrong event, in my books it's an immediate disqualification. I won't even grade you cause you failed at the starting gate.

TL;DR if someone in her position does not how to dress appropriately for an audience, it is 100% a valid criticism of her fashion choices. Context matters when it comes to fashion. Also if you don't know how to dress for your body, you do not get to proclaim yourself as a fashion icon. It's the hypocrisy for me.

ETA: It kind of reminds of the shorts to a job interview discourse on X. I don't care how nice the shorts are or how great you look in them, you don't wear them to a job interview!

[aichi-division]

Shouta's thoughts on Itabashi Division

Bernard Miyamoto

"Bernard looks like a pretty eccentric guy. I like his clothing style, he looks great. It's nice to meet other people with a passion for the arts. Even though we are in different areas, the performing arts really come into their own, and Bernard looks like someone who is quite talented in that regard. Haha, I even feel like he's going to start giving me a performance of some Shakespeare script any minute now.

From what I hear, he comes from London, right? It must be beautiful there, I've never been out of Japan. I wish I could meet him and share travel talks and tastes in art. Maybe he could recommend me some plays to see? Well, hopefully for free, I don't have the money to pay for a ticket with my kids- I mean, teammates".

Raiden Koyama

"WAIT A MINUTE! R-Rai? Rai is part of this whole competition thing? No way. He never mentioned to me that he was part of a division…. Wha-

Well, umm, how should I put it…. Rai and I had a few encounters before, y'know, through dating apps and stuff. We found some common ground, like a passion for the arts, parties and cigars. I don't remember exactly how things went down because I got drunk and…. well, I can remember his eyes and his hands on my thighs, whispering something... He's someone hypnotic, I can't deny it. He is my type, if you know what I mean...

After those encounters, Rai has not maintained much contact with me. Well, we're from different locations so it's understandable, isn't it? I wonder how he would react if he knew I was a division leader, I can't help but smile at the thought of his face-"

Issey Ito

"Oh wow, another Issey!! Although this one looks… completely opposite to our Issey, for sure.

He seems to have a rather surly attitude, reminds me a bit of SOMEONE. Anyway, he seems like a pretty talented and mysterious guy. Maybe our Issey can get some smiles out of him or something…. well, if he doesn't get killed first.

I hear he is a medical student, what a nice career! I wish him all the best! Heh, I can't help but feel a little nostalgic when I see guys his age accomplishing their goals. There is only one way to make a living and that is with hard work and dedication. I hope this kid has everything he needs to succeed in life."

Itabashi Division

I won't deny that seeing Rai- I mean, Raiden, has been a great surprise. I didn't openly know his musical side, although I sincerely believe that it was still expected that he would accept to be part of something like this. I'm genuinely glad to be able to see him again. Anyway, I think this division has a lot of potential and a lot of talent. Unlike other leaders I've met, Bernard actually looks like a pretty cool guy to spend time with. Eccentricity is part of the magic of art and music is not exempt. I already want to see what they are capable of doing.

-@itabashi-division

[aoyama-division]

Tomi's Thoughts on Obihiro Division

Hisoka Tetsumasu

"Tetsumasu-san? He's taking part in this contest, as well? And he's the leader of a team? ...If it weren't for me not wanting to embarrass myself or because it would be improper of me, I'd probably laugh myself silly right now. The very thought of this man leading a team, any team for that matter, is downright foolish as it is ludicrous."

"No doubt you're probably wondering how exactly I know this man. I don't, not exactly anyway. I only know of him because he works as a horse breeder at the Spur Stud Ranch. Why should I care about this? Because my family, or rather I, own several of the horses there. You peons might find this hard to believe, but... I actually adore equestrianism. When we were younger, my father forced my brother and I to take up some sort of physical activity. I don't know what Kunio took up, but I decided to do horse riding. I'm quite good at it, believe it or not. I find horses to be rather unique animals. I'm quite fond of them. A shame none of the horses I own have won any races, though."

"Anyway, I came across Tetsumasu-san when I went to visit some of my fine steeds in Obihiro. The owner of the ranch recommended him, so I have him as the watching over my fine stallions. While I find his skittish nature to be annoying, he does know what he is doing, so I pay him no mind and pay him for his services. ...Still, I have to wonder what someone like him has to do with the D.R.B., or Chuohku. Perhaps there's more to skittish man than meets the eye..."

Daiki Kamiyama

"Ugh, Daiki-kun. I only know of him because of his family name. If not for that, I'd pay him absolutely no mind at all. The Kamiyama family and mine are business partners with each other. In exchange for letting them get first pick of any jewels we uncover, the Kamiyamas let our family stay in their hotels, free of charge. Since my father travels a lot, he always tries to stay in the hotels provided by their family. I've stayed in one or two of them myself. They're quite good."

"As far as his family goes, I only know of the two oldest children, Carter-san and Akimi-san. I know there are more, but I've yet to meet. I only hope that the rest of the children aren't anything like Daiki-kun. Ugh, as I stated earlier, if it weren't for his family name, I'd almost think he were a peasant from how he acts! Karada thinks he's swell, but I want little to nothing to do with him until he acts his age."

Jack Verrill

"Ah, Verrill-san. I met him at soiree, accompanying his young master, Daiki. I must say, the young boy should consider himself lucky to have a fine butler like Verrill-san keeping him out of trouble. I've noticed he and my own butler, Hino, seem to have a friendly rivalry of sorts. I'm glad to see that even in his old age, he hasn't lost his thrill for competition."

Veiled Vanguard

"I have to question exactly why this team is present. For one thing, as I stated, Tetsumasu-san doesn't scream 'leadership-material' at all. Secondly, I have to wonder why Chuohku has taken notice of him. For all I know, he is just a simple horse breeder. Of course, it wouldn't be out of character for Chuohku to just force people to join their tournament out of the blue, but why him exactly?"

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious... but I don't really care enough to find out the reason. If he is joining this tournament, I sincerely hope he'll give a good show. ...But I won't be holding my breath on that."

[caffeineandsociety]

White cis gay men are often seen by mainstream society as the default face of The LGBTQ+ Community; this is both caused by, and feedback loops into, the way white cis men are privileged by society. When it comes to representing The LGBTQ+ Community, white cis gay men are often relatively privileged over other subgroups.

HOWEVER.

Gay men, regardless of race or AGAB, are...you know, still oppressed by society at large. In fact, many homophobic tropes about gay men have a uniquely gendered bent to them, from the "effeminate limp-wristed fruit", to the "burgeoning predatory bear", to the "devious AIDS vector" (which is also frequently aimed at trans women, thanks to popular bioessentialism and proximity to transphobic "deception" tropes), to the "greedy decadent hedonist who would destroy society as long as he gets his quickie at the club"-

And cisheteropatriarchal society FUCKING LOVES IT when people end up parroting these tropes in the name of "feminism" and "uplifting other queer subgroups".

Now, I want us all to think back to the ToddInTheShadows video about James Somerton for a moment. Remember what that video was calling out - the way Somerton's very limited original content was, primarily, repeating common misogynistic and transphobic tropes, but spinning them not as misogynistic and laterally queerphobic stereotypes, but as Very Common Bad Behaviors By Privileged Subgroups Of Oppressed Groups.

I want us to recall - he got away with this for years. He got well-meaning people, who nominally knew better, absolutely eating it up. He probably very sincerely believed it himself! How does that happen?

Consider the trope I highlighted. The "greedy decadent hedonist who would destroy society as long as he gets his quickie at the club".

Consider for a moment, how important it is to recognize how white cis men are relatively privileged over other queer subgroups - and how that kind of relative privilege can serve as a blinder to the suffering of other queer subgroups - and how, as a result, there are prominent white cis gay voices who don't see the problem with gentrification, or with highly censored rainbow capitalism; how that relative privilege can turn into throwing people under the bus...

And I want you to consider just how easy it is for criticism of that pattern to slip right into repeating that trope. Into an implication that every white cis gay man is Jeffree Starr or some shit. Into an implication that Jeffree Starr's flamboyant aesthetic is inextricable from him, personally, being a shitty I-got-mine sellout, especially if you can tie it to a critique of the misogyny in the makeup industry. Oops! We're now on a runaway train straight into homophobia town!

And the thing is, just like the example with James Somerton, you usually won't even notice it's happening. Look at how many people watched Somerton's videos. Again, he probably believed everything he said himself. We Live In A Society. We live our lives simmering in this toxic brew of stereotypes. We internalize them. After ToddInTheShadows pointed it out, of course, so many of Somerton's former viewers became thoroughly unable to unsee it - but before that? It was background noise. Of COURSE women fetishizing gay men is more of a problem than lesbophobia and misogyny! Of COURSE the presence of a single-digit number of wlw couples in children's media proves queer women are super privileged over queer men! Of COURSE trans people are being divisive by trying to distance themselves from their AGAB, that's TOTALLY inherently the same thing as denying the shared history of the communities! Because the assumption that women are just that airheaded and reckless and frivolous, and trans people are just playing pretend, is such a common set of beliefs in mainstream society, that it was just taken for granted until someone came along to shine a big, bright, glaring spotlight on it.

The lesson we need to be taking from that is not James Somerton Is A Bastard; it's the importance of being CAREFUL when criticizing lateral aggression from an oppressed group to make sure that it's not looping right back around into its own flavor of lateral aggression.

In the case of gay men, for example, we need to be careful NOT to reinvent the same old stereotype that's been around...presumably since the first time someone decided that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah were the gay sex more than the closed-off cruelty.

[ineedtoventchrissy]

To continue with my ventting.

I can't remember which blog said this, but they said something along the lines that it will take time for Chris to rebuild his career once this shitshow is over. They were talking about how this shitshow has gone on for so long and how bad the situation has gotten that it is now even starting to affect the general public's opinion of him.

This shitshow has gone on for far too long and is so bad that personally, I don't know if the fandom will ever recover, but it will definitely not ever be the same. The fandom was divided into many factions because of this mess that Chris created. Chris willingly chose to allow his fandom to be used, to be gaslighted, and to be labeled as crazy by his team. He allowed his POS, lazy ass leech of a brother to call his fans crazy. Chris has used his fans for many years, but this time, he went too far. I honestly don't know if he will have as large and as devoted fandom ever again. The fan base that supported him through thick and thin, that went to bat for him when the leaked dick pic was accidentally released and pretty much saved him, I believe that is gone for good. Chris will never have that support from the fandom ever again, in my opinion. There has been too much hurt, too much disrespect, and too much division for there to be the level of loyalty that once existed when that dick pic surfaced. I blame Chris and his team for that.

I'm waiting for this crap of a PR stunt shitshow to end. After that, who knows. I will say this it will take a long time for Chris to build his career and his fan base. He may successfully rebuild his career, but I highly doubt he will have the fan support he once had. And that is on him. He has no one else to blame but himself.

I hope that when this is over and done with, Chris will seek out a highly qualified and reputable therapist and has done the help he needs. I also hope he fires his entire team, CAA, Meghan, and especially Ilaria. I hope he finds a really good, decent agency to represent him and an agent with a strong moral compass who won't let this shitshow happen again. I hope he gets rid of all of his friends who are leeches, starting with Tara,Jamie Chung, and Mark Kassman. I hope he sets boundaries with those friends he chooses to keep in his life. I hope he financially cuts off his brother Scott. He's done way too much for that POS. At the very least, I hope he has it out with Scott and sets a timeline with Scott, telling Scott to move his ass to NYC, go to auditions on Broadway, and has 2 years to make it on Broadway and then he will cut him off. I really hope Chris does the hard work to better himself as a person and as an actor. Chris has no excuse not to get therapy. He comes from a financially affluent family. He is a millionaire several times over, thanks to his days with Marvel, so he has the means to get therapy. He has dealt with his issues by drinking too much, smoking tobacco cigarettes, smoking weed, and has been rumored to have tried cocaine or used cocaine. These aren't healthy, helpful, or productive ways to deal with his anxiety or other issues he may have. He needs to get help. More importantly, he has to want to get better. I really hope he chooses to get better and gets help. I also hope that one day, he publicly admits what he has done and sincerely apologizes to his fans.

As for me, when this shitshow ends, I will be relieved to finally see the end. After that, I don't know. I do know that for now and for a long time to come, I won't be spending any of my hard earned money on any of his work, nothing. As of right now, the last film of his I watched was The Gray Man. I have never been to a CC, and I doubt I will go to one he's involved in. I don't know if I will ever watch or support any of his future works.

I always side eyed Chris. I never truly bought into the image that Disney and his team created, especially when he got involved with his married Gifted Co star. I refuse to say her name because she is a POS. if you know the history of their relationship and what her SM media was like before the cleanup, you'll know why I don't like her.

I understand that Chris is a loyal person to his friends and family, but at some point, you have cut off toxic people. I have had to do this with many of my aunts and uncles, first cousins, and other family members. I'm the process of distancing myself from my sister because I've had enough of her disrespectful attitude towards me. So, I understand how hard it can be to set boundaries with family and friends and to cut ties with toxic people, but he is going to have to do that if he is going to lead a healthy life.

I am a fan of Sebastian Stan. He is #1 for me. Chris has always been second place. Sebastian, in my opinion, has always been the superior actor of the two. He has also, in my opinion, been the better human being of the two. I am so happy that all of Sebastian Stan's hard work and dedication to his craft is finally getting him the recognition he so richly deserves.

Thank you for creating this safe space to vent. It is very much appreciated.

.

[uenodivision]

Kisouna's Thoughts on Ōta Division

Chinami Chinen

"Chinami Chinen, a.k.a. Oracle. Leader of the Ōta Division team, Birds of Prey.

"Although I hate relying on forces outside of the law to solve crimes, there have been times when we have had to rely on this woman and her fortunes. I'm not sure how she does it, but her predictions help us in ways we cannot possibly comprehend. She is able to easily ascertain where a criminal is hiding, where a victim may be, anything at all. And the worst part is, she never accepts any reward for her work. She is very humble and polite.

"Although I am grateful to Chinami-san for her fortunes, I try not to rely on her unless I have exhausted all of my previous options. I wish to use my own skills and methods to solve a crime. And what's more, I'm not sure her... fortunes or predictions would hold up in a court of law. But besides that, I am grateful for her assistance when we need it."

Kira Chinen

"Kira Chinen, a.k.a. Huntress.

"Kira-san is often my partner, along with Wataru-san, when we investigate a crime together. She is a very thorough and detail-orientated woman. I believe this may stem from her time in the army. I respect that about her. However, I've noticed that she seems strangely different once she is off of a case. When we work together, she has a drive that I don't see in most law officials. However, once she is off the clock, she seems... depressed or upset at herself. I know not what the issue is, but I hope she realizes that she is more valuable than she believes."

Taria Chinen

"Taria Chinen, a.k.a. Misfit.

"I haven't met or seen her, but disturbing rumors have reached my ears about this young woman. Whenever she is around, things seem to turn up missing all of a sudden, which doesn't exactly put her in a good light. What's more, her MC name, size, stature, and motives remind me of a thief I read about in the newspaper who has been giving shop and business owners no end of trouble. I've related these findings to Kira since her hometown is the main place that is getting hit. However, she tells me that she is having a hard time apprehending the thief.

"I'd never accuse Kira of any wrongdoing, and I know she is a good sibling to her sisters, but I sincerely hope that she is not covering for this woman's wrongdoings. If she is, I'll have little choice but to take her down with Taria when I eventually catch her."

Birds of Prey

"I must admit, I am surprised to see a team comprised of siblings appear in this tournament. The only one that comes to mind, like Shisuta-san mentioned, is the Buster Bros!!! of Ikebukuro. But having another sibling team is not necessarily a bad thing, though it will make this tournament a bit more difficult.

"If we should face them, then I think the first priority is to take out Chinami-san first, as her ability seems to be the most troubling. Of course, that won't be easy since her younger sisters will no doubt be protecting her. If not Chinami, then Kira-san should be the next target since she functions as the tank and attacker. Taria-chan, despite her ability, can be the last sister we take out since she isn't much of a threat.

"Aside from that, I've no trouble with any of these women, save Taria. As stated, I really hope Kira is not covering for her. I've grown to respect her, and it'd be a shame to see her arrested because she let her love for her family get in the way of her job."

[electrasev5nwrites]

Ninja Daily: Vapors 91

Tsunade's day between 12:23pm and 6:57pm

As the door shut behind a sullen Sasuke, garden party invitations in hand, she blew a bit of hair out of her face and settled in to think.

'What needs to be my next course of action? Assuming Choza succeeds, I just need to be in my office when the alert goes out so that I'm the medic who sees him. But if something's gone wrong…'

She puckered her lips into a pout and cleared off her desk while she worked, mindlessly filing away a letter from the Raikage in with her tax information.

'If something has gone wrong, and Danzo knows I'm onto him, I have two main concerns. First is what Danzo will do about potential traitors. The boy in the intelligence department is at the most risk, but if he suspects anyone else, they would be in danger as well. If Sai was telling the truth about Root procedure, Danzo will immediately delegate his execution. That means I need to have the department cleared of any possible bystanders, since he won't be sending Genin and Chuunin, and I need to have an elite guard I can trust on Sai.'

Well, the answer for that was obvious.

She strode out the door and bent to talk to Keiko in low tones. By this point, the secretary couldn't be surprised by any number of strange and sudden orders, so she merely took down a high-priority D-class mission and three notes and left to delegate to the appropriate parties.

One note would be going to Shizune to tell her to keep her position on Sai as a guard until further notice; one note would be going to the same department ordering them to clear out immediately until further notice, and one note would be going to the front gate ordering an immediate report to her office when a team came in.

Aiko positively had to have been involved in Sai's break with Root. She couldn't think of any other reason that he would think it important enough to mention that he suspected Kakashi and Yamato had both defected from Root at some point. It was more than a bit convenient that this whole kerfuffle had started several hours before those two were due to return to the village. Aiko thought it was important that they were present for some reason. If they were close to her, she might have time to act when she found out why.

'And hell, it might explain why we need Konohamaru involved.'

She sincerely hoped that Aiko wasn't just fucking with her head at this point, because she couldn't see the connection.

Thoughts of just how long she would be hanging an Uzumaki upside down by her toes from the Hokage monument if this was a practical joke were interrupted by the zing of a frantic chakra signature on course for her office.

'I don't think I have ever been as impressed by Choza as I am now,' Tsunade noted with satisfaction at 2:48 pm an instant before her window was flung open. She wiped a look of mild exasperation onto her features—and then traded it out for shock when a pink-faced genin breathing harshly bit out that she was needed urgently to treat Councilman Shimura Danzo.

She overtook him on the roofs, practically flying with Boar a steady presence at her left shoulder, genuinely hustling. It was important that she get there before any other medic, after all. Surely Hiashi, if no one else, could think to stall by snootily insisting that only the best medic was appropriate to treat Danzo, but the idea of letting anyone else see the initially obvious symptoms of a respiratory toxin was untenable.

As much as it burned her up inside, there was no way to publically disgrace that rotten bastard without causing internal conflict. Konoha couldn't afford division right now, and they certainly couldn't afford for people to rightfully fear their leadership. Tsunade would never do anything like what Danzo had ordered, but that wouldn't matter to everyone who had never met either shinobi personally. That was most of the villagers. Publically vilifying Danzo would drag Sensei's reputation through the mud as well, and hers would be tarnished by association.

That was why he was going to be languishing in a condition so critical that he couldn't receive visitors while she desperately worked to save him until he eventually passed on. She would have to bite her tongue through a sad ceremony mourning his passing, but at least he would be unable to cause any more problems, if he was adequately handled.

Now the largest concern was wringing as much information out of him that she could, and working to make sure his band of merry idiots didn't cause any problems. Hopefully, they wouldn't even know anything was wrong to contradict the public story. The elderly got ill, after all. It wasn't impossible. Poor Danzo was so paranoid and insistent that he was hale and hearty that he had not been in the hospital for over ten years. Risky behavior, that.

He had probably been treated by a personal medic within his root, but there wouldn't be any records for those treatments to contradict her story that he must have just had a creeping condition he hadn't known about.

Still, if she could get that medic, it would make her life a little easier. There had to have been someone, and that person would know to mobilize Root regardless of any other potential information leaks that Tsunade couldn't see.

'Awfully convenient for us that he's such a paranoid coot,' Tsunade thought, hefting his weight up after making a show of examining the coot in question. She deposited him into Inoichi's arms. He shot a questioning look for an instant, but wiped it away in favor of concern and helped her cut back across town. Hiashi was at their back, Choza to the right, and Shikaku to the left while Boar pushed apart a path directly in front of them through the gathered crowd.

About fifteen minutes later, she had to reconsider her previous assessment. Danzo wasn't just a paranoid old coot, he was justifiably insane. On the other hand, at least now she knew why he didn't visit the hospital.

The first part of the surgery was a simple matter of excising the human eyes implanted in Danzo's arms, connected to strange black veins that were definitely an augmentation of some kind. Tsunade had seen some bizarre and unpleasant things in her medical career, but this still made her a little queasy. At least it was simple. She had no interest in wasting a large amount of her chakra regenerating skin and muscle he had already adapted to function without, so instead grew a layer of scab over the gross indentations in his right arm. The pain would be excruciating when and if she allowed him to wake up, of course.

Knowing that still wasn't quite enough satisfaction when she tugged the right side of his robe down to see the aberration Hiashi had mentioned on Danzo's shoulder and upper chest. Tsunade stared. The face of her grandfather stared back, wrought grotesquely out of a white substance that was probably some form of his unique bloodline.

At that point, Hiashi was the only other person still present other than her silent guard. The thought of him knowing that she lost her temper completely at a distressing sight was the only thing that stopped her from twisting Danzo's head off like a bottle cap and flinging it at the wall.

Wasn't it enough that she now had ten Sharingan eyes sitting in glass bottles on the side table, and one left in Danzo's eye socket to take? What madness was this?

Her fingers were shaking in her fury, she dimly noticed. It would be impossible to perform any sort of surgery or make an intelligent decision in that state. So she calmly closed her eyes and briefly meditated. She tried not to notice the look of pity on Hiashi's face when she opened them again.

"Well, depending on how deeply embedded this is, he's probably going to die of shock," Tsunade grimly noted, steeling herself to run her fingers over the pain-wracked face studding Danzo's arm.

"What are the chances that he will survive long enough for interrogation?"

She couldn't help but notice that there was no trace of the former trepidation in the Hyuuga's expression. She had thought that his sympathies would be aroused by an instance of someone wronging one of Konoha's clans. It was a bittersweet thing to note that bloodline theft was even more of a trigger issue for Hiashi.

"Perhaps thirty percent?" she guessed wryly, switching out her latex gloves for another pair.

This surgery was much more difficult. Her grandfather's face was attached all the way to Danzo's bone, the hard white substance curling around his marrow from elbow to shoulder. It might have just been easier to lop off his arm, but that wouldn't pass muster in an open casket funeral. In order to avoid any appearance or accusation of foul play, they couldn't afford anything suspicious like not allowing the public to see the body. The gaping holes would have to be packed with gauze, but Danzo's habit of wrapping himself in bandage would make it easier to hide what had been done.

Sweat was forming on her forehead by the time she was done with that, but she couldn't allow herself to stop just yet. There was still one more Sharingan. The one with a place of honor in his own skull had probably been trained with extensively, and Danzo was a wily old fucker. If he had any tools at all at his disposal, he might escape to tell tales about poison, kidnapping, and brutality at her hands. She absolutely could not afford for him to escape or be rescued.

Actually.

"Hiashi-san, could I trouble you to trade places with my apprentice? Shizune-chan is in the next hallway over, monitoring the root defector who made this possible. I anticipate that there will be an attempt to silence him."

Under her supervision, Shizune performed the last extraction and carefully preserved the specimen with cool professionalism. Tsunade had moved to examine the oversized seal spiraling across Danzo's concave chest while Shizune worked, and had come to a conclusion.

'I have no idea what this is for, but it probably isn't good news. Does this link him to his operatives, possibly? Can he remotely contact them? Is it a way for him to control them at a distance?'

Tsunade was already thinking of what she had to do next when her apprentice spoke up.

"I have a note for you, Tsunade-sama."

She furrowed her brow questioningly at her apprentice, but received only a polite smile that usually meant Shizune was hiding her thoughts. So she unfolded the single piece of paper. It took only a moment to read.

'Aiko needs to meet with me alone? …Wait, she's in the interrogation department?'

Granted, it was a large department. It had been cleared of workers, which made it seem even emptier. The prisoners were still present, of course, but none of them would be in any condition to note what was going on or escape even if the cells hadn't intentionally scattered across the facility so that there could be no collusion. But it was still mildly impressive that she hadn't noticed another human being in the area, no matter her level of distraction.

Sneaky little shit. As strange and vaguely unsettling as it was to find that the girl had already slipped in to pass a note to Shizune without her notice, she couldn't afford to put it off.

"Shizune-chan, relieve Hiashi and return to your post. Tell him that he may leave. Boar-san, consider yourself dismissed for the day as well."

There was no point in dragging him further into this nasty Root business. Her spy had specified that the meeting be alone, so this was probably something ugly or important.

Aiko slipped into the sealed interrogation chamber attached to the cell where Tsunade had performed surgery about two minutes after the others had left. Tsunade only knew because she was mourning the loss of an entire work day—it was 5:05. She had spent a good two hours working on Danzo. Glaring at him through the one- way mirror made her feel a little better.

This was the first time she had seen Aiko in what she assumed to be the Root variation on the ANBU uniform. The blank mask was expected. The black wig that washed her out to look like a kabuki ghost was not. Creepy.

Tsunade hid her discomfort behind a veneer of mild irritation. "Well, what is it you need to talk about?"

She was already feeling stressed and flustered, so Tsunade had to grit her teeth when Aiko's only response was to stick her tongue out and point at the seal that was definitely still present… and then fished her left glove off with her teeth to display an identical seal on the back of her palm. At her blank expression, the teen shook her hand slightly, as if that would somehow clear things up.

Frankly, she was a bit confused. Aiko wouldn't be winning any charades tournaments any time soon. Really, what the hell was that supposed to mean? Compare the two? Look what I can color?

That reminded her. "Danzo has a seal on his chest," Tsunade briskly informed the girl. From the blank look on her face, that wasn't ringing any bells. Well, damn. She'd hoped. "I examined it, but it means nothing to me."

That seemed to firm some resolve in the set of Aiko's jaw. The response was a non-sequitur, though.

"We should go visit Sai."

That declaration didn't clear up anything at all, but she followed along. Shizune gave them an inscrutable look when she saw the two of them approach up the hall, but Sai strode up to the bars and gave them one of those disconcerting smiles.

Aiko turned her face up to blink at Tsunade. "May I have a few moments alone with him? We need to discuss some things."

That was the last straw. She felt her face turning pink with frustration.

"What the hell is going on?"

The boy was the one to answer. "She cannot tell you, without removing that seal," he pointed out pleasantly. "If she were to remove her own seal, it would be readily apparent to an observer that it had been tampered with. But if she were to put mine back on me, we could communicate. Then I could be unsealed again and relay whatever information she has to you."

She stared blankly for a moment. "This is all unnecessarily stupid and convoluted," she sighed, pushing her bangs back. Then she shrugged carelessly and turned away. "Fine. Make it quick." She and Shizune walked down to the end of the hall just out of hearing distance to wait.

It was quick—Aiko left the cell about four minutes later without a word to either of them, gave Tsunade a nod, and then left in a blur of Hiraishin.

"I trust that this weirdness will be explained?" Shizune asked tiredly, striding up to peer back into Sai's once again locked cell.

"Aiko-chan believes that Danzo-sama will have some precaution in place in case of the event of his capture," Sai relayed calmly.

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "We already know that," she pointed out without bothering to hide her exasperation.

A flicker of irritation passed in those dark eyes. His voice as was still as ever, however, when Sai continued. "She intends to present herself to him as an ally and gain his confidence in an attempt to discern what hidden danger he has only hinted at in his orders to Root operatives."

She buried her face in her hands. "Great," she muttered thickly. "Just great. Is that what she is doing now?"

He merely shook his head no. Apparently he didn't think she needed more of an answer to that.

"Right… Shizune, get a spare mask from storage. He'll be replacing Boar in my office so we know where he is." She turned a firm expression on Shizune. "I want you posted on Danzo. If Aiko comes, make it convincing. If anyone else comes, kill them."

Her apprentice nodded placidly and hurried off to fetch the equipment while Tsunade unlocked the cell with the root ANBU in it. "Mind, I hardly trust you," she pointed out dryly. The boy didn't seem troubled.

"I understand," he agreed readily, stepping out as if the hour he'd spent in processing and the three and a half staring at the wall of a cell hadn't fazed him one bit. Perhaps they hadn't.

They left Shizune outside Danzo's cell after ensuring that he was still unconscious. At this point, it was possible that he could be woken up. She didn't bother to dose him again. If she did, he might die before he woke up, and they wouldn't be getting any information out of his whatsoever. Instead, she had chakra inhibiting cuffs attached to his wrists and ankles. It seemed overkill – what danger could he possibly pose at this point?—but better to be cautious than regretful.

"Tsunade-sama, Konohamaru-kun and his squad delivered the… items you asked for," Keiko informed her as soon as she strode through the door.

Tsunade was almost proud of her for saying that with a straight face. "Thank you," she nodded regally to her secretary, before bending to scoop up the two boxes. She tucked them under her desk out of sight, and settled in to wait. As far as the public was concerned, at this point, she had stabilized Danzo and Shizune had taken over his medical care. She couldn't be expected to sit at his bedside all day, after all.

She may as well have waited downstairs, however. It wasn't for another two hours at 6:57 that anyone showed up again, though she did get a couple of messengers.

Aiko's day, after Danzo hurriedly left

'I don't know how she did it in such short time, but Tsunade is amazing.'

Of course, the Hokage's actions did complicate things. In order for the story currently circulating to pass muster, Danzo had to die relatively quickly.

Downtown was an absolute mess. You would think that people had better things to do than gossip, but it was apparently news when one of the most respected figures in the village collapsed in a teahouse and had to be carted off by the Hokage and four clan heads. When Aiko had passed by in uniform, she had gotten subsumed into crowd control duty and had plenty of opportunity to overhear enough to piece together her own theory.

It would be far too convenient for Danzo to have just dropped dead. The idea that Tsunade had already had a plan in place to take Danzo into custody made much more sense. She had just needed an opportunity, which Aiko had inadvertently provided.

Of course, this pretty much scuppered Aiko's own plans. Was Danzo really dead? Was he going to die soon? What about the possibility that his death would mean the death of every sealed root agent? It would be an insane precaution, but less mad than creating a subversive organization and letting them disperse as they would after the death of their commander. Danzo had clearly overdosed on crazy flakes at some point, but he was loyal to Konoha in his own way. He would see that Root –essentially a domestic terrorist organization— would become a liability without a strong head.

If Aiko had been in charge, she would have solved that problem by having a clear chain of command and replacement head ready, but that was because she wasn't dangerously crazy and paranoid.

Well. At least not compared to Danzo.

In any case, the public opinion that had clearly been purposefully engineered was a pretty good hint as to how Tsunade wanted to handle this. She wasn't going to be making the Uchiha massacre's truth public at the moment, for whatever reason.

It didn't matter to Aiko, frankly. Such a smooth and admirably underhanded way of taking Danzo in custody while getting lauded for it was a better outcome than she'd even hoped for.

Apparently, she should have had more faith in Tsunade, but she had thought that the struggle of the day would be two-fold: First, Danzo would move to eliminate the leak, which he should have found out was Sai after Boar got off his shift and was meant to be replaced by Aiko. (As galling as it had been to ensure that Danzo would be informed on the same day that Sai squealed, it had seemed riskier to send Sai in on another shift when she didn't know if any more of Tsunade's inner circle were compromised. That would stupidly deprive her of the upper hand: information control. The devil you knew was better than the one you didn't, after all).

The second issue would be that Danzo would have to eliminate or deal with anyone of Tsunade's people who knew about what Sai had communicated. He would have Boar on hand to tell him exactly what Tsunade had done in that time period, so it would have been tricky and nasty to counter him.

She still wasn't sure if she thought that he would attempt to hypnotize Tsunade to rule from the shadows or just kill and replace her as Hokage. He could have been planning to do something similar to what Tsunade had done to him: make her death look like an accident, illness, or even pin the blame on someone else he needed out of the way.

'Doesn't matter anymore,' she sighed, making her way to the main administration building. 'Danzo himself is probably neutralized as a threat, as long as the intelligence people do their jobs and Tsunade notices the eyeballs in his arm. All we have to do is keep him from getting back-up'. No one blinked twice at an ANBU flickering inside and making her way to one of the secured entrances to the Intelligence department at 3:16pm, even if her mask was blank and her uniform wasn't quite standard even without factoring in that she'd kept her regular footwear. That was how new recruits or agents who broke their masks sometimes had to go around, after all. Outsiders wouldn't know the difference.

She was sure that Tsunade would probably have brought Danzo there, but Sai definitely was ensconced inside. She should check in on him before she did anything else to assess the situation and see that he was safe. He was a major target now, after all.

Her own plan was pretty well shot, or at least needed severe revision. That was fine. She thought well on her feet, and the large issues she had already identified were probably still relevant, even if she should expect the players to act differently.

But she didn't find Tsunade near Sai. That was a mixed blessing, since she didn't want Boar to know that she was working against Root. She did nearly get skewered by Shizune, however.

Aiko skittered backwards away from a brace of senbon and dropped to her knees to avoid a purple fog of poison breath. Talk about trigger-happy.

It wasn't the most intuitive action when faced by someone who was attacking her, but Aiko yanked up her mask and showed her empty palms.

Shizune looked unpleasantly surprised. "What are you doing here?" she hissed, slipping her weapons away and pulling up to her full height. "Tsunade-sama ordered this area cleared."

"Is she with Danzo?" Aiko asked, mildly curious. The shock on Shizune's face was answer enough. "Right, can you pass her a message for me? Don't say it's from me," she clarified distractedly, rifling in her hip pouch for a pen and paper that didn't have a seal on it. "I'll sign it so she knows it's from me, but I don't want anyone else knowing…"

"I can do that," Shizune confirmed bemusedly, watching her press the paper against the wall and scrawl out a short, thoroughly uninspired missive.

"Great, thank you," she breathed, folding the paper twice and then handing it over. "Hey, Sai."

"Hello, Aiko," he replied calmly.

Something twitched in Shizune's eye. "Are you going to ask why he's in an Interrogation cell?" she asked a bit testily.

Aiko shook her head. "No, I think I'm good. I'll see you two later."

Tsunade obviously hadn't had Danzo in her custody very long, and removing the line of eyeballs in his flesh was going to take some time. Aiko was going to have to hurry, but she'd have time for one of her most critical errands. She took a moment to pat herself down, checking her equipment once more. It all looked good, so she gave the two watching a curt nod and tugged on the Hiraishin seal planted in the underground city of access tunnels used by root.

She'd almost expected that Danzo or someone would have found it. It was only about a mile and a half away from the entrance that led directly into his home, after all. What a security flaw, on both parts. Missing a seal like that was almost as irresponsible as sacrificing safety in favor of convenient access to his meeting rooms through his home.

Root was an organization of individuals. They did not have teams in the standard sense. Occasionally, Danzo would organize a group for a specific mission, but they would not bond by any means or spend time together socially.

That meant that Danzo was the only person holding them together, and it was the way he liked things. It was classic counter-infiltration to ensure that no one traitor could devastate your numbers by giving out a list of members.

It wasn't good news for poor distressed Boar, who would know that he couldn't rescue Danzo on his own (or else he would have tried already) but had very few options as to contacting reinforcements. The only place that could generally be counted on to have a root presence was Danzo's own home, where he definitely did not want outsiders snooping unobserved. That would be where Boar went as soon as he was dismissed from Tsunade's presence and could leave without arousing suspicion.

Both entrances to Danzo's home were always guarded. That meant that he could have just two Root members posted even when he was gone without them ever being entirely sure he had really left. They were far enough apart—one in the entrance hall, and one posted underground—that they could not communicate and when he left through one door, the ROOT ANBU at the other wouldn't know.

It pretty well ensured that a spy wouldn't be comfortable rifling through his home even when posted there, because it would be nearly impossible to tell if he was just doing another paranoid doubling back through his house to see if you were doing your job right.

'Does make my job easy, though.' Aiko didn't bother to nod or react to the tall woman standing silently at the bottom of the spiraling steps cut out of clay that would lead up to the aboveground portion of the house. That would have been more suspicious than anything.

Instead, she walked past her as if Aiko belonged and then whipped around to sink a kunai into the back of the guard's upper neck. If she kept it planted up to the hilt into the brainstem, it would be an instant kill and she could flicker away with the corpse before blood was spilled.

It didn't work—the woman stepped forward just in time and turned to face Aiko, already drawing the short sword off of her back.

Aiko just about rolled her eyes. In this confined space, really? She wanted a swordfight in a dinky little hallway?

'Must really not be a taijutsu specialist. All the more convenient for me, I suppose.'

She rolled her kunai to her left palm and deflected the first downward blow with it, pushing the longer blade to the outside. Her right hand dug into her equipment pouch for the first of the paralysis tags she had prepared ahead of time. Aiko didn't have time to use it before her opponent whipped her sword back and levered it forward in a quick slashing motion.

Convention dictated that Aiko should have stepped backward to avoid it. She didn't. Aiko bent her knees and ducked even as she quick-stepped to the left, where the blow had begun high and was slashing across and down. Her opponent didn't have time to correct the trajectory before Aiko swung inward and slammed the paper against the first thing she could touch. Low to the ground as she was, that ended up being a slapping motion across the other woman's right thigh.

She dropped like a rock.

That wouldn't last, of course. Paralysis seals could be overcome with practice or determination: they were mostly good as a shock tactic. The sword was still clattering to the floor when Aiko bent, palmed her opponent's temples, and twisted her head around.

The whole point had been ensuring a bloodless kill. She couldn't be certain which entrance Boar would take, but she did know that if he saw signs of foul play, he wouldn't enter.

Ironically, the situation reminded her of the conversation she had first had with Boar when he had begun feeling her out as a potential recruit. At the time, she'd said that it was less cruel to just kill people than it was to take them into custody and let them be someone else's problem. Making someone suffer for years because it was easier on your conscience was cowardly.

Still a little appealing, though.

Aiko let go, and her opponent's upper torso slumped stiffly to the floor, head colliding against the limestone with a soft thud. She crossed to the other side to grab the corpse by the ankles, and momentarily mused that she'd never thought Hiraishin would be so useful for hiding bodies. A pile of ashes and the scent of burnt flesh would raise alarms anywhere within Konoha. But fifteen miles out in the forest, it was unlikely anyone would happen upon the remains before they scattered and the stench of death fled.

The second guard was less alert.

She made her way back to the Intelligence department through their main office this time (and was privately baffled that it had merely been locked. Shizune had said that Tsunade had emptied the department, but dismissing the guards as well seemed a bit excessive).

This time, she did not make her presence known when she crept in the direction of where she had seen Shizune and Sai.

And was confused.

'What the hell is Hyuuga-san doing here?'

He didn't seem entirely certain as to why he was present either. Aiko crept backwards and lingered uncertainly, craning her neck to try to gauge Sai's body language to see if he felt threatened.

'It's probably fine. Danzo does not have the head of a clan in root. But still… maybe I should see what's going on.'

Aiko backed away and silently picked through the facility. She didn't know it that well, to be frank, but she found her way around well enough that she wouldn't get lost. A half an hour of wandering was enough to discover the locations of three different prisoners, one of whom was behind a sealed door but probably Danzo, judging by the fact that there were faint noises coming from the room that indicated multiple people were inside.

Him she left alone. If he knew she'd seen him and hadn't tried to help, he would know she was a traitor.

The other two she marked as possible witnesses or problems. She didn't see a way to take Danzo out without passing by one of them, although to be fair there probably was a route she didn't know.

Two familiar chakra signatures flickered into notice as the muffling door opened. Startled, Aiko flickered back a hallway, and peered out to see Shizune and a tall ANBU who had to be Boar leaving. That left Tsunade unaccounted for. Was this her chance to speak to her alone?

She shut the door behind her quietly, and tugged her mask off. Aiko still had to keep her features blank, because Tsunade probably would not appreciate being nonverbally informed that she looked positively dreadful. The conversation that followed proved that Hokage was testy too, and not any good at charades. Aiko fought not to roll her eyes at the poorly hidden irritation when she gave up on explaining anything to Tsunade directly. Brilliant she might be, but she wasn't at her best right now.

It would probably be for the best if she communicated as concisely as possible. Even if Boar sprinted all the way across town, it would take him perhaps ten minutes to reach Danzo's home by either route. And the seal she had on him from that team practice so long ago was indicating that he was still attempting to keep cover by acting naturally.

That need for hurry would be no excuse for sloppiness here, however. It wasn't perfect, but the only way Aiko could think of to make sure Tsunade got updated properly was through using Sai as a medium. His seal was already contaminated with her chakra, but hers was purely Danzo's. She didn't know if he had a way to check the seal's purity, but it would be a stupid risk. Sai's seal was still something like 85% Danzo's essence and his design, so it should work to let them communicate.

'Weird that a few eyeballs would really mess with her head this much, though,' Aiko mused, rustling purposefully toward the only guarded cell she'd identified in her forays through the detention center. 'Tsunade looks like she's completely worn ragged.'

As soon as the older kunoichi gave them enough distance, she gave Sai an apologetic shrug and held out the hand with the seal she'd stripped from him that morning. He allowed himself to make a slight grimace, but obediently opened his mouth.

"Sorry about this," she mumbled, lifting it off her skin and pressing the construction to his tongue (in a more accessible position than Danzo had used). It eagerly latched onto him again. He blinked furiously, eyes watering a little, but eventually managed,

"I understand. Has something gone wrong?"

Aiko winced a little. He sounded like he had a bad head cold. Luckily, that seemed to become less pronounced as they talked.

"I don't know if it's wrong, exactly, but Tsunade didn't do what we expected at all," she grimly shared, running a hand through her hair (even though it was a wig). His eyes sharpened, so she clarified, "She must have already been prepared to take him in, because she had Danzo in custody under the guise of providing medical assistance after he collapsed in public something like an hour and a half after you were going to report to her."

There was a hint of a question in that. "My appointment was pushed up, and I did not feel it was wise to attempt to explain to the secretary that the timing was crucial," Sai explained without a hint of apology. "I instead attempted to draw out the meeting as long as possible by providing superfluous information, but Hokage-sama decided that she would prefer testimony that had been influenced by Ibiki-san. However, not long after I was brought here, he was ordered to leave and I was left under guard."

Aiko merely nodded. "Okay, I see. Well, now we hardly have to worry about fighting Danzo, but I think Tsunade just dismissed Boar. Since he knows he can't report to Danzo…"

"He will attempt to destroy evidence of his actions or acquire back up for a retrieval mission," Sai suggested.

She stared for a moment. "You know, I honestly hadn't thought about that first option," Aiko confessed sheepishly. "I was thinking in terms that assumed Danzo's life would be Boar's first concern, not his reputation."

"If Hokage-sama has had him in custody, no doubt she discovered the eye under his bandages." Sai seemed to shrug slightly. "The visceral reaction when she realized what he had done may well have caused her to become set on his death. Boar may know Danzo's death is inevitable due to poison or Tsunade's direct actions while he was in her custody. If that is the case, he will know such retrieval would be without purpose."

"Right." Aiko sighed, vexed. "Either way, there's only one response."

Sai nodded. "I take it that I should share your theory about the dangers of letting Danzo die before the seal has been removed from your person?"

"Yes, please," Aiko confirmed dryly. "And for-"

"Kakashi-senpai and Yamato, I am aware," he cut her off.

Playfully, she rolled her eyes at him. "Smartass. Is that it, you think?" At his nod, she snapped her fingers, silently ordering him to open his mouth again and braced herself for that awful stinging sensation on the back of her hand. The second seal didn't really do anything to her- it was meant to primarily affect speech, and being so far away from her mouth reduced its effectiveness. But it still stung. As soon as she had stowed Sai's seal away, she silently inclined her head to the rather testy looking Hokage at the end of the hallway and took a moment to evaluate just how close together the seal humming on Boar and the one below Danzo's home were.

Close enough, she determined.

'Today is turning out to be a stupidly long day,' she noted a little mournfully, tugging herself through Konoha to that same spiraling staircase where she had murdered an unsuspecting Chuunin level shinobi guarding Danzo's home earlier that day.

The fact that what she had done didn't disturb her made Aiko feel a bit uncomfortable, ironically. Shouldn't she feel something about sacrificing someone who had been systematically taught to adhere to a certain standard of behavior? That woman hadn't been from an enemy nation, and probably hadn't been a bad person. She'd just been in the way, and the man at the front door hadn't been any more deserving.

She caught where her thoughts were going, and snorted. It lacked any amusement.

'I'm having second thoughts about killing Boar,' Aiko realized, a little irritated with her own folly. She knew perfectly well why it was necessary. From a logical standpoint, he couldn't be allowed to live if she wanted to protect her own interests: ending Root as a problem, keeping Fukiko safe and Sasuke happy, among other things. He knew far too much, and could mobilize Root.

Aiko wasn't going to lie to herself that he was a bad man and that was why she was going to put him down. Boar… no, he was just someone who genuinely felt that Tsunade wasn't capable of doing what needed to be done to protect Konoha. Dissent wasn't a crime worth death.

Nor would she allow herself the pleasant delusion that Danzo's followers weren't really people to make this easier. That was Danzo's mistake: treating his soldiers as polished automatons and outsiders as subhuman enemies not deserving of consideration. Boar was a human being whose life had value beyond what use could be drawn from him. He deserved to live.

'Maybe the fact that I recognize that makes this even worse. I know that what I do is awful, and I don't lose any sleep over it.'

Well, that was why Tsunade talked about 'healthy' compartmentalization being a requirement for ANBU members, she supposed. Aiko just couldn't be the same person she was off the clock when dealing with threats to national security. There was a reason operations like this were hidden from public knowledge.

A bit melancholy, she traced her fingers along the wall as she stepped up towards the house. Second-guessing herself was pointless. Aiko would soak Konoha in a river of blood if it kept the few people she cared about safe and happy, and she knew that perfectly well.

There was no point in trying to be someone she wasn't. Aiko was the type of person who would ambush a teammate of over a year when he ran to the closest thing Root had to a base for safety.

'And the type of person who is cold enough to take advantage of the fact that Danzo's home is sound-proofed to keep Root secret,' she noted wryly. Convenient that Danzo himself had made it easy to mop up his agents.

She knew Boar well enough to know that she wouldn't necessarily win a head-on fight against him. He wasn't just some random Chuunin house guard. They had sparred together for a year: he knew her weaknesses as well as she knew his.

Which was why she was going to blow him up with the seal she'd planted on him during practice. Really, she only had to be here to confirm a kill. Remotely detonating someone was all well and good if she was truly desperate, but when their unexpected survival might fuck with her ability to plan, it was critical to actually know that they were neutralized.

He came in through the front door. Aiko favored him with a silent glance, and then looked back down. Boar slowly entered the living room. Perhaps he was considering asking why she was sitting on Danzo's couch as if she owned it.

"Hello, Shou," she greeted quietly.

He pushed his mask up, exposing the grotesque burns across his face and an inquisitive expression. "Butterfly?" At her nod, relief seemed to flood his features. "Danzo-sama has been taken captive. We need..." His voice trailed off, and his eyes widened in what might be betrayal when she made no reaction.

"Goodbye, Shou," Aiko sighed, tugging violently on the explosive Hiraishin seal on her teammate. Less than an instant later, hot blood splattered across her mask and plate armor, leaving a clean outline of her body on the dripping couch.

She sat quietly for a moment.

'Naruto would be fucking ashamed of me. Traitor or not, Shou trusted me.'

Her first destination was her apartment, to wipe the worst of the blood off her equipment. Just looking at it made her feel ill, which was downright unprofessional but couldn't be helped. Wistfully, she checked the time: 6:51pm. Kakashi and Yamato were practically outside the village… That meant that there wasn't really time to change, but it would be a bit rude to drip all over the Hokage's office, so she did what she could.

Tsunade favored her with a short glance when she came in. As far as Aiko could tell, she didn't pick up on the scent of blood, because there was no reaction. Silently, she pushed her mask up onto the top of her head and raised an eyebrow at the two stretchers on either side of Tsunade's desk.

"Took you long enough," Tsunade said sourly. With a sigh, the older woman twisted to stare out her window. "If I'm not mistaken, that scruffy captain of yours should be back at any time now. I know that you can't talk." She trailed off a little hopefully, as if thinking that the situation might have changed in the two hours they had been apart. When Aiko just blinked at her, Tsunade puffed her cheeks out for an instant and twitched her nose. The effect was surprisingly adorable. "Great, just fantastic," she muttered resentfully, before raising her voice. "There's no reason that you can't stand there and listen to me talk, though, is there?"

Aiko gave her a small smile. That certainly was a viable information transfer strategy.

"Your co-conspirator is being watched by Maito Gai," Tsunade mused thoughtfully. Her lips barely twitched in amusement.

'How the fuck did that happen?' Aiko wondered vaguely. It just sounded like there was more of a story there. No explanation was forthcoming, however.

"I do have the items you required, and I completely expect an explanation as soon as humanly possible," Tsunade continued dryly, giving her a little glare. "If you hadn't run off so quickly earlier, you would know that the situation with Danzo was far worse than anticipated. I discovered twelve instances of bloodline theft in his person."

Her confusion was real. Twelve? She'd thought there were eleven eyes.

"I removed them, and it is highly unlikely that he will survive the night." At Aiko's flinch, she seemed to shrug. "It couldn't be helped," Tsunade defended tiredly. "And at the time, I didn't know that there was a possibility that his death would have repercussions for those with his seals."

Fair enough. That just meant that she'd have to hurry.

"That means you'll have to do whatever you need to do as soon as possible." Tsunade began poking through her desk absentmindedly. She pulled out what appeared to be a bottle of glitter nail polish, a paper knife, a scalpel, and then a stale looking cookie. "I don't know how much time I can really give you. Shizune sent notice that he woke up a while ago, but-" She raised her head, suddenly alert. "Hide."

That was all Aiko needed. She darted into the ANBU alcove and held her breath, waiting to see what Tsunade had already sensed. A moment's concentration made it obvious.

'Kakashi and Yamato didn't spend much time at the gates,' she mused, shuffling silently out to the very edge so that her view was as good as possible.

About four seconds later, there was a rustle at the window. It opened to admit first Kakashi, then a surprisingly curious looking Yamato.

He also had a bit of dirt smudged on his nose. D'awww.

The two had barely cleared Sasuke's houseplant jungle before Tsunade clipped out, "Good, you're here." She tilted her head forwards. "Lay down on those stretchers."

Aiko saw the exact moment that trepidation hit Kakashi like a ton of bricks. Yamato blinked trusting doe eyes at Tsunade, but Kakashi's visible gray eye was wide open in shock.

She winced, closing her eyes and biting her lower lip. Tsunade was still holding the paperknife in her fist and was gesturing with it while she talked. That didn't look good.

"I have reason to believe that you two have seals that may cause problems in the coming days. They need to be examined. Lay down, shut up, and maybe when I'm done I'll be so tired that I won't shake you until the fluff comes out of your ears, you wretched imbeciles."

'That was a little harsh.' With disapproval, Aiko scanned Tsunade's expression as the two Jounin obediently hopped up onto their cots. It was… too stern, actually. She knew the older woman didn't actually blame either of them for being taken advantage of.

"Don't panic now, but you're going to have to be out for the procedure"

'She's probably distracting them,' Aiko theorized, feeling a bit melancholy. 'She doesn't want them thinking too much about what's going on. Information control, I suppose.'

Being the reason that they were put under extra stress was unpleasant.

"It's for your own good," Tsunade cajoled, crossing the room and lighting up her palms with medical chakra to put them both to sleep.

Aiko consoled herself with the thought that it really was for their benefit. She didn't want to risk either of them for Danzo's sake.

Chronologically after the last scene of chapter 90—alternately, it took this long to get caught back up?

A most unladylike snort broke the silence, and quickly turned into soft, mildly ironic laughter. "Did you see their faces?" Tsunade huffed as Aiko stepped out of the hidden room and aimed a disapproving look at her Hokage.

"That was just mean, Tsunade-sama," she uttered blandly, peeling off her gloves and tucking them into her hip pouch. "Why did you do that?"

The amusement slipped off her face, and the Hokage heaved a tired sigh. "Same reason I had you hide," Tsunade replied dryly, rubbing at her temple. "I think it might be for the best if we keep your involvement in taking down Root quiet. You hardly need more attention, and it'll help Sai more than it would help you to be associated with this mess. I suppose that you could tell them later that you were involved if you absolutely must, but I didn't have time to allow you to consider it. A mission like this…" She trailed off uncomfortably. "It can change the way people think about you," Tsunade finished quietly. Her eyes trailed downwards to examine Yamato, sleeping quietly.

'Maybe it should.'

She couldn't say the last part, so instead she said nothing. "The specimens?" Aiko asked.

The older woman seemed to latch onto the change of subject gratefully and loose a bit of her depressed air. Gravely, Tsunade reached under her desk for two small cages.

Aiko wrinkled her nose in regret for what she was about to do, but there was little choice. Danzo's curse seal was sturdy enough that she could pick it up and move it, but she couldn't dissolve it, and it wouldn't take to anything other than a living being. Otherwise, she'd just stick it to a piece of paper.

But hell, she was tired of making sacrifices of other lives today.

"Sorry bunny," Aiko apologized, turning away as she hugged the first little animal to her chest so that she didn't have to see Tsunade roll her eyes as the soft-heartedness.

There was a good possibility that Danzo's seal was rigged so that everyone who carried it died when he did, or could be remotely controlled or killed if he willed it. Or, hell, he might able to tug on the seals of the most likely traitors. Sai was already safe and she had an alibi, but Kakashi and Yamato might also come up as possibilities. Aiko was certain that they'd both left Root. They had to. It just didn't fit with what she knew of them. That assumed chain of events fit for Danzo, too. He would know that Konoha would continue to get use out of them in the ranks, even if he wasn't the one directing them.

Speaking of problematic seals… What was the array Tsunade hadn't been able to identify? Jiraiya wasn't going to hurry back to look at a half-naked geriatric, and it was far too important for Aiko to feel comfortable trying to disarm it.

If push came to shove she could lift it, but it was almost certainly too big to put on a damn bunny. Aiko wasn't about to volunteer herself for that. If there was no other option they could probably wrangle one of the gigantic tigers from the forest of death, but… well, it would be a waste of a tiger.

One quivering grey rabbit tucked under her left arm, she pulled down Yamato's jaw with her right hand and delicately prodded around inside to touch the seal. It was installed so close to the back of the neck that she might set off his gag reflex if she wasn't careful. (A sensible precaution when trying to avoid having the seal show in normal circumstances, but an inconvenient placement now). There was no chance in hell she was paid enough to wallow up to her wrist in vomit, so Aiko was meticulously careful. She scrunched up her nose in concentration as she oh-so-carefully lifted the seal up and out of his mouth without touching his teeth or palette. It was eager to adhere to another surface and… sticky, was the best way that she could describe.

Hot damn, was that excellent seal work.

"You will be my first agent, ANBU Bunny," Aiko gravely informed the trapped rodent. "I expect great things from you. Failure is not an option." (Tsunade snorted in the background.) She didn't bother to pry open his jaw and risk getting bit by an unhappy animal. Instead, she gently tapped it onto the edge of his nose and watched it stretch and unfold like a flower before fading under the fur.

'Well, I'm already not going to win 'pet owner of the month' anytime soon,' Aiko observed, and hurriedly peeled off the seal on her hand as well. That one went on the bunny's little cheek.

ANBU Bunny sneezed rather pathetically. "I'm sorry, love," Aiko whispered, planting a kiss between his ears before she gave him back to Tsunade (who abruptly tossed it back into the cage it had come from. Konohamaru might have been pleased to know that his latest D-rank mission actually was critical to village security).

It was really only a little bit of a shame, but having had to silence her conscience about Boar and the two Root guards perhaps had her a bit more emotional than usual. It was safe to hug and apologize to bunnies. Not so much to members of a subversive assassination and covert operation unit that would have wanted her dead if they'd known she was an infiltrator.

'Now is not really the time for that.'

Feeling rather like a doctor performing a tense operation, she sterilized her hands before walking over to Kakashi. There, she wavered uncertainly. She could do the procedure blind—it was essentially blind in the first place— but she could hardly put her hands through the fabric over his mouth.

It wasn't that she didn't want to see his face, but under circumstances like these? It felt even more like invading his privacy than allowing Tsunade to convince him that the older woman had been the one to remove his seal. They were lying to him, yes, but… But for a reason. Gaping at his face like an idiot would only be self-indulgence or laziness.

If she ever saw his face, it was going to be because he didn't mind her seeing it.

Tsunade rolled her eyes, but obligingly forked over her haori when asked. Aiko carefully draped it over Kakashi's face in the area his mask covered before tugging his mask down and tried her best not to notice that he needed a bit of a shave as her hand brushed a cheek she'd never seen. If she let herself wonder, it would only get worse.

The charade might be more convincing anyways if he smelt that Tsunade had been near him. He might be a little disturbed that she'd apparently leaned her chest directly onto his face (or disappointed to have been unconscious, now that she thought about it) but would hopefully be preoccupied by other issues.

"Bunny?" Aiko asked seriously, wishing she had other tools to ask for. Tsunade handed it over with a prompt professionalism that perhaps implied that her thoughts were in a similar vein. Her lips twitched as the teen carefully trailed her fingers down the inside of her captain's mouth to tug out his own seal. It was even older than Yamato's (the design was obviously an early prototype), and again she wondered how the hell the two of them had gotten involved in Root in the first place. Her theory was vague at best.

This bunny was black and white spotted, and its fur hid the new 'tattoo' even better than Mr. Grey's had. Aiko held it out across from her face and seriously rubbed her nose against the little creature's and made eye contact. "You shall be Agent Tigress," she gravely informed. Tsunade ceremonially held up ANBU Agent Tigress's cage and tucked it away with the other as soon as Aiko was done.

Aiko quickly sanitized her hands again and straightened her uniform. "What's going to happen to the bunnies?" She was morbidly curious.

Tsunade just shrugged. "I don't really know yet. We should probably keep an eye on them to see if anything changes in the seal after Danzo dies. Maybe I'll make those two keep them as pets."

There wasn't enough time to stop the snicker. As soon as possible, Aiko jerked her features back into solemnity. "I think that they might make connections," she pointed out a little regretfully. Two seals disappear, and two mysterious bunnies with high chakra levels appear… Then again, did she really care? They could wonder 'til the end of their days how the hell Tsunade had done it. Tsunade was probably right that she didn't want to share this.

It wasn't exactly that Tsunade had forbidden that she tell anyone, but secrecy was a shinobi's lifeblood. Even if it wasn't habit to suppress information, Aiko was getting a reputation as a front-line fighter type. Since she had originally been pegged as an infiltrator and trained as a tracker… Well. There was no point to spreading those skill-sets around as public knowledge. And she hardly wanted to talk about Root anyways.

"Yes, but it would be so therapeutic," Tsunade sighed. At Aiko's blank stare, she helpfully clarified, "For me. It would be therapeutic for me to watch those two try to complete an A class mission to care for very important rodents. Can't you just picture it?"

'Yes, especially if they really do drop dead when Danzo does,' Aiko mused. 'What would Kakashi and Yamato even do? Hide the bodies and get replacement bunnies? Apologize and admit they couldn't keep rodents alive for a couple of days? There is just no good option there.'

That promised to be good entertainment.

"You're a bad woman," Aiko informed her kage levelly, stepping to the stretch of genjutsu that substituted for a wall. She lingered for just a moment to grin at Tsunade, letting the expression come across through her tone since it couldn't through the mask. "I admire that about you. Would you mind moving to the back of the room and make them turn around so I can see their faces when you tell them they're caring for your bunnies?"

Tsunade nodded her pig-tailed head austerely. "Will do."

"And hurry, I have places to be," Aiko half-joked. The older woman turned to glare at her as her hand skimmed over Yamato's temples.

'Well, I do,' she sighed quietly, watching Tsunade frown down at Yamato.

"Actually, I think that we should wait to wake them up." Tsunade abruptly pulled her hand back and pinned Aiko with a serious look. "If we want them to think that I somehow surgically removed the seals, they'll have to be unconscious for more than five minutes."

"Couldn't hurt," Aiko agreed mildly, stepping back out into the room proper. "Then, what do you-"

"Go take care of whatever errand you have," Tsunade interrupted with a dismissive wave. "I'll be here when you get back. Actually, I probably won't wait for you. No point in risking one of them noticing you."

Aiko snorted rudely and fought the urge to ask if Sai could do some of the dirty work since he was getting the credit for it. That was both immature and unworkable, however, so she shut her mouth. Instead, she gave a loose salute and set off in a blur of speed. The closest route was only a floor away, so she easily slipped into the intelligence department.

She picked through the same route she had learned earlier. The sound of quiet voices arrested her. So did the fact that one of the prisoners she had noticed earlier was awake.

'I was right,' Aiko noted grimly. 'Witnesses are going to be a problem. No one can know that Danzo is down here. If I have to actually take him out to keep up the charade, I can't let him be seen.'

"Hey, ANBU." The witness in question, a hard-faced man of middling age gestured at her. "Have you fucks decided you're just not feeding me anymore? I did what you wanted, sadistic bitch."

Charming.

But it did give her an idea. "Back up, prisoner," she commanded briskly. He obeyed. Probably because he knew that disobedience would prompt consequences far more harsh than insulting her would. She keyed it open with a fifteen part sequence of handsigns attuned to chakra pulses.

And then proceeded to wrap her hand around his forehead and use the full force she could muster with her elbow and bodyweight to slam the back of his head into the concrete wall with enough force to knock him out. Numb to the violence that paled in comparison to what she had already done today, Aiko curled her fingers into the fabric on his shoulders to brace him up—and then blinked as he slumped to the ground, leaving her holding loose fabric.

"Oh, that's right," she realized dimly, tilting her head in thought. "He's… going to be heavy."

Well, shit. Laboriously, Aiko pulled his arm over her shoulder and dragged him down the hallway. His feet scraped sadly behind her. The voices she'd heard earlier only got louder as she approached Danzo's cell, so she stashed him against the wall and crept around the corner. If she needed to use him, he was close. If not, he could always be returned to his cell none the wiser as to what had really happened.

Shizune was grimly attempting to ignore Danzo. He was seated on his cot, propped awkwardly against a pile of his pillow and crumpled blanket to support his body weight.

"I must speak with the Hokage," he insisted in a wheeze.

Shizune's jaw tightened slightly. It seemed pretty clear that she wasn't about to listen to Danzo.

'Well, this is going to suck,' Aiko noted mournfully. 'How am I going to knock Shizune out convincingly without hurting her?'

Honestly, it was getting to be incredibly depressing. After a moment, she could only conclude that she would have to do it quickly, and apologize later. A drawn-out fight with Shizune might not end in her favor.

Aiko took a deep breath and began internally composing her note to Shizune after this all was over. Then she flickered down the hallway and collided with Shizune, forcing her face-first into the wall with enough force that something audibly broke.

"Ahh!" Shizune shrieked in what seemed to be genuine surprise, twisting around reflexively to elbow into Aiko's gut.

Aiko dry-heaved, but was too disciplined to curl over in shock. Her left hand shot up to curl around Shizune's now exposed neck, and she squeezed, keeping the older girl pushed into the wall by the front of her hips and her left shoulder, awkwardly contorted. Shizune gargled, jerking around Aiko's hand. The redhead danced around the violent kick that lashed out at her, and then moved to pin the brunette with her hip and elbow.

Watching Shizune jerk and struggle as she lost consciousness was painful. Aiko did it anyway. The scuffle had moved them out of Danzo's line of sight, so she gently lowered the older girl to the floor and checked her pulse. It was going steadily, so she didn't feel too guilty about rising up and darting to Danzo's cell.

He hadn't moved to the bars, which was her first sign that he really was in poor condition. You know, aside from the face that the bandages around his right arm were soaked with blood and he appeared to be missing a massive chunk out of his shoulder. His eye was alert, however, when she began racing through the hand sequence that would unlock the cell.

"Sakura?"

He seemed genuinely confused. In a nod to his habitual order to bare her face, she pushed her mask up and kneeled as soon as she had opened the cell. "Danzo-sama," she murmured. "Forgive me, but we must hurry. I have retrieved a prisoner to leave as a decoy, but I do not know how long it will be until the switch is noticed."

There was a moment of silence. His tone was oddly raspy and weak when Danzo finally spoke. "Would you show me your seal, my child?"

Her jaw dropped as low as she could manage and she pushed her tongue out, wishing there was a less undignified way of doing this.

"I see." Danzo slowly shook his head, and gestured for her to stand. Was he—he was crying, Aiko noticed, mildly astonished. "I misjudged you. Do you know who the traitor is?"

Her eyes hardened. 'You're the traitor,' she thought. "The agent codenamed Sai."

Weakly, he tried and failed to bring a hand up to his cheek. She actually felt a bit uncomfortable as slow tears trailed down his wrinkled face. "Your loyalty does you credit," he finally managed, sounding choked up. "Alas, I will not be going anywhere with you, my girl. I am too weak." His head bowed so that she couldn't see his expression. "Even if that were not true, Konoha is my home, and I will not flee like a thief in the night. My life has been dedicated to its protection. I can only provide one last service. You must get the Hokage to listen to me," he pleaded.

"Danzo-sama?" The question came out a bit more childlike than she would have preferred. This was wrong. He wasn't supposed to be a pitiable old man.

"I know that Jiraiya of the Sannin will be in Konoha within days. He must come while I still live to neutralize the explosive seal on my chest, or else I must be allowed to alter it myself. It was intended as a last precaution. I never thought that I would die in any way other than in battle." His voice broke. A few seconds later, he finished a little more steadily, "The blast would cause significant damage within city limits."

'Oh, god damnit.' Aiko forced her eyes closed, and tried to think on that.

There was absolutely no chance that Tsunade would allow Danzo to access his chakra and ink. She wouldn't let her sympathy for a sad old man outweigh the possibility that he was bluffing to get a chance to attack. Nor would he live long enough for Jiraiya to show up.

"Danzo-sama? What will happen to us if you die?" The meekness in her tone was feigned, but he didn't seem to catch on.

Gravely, he looked up at her. "I have no successor, child. You will all pass when I do."

'Oh hell no. I know I already said that he's crazy, but did he not recognize that he's seventy years old? Of course he was going to die soon, even if this hadn't happened.'

"The same seal that was meant to ensure my body could not be used against Konoha contains the formula that ties all of you to my person."

'You are such an asshole, old man,' she thought bitterly. Remarkably, her sympathy had fled.

That didn't leave her a lot of options. He was going to die. She wasn't. No matter what happened, she could remove her own seal, but she didn't want to leave every other root member to die. They didn't deserve it just because it would be slightly more convenient for her. Three innocents had been enough blood on her hands for the day.

She must have been still a moment too long, because he sighed. "I am sorry, child."

"I'm not."

His head swiveled up at that just in time to see her stick her fingers in her jaw and delicately extract her seal. It flickered on her fingertips for a second and she favored him with a hard look. The shock on his face was most satisfying. "I was never loyal to you," Aiko said gently. He recoiled as she let it waft away into nothingness (a trick: she actually just let it fade from visibility) and deliberately kneeled in front of him one last time. She held eye contact and pressed her palm against his neck to deposit the root seal and then trailed to the center of his chest, examining the much larger mystery seal. Aiko kept her tone steady and confidential. "I was Tsunade's from the start. I might have had sympathy for you, until I found you had me under a genjutsu."

Danzo tried to jerk away from her hand on his seal, but he was weak, and old, and already had his back to the wall. The fingers of her left hand curled into his shoulder with painful force, keeping him pinned in place.

Confidentially, she added, "I don't like being controlled." She continued her work calmly, sinking her chakra into his chest to claim the seal for her own. It fought, rejecting the new energy, so she siphoned out his essence and forced it to obey her will. "Even for Konoha's sake." The old man let out a choked sob, but she was relentless.

"Goodbye, Danzo-sama." The seal on his chest lit up with a blinding teal light, spotted with the dark purple ooze of his essence like liver spots. The light over came them and pushed them out. Waveringly, she pulled the entire construction off of his chest and carefully flipped her palm parallel to her own chest.

This part, she wasn't looking forward to. But Aiko braced herself and pushed the nasty thing through the porcelain of her armor, through the fabric underneath, and let it latch greedily onto her flesh, suckling and biting. It settled over her heart with a prickling sensation like drops of acid at the edges.

It burned. She hit her knees on the ground and panted, blinded by pain. When it faded, she pushed herself up to stand above the cot dispassionately.

"It's a good thing that worked," Aiko noted dryly, rubbing a hand unconsciously against her chest plate in an ill-conceived attempt to soothe the lingering pain. "It looks like removing that was stressful on his body."

An understatement, gauging by the silent scream on his still features and fingers impotently hooked into claws pointed at his chest. Somehow, she wasn't particularly anxious to try taking it off herself now.

Of course, it was anyone's guess as to whether Danzo had suddenly keeled over from his previous medical condition or if she really had killed him by stealing his seal, but she was pretty sure it was her fault.

She favored the body, crumpled and diminished looking, with one final glance before she steeled herself to glide out of the cell and close the door behind her. Danzo had not been a kind man, but he'd had the best of intentions. Aiko bent over Shizune and then thought better of it, seating herself beside the older girl and pulled the tousled black head onto her lap. In that position, she pulled on Kakashi's seal to place the two of them in Tsunade's office.

Tsunade gave a start and a curse. "Don't surprise me like- Shizune?" The Hokage practically leapt over her desk and bent to examine her first apprentice, genuine concern showing openly.

"She should just be unconscious," Aiko informed her dispassionately. "Danzo is dead, however. The seal on his chest was two-fold. An explosive device; and the array that linked Root to him."

Tsunade's hand curled into a fist. "Then… did you take him outside city limits before you killed him?" Her tone was flat.

Aiko scowled. "No," she clipped out. "I stole the seal. It's on me now, to buy time to pick it apart. I didn't want to let kami knows how many people drop over dead. It wasn't my intention, but he died in the process."

Slowly, the Hokage raised her head to look Aiko in the eye. Her expression was inscrutable. "You… stole it," she repeated numbly. "How? I saw, earlier, but only realized what you'd done after you'd gone."

A shrug was all the explanation Aiko felt she had to give. "I can't put it into words," she deflected. "I just pick them up."

Tsunade took a deep breath. Unsteadily, she mused, "You know, I've only ever seen one person do that before. My grandmother. I thought it was something unique to her."

Uzumaki Mito, the first jinchuuriki? Interesting, but not important right now. "Danzo seemed to think Jiraiya would be here in a few days?"

The subject change seemed to wake Tsunade up a bit. "Ah, yes. I believe so." She gave a bitter little laugh, shaking her head. "I suppose there's no point in asking how he knew that. He certainly wasn't supposed to."

"What are we going to do about Root?" Aiko pushed.

"Let's wait and see what Jiraiya has to say about that seal," Tsunade sighed. She turned her face down and ran a gentle swipe of medical chakra down Shizune's forehead and circled around her temples before trailing down her neck. "You really banged her up, didn't you?" The question didn't seem to require an answer.

It was only a matter of minute before Shizune was back on her feet, had groggily accepted Aiko's apology, and then toddled off to go have a lie down.

"Aiko…" Tsunade began thoughtfully, still watching the closed door. "I'm impressed that you were willing to put that on yourself for the sake of root agents. You think they can be saved, then?"

'Some of them? Depending on what they try to do when it becomes clear that Danzo is dead. Sai can't have been the only one who wanted out.'

Uncomfortable, she shrugged. "Mostly I was worried about the bunnies," Aiko deflected vaguely, clasping her hands and wishing she could escape from this emotional conversation.

Honey colored eyes narrowed in thought and what might have been pity. "Of course you were," Tsunade said gently. Aiko broke eye contact to look down. A sigh broke the still air. "Is there anything I need to know now?"

Ashamed, Aiko clenched one hand into a fist against the side of her leg. "I killed three Konoha shinobi today," she shared quietly. "First two ROOT guards at Danzo's house so that when Boar came looking for reinforcements, I could ambush him relatively safely."

There was a cracking sound. She didn't look up to see what it was.

"Boar was a root agent?" Tsunade's tone was odd. "Your ANBU teammate?"

Aiko could hardly blame her. "Yes."

They stood in silence for a full minute, until Tsunade swallowed. "I see. Aiko…" She tried again, voice even softer. "Go home. Get some sleep. Don't think about it. I'll postpone your debriefing until tomorrow."

She started out walking home. Until she felt the curious stares of passersby and remembered that she was still covered in Shou's blood. Then Aiko ran, feet and heart pounding as if she could drown out the look on his face when he'd realized that she was about to kill him. He hadn't even made a move to fight her.

She stripped her outer clothing almost violently as soon as she was inside her door, leaving it piled in the genkan. Dried blood was flaking off her boots already, but the rest of it had been close to her body and was still damp. The first thing she did was step in the shower, still in her breast bindings and shorts. Aiko scrubbed at every bit of uncovered skin, realized she was still wearing the black wig, and then tugged it off to hit the floor with a wet plop. It meandered over to block the drain. Water began to accumulate up to her ankles, so she turned the faucet off and stepped out.

Idly, she noted that she was still wearing her sodden clothes. She didn't bother to take them off or dry at all, letting puddles accumulate when she wandered out of the bathroom.

It hadn't helped. She didn't really feel any cleaner. She still felt empty inside, too, but maybe eating would rectify that. The last time she'd eaten had been breakfast.

Aiko pulled open the fridge and immediately felt nauseous at the bright light it gave off. She let the door shut quietly and opened the pantry instead. Nothing really looked good. There were two bottles of sake for cooking staring at her though in their green packaging. So she took them both out, sat on the floor with her back to the cupboard, and silently opened the first.

'My apartment doesn't smell like blood. Where am I?'

Warily, Kakashi tensed his muscles and kept his eye shut to assess the situation. Judging by the light falling across his face, he wasn't in his apartment at all. What had-

Oh, he realized grimly, prying his eye open and sitting up. Experimentally, he rubbed his tongue against the roof of his mouth. It didn't… feel any different.

"Don't hurt yourself," Tsunade huffed, looking considerably more worn-out than she had been the last time he had been conscious. Tenzou was also sitting up. His kohai was cross-eyed in an attempt to examine the tongue hanging out of his mouth.

Obviously, Tenzou couldn't see it, but Kakashi was well aware that there was now no seal on the boy's tongue. The implications of that took a moment to sink in.

That meant he didn't have one either. That was good news.

The stench of blood said otherwise, however. That definitely hadn't been present in the office when last he had been conscious. But it wasn't his or Tenzou's, he was certain of it. Confused, he took a few shallow sniffs, turning his head around to pinpoint the source.

"Kakashi, pay attention. I have a mission for the two of you." Gravely, she met their eyes, and then scooted her chair back and bent to reach under her desk. "Yamato, you will be responsible for the care of Bunny. Kakashi, you have Tigress."

They stared blankly, united momentarily in a "what the fuck" sort of camaraderie.

She seemed to be serious. "It's important that you keep these animals alive," she imparted, shaking Tigress' cage slightly. The bunny skidded to one side of the cage, quivering. "This is a long-term, A class intelligence mission. That's all you need to know."

'How does one care for a rabbit' was warring with 'why would she want to keep food alive?'

But he took the damn cage obediently. It was only once he was out of the office that the sheer impact of the situation hit him.

"This has been a surreally long and confusing day," Kakashi thought aloud. He was doing his level best not to notice that the secretary was doing a poor job of hiding her grin at their expense behind a hand. "I need to go home now."

"Me too," Tenzou added, lifting his cage to stare a bit helplessly at his rabbit. He tilted his head, brown eyes clearly conveying distress. "How do I keep a rabbit alive?"

Kakashi honestly didn't know. They ate fruit, right? Like a bat? "Didn't Naruto used to have a rabbit?" He vaguely remembered Naruto talking about rabbits.

"For what good that would do us," Tenzou noted sourly, letting his rabbit cage fall down by his hip. "He's out of town. D'you think Aiko would have paid any attention to how he kept it alive?"

"It's worth a try," Kakashi sighed, scratching at his neck with his free hand and beginning to saunter down the spiraling stairs. "Tell me if she has anything useful?"

"Will do," came the glum acknowledgement. "Good night, senpai."

Despite his frustration with the rabbit situation, it was a relatively minor indignity to have to suffer in exchange for having that seal removed. They weren't likely to talk about their feelings, but he was certain Tenzou felt much the same way.

He, at least, had been fourteen when he'd been tricked into Danzo's service, and had only spent one dark year there. Tenzou had been snapped up by Danzo's program as a small child. Kakashi would never forget seeing a preteen in that armor and disobeying his mission directive to eliminate any interference. He wouldn't regret it either.

Things were starting to look up, he noted. Gently, he opened the little cage and let the rabbit named Tigress loose into his bathroom. It was a temporary solution at best, but it seemed cruel to leave the little thing trapped.

[thinkatoryprocess]

hey so um. sorry if this is weird and you hate it but. as a queer female snowflake with complex (in my mind, nuanced) political views, it's really refreshing to see a fan author who does not portray all characters who are not alt-left as irredeemable and disgusting. i have reasons for believing what i believe and my issues with the left (as well as my issues with the right) are legitimate. IDK. I think my corner of the internet is so steeped in antis and stalinists and death threats that my faith in balanced conversation divorced from extremism has started to fizzle out haha. Just- thanks for writing beautiful, human stories, you know? you might disagree with me politically, but i'm still a person, and it really fucking sucks when people forget that.

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a hot minute as I figured out if or how to answer it. I think I've got it though.

First of all, thank you <3 <3 One of the things some people don't take away from YKW just looking at the tag cloud is that it is a redemption story and that Roman's love is born from falling in love with a sincere and genuine person whose beliefs happen to be pretty terrible. The thing it's easy to forget, I think, is that there are two types of people within any kind of political belief: there are those who sincerely believe in what they say because they think it's for the betterment of just about everyone, and there are those who say what they say because they want a system that will benefit them and they want the clout around being in the group of that belief. Those people are everywhere.

Now, I balked in saying this, but I am usually pretty good at telling the difference between the two - mainly because being loudly trans and disabled and a communist will usually make the second type of person be outright mean at some level. What I tend to do when I run across people further to the right of me who seem genuine and not gleeful in any kind of hatred or bias is... I don't know. I work with them until they push back on me. It's not always a blast, but they're always startled, because they're used to people spitting in their faces, and they're also very intrigued at the prospect of a real conversation with the opposition. I'm not saying make friends with awful racists, I'm saying that if there's a genuine human factor to someone's political beliefs, there's hope to bring them to a place where they won't do something harmful or they'll have a twinge of doubt the next time something biased crosses their mind.

So what I guess I'm saying is that, be safe, but if you're okay with the risk, there is a chance for dialogue with the right kind of person. Because there are definitely people getting off on the power of their political theory of choice, but there are also people whose main interest is in helping others - some of whom believe that increasing the speed of the gears of capitalism actually betters the world as a whole, or (without bothering with the context of racial police violence) that BLM protests are causing the very division that they're protesting and just want everything to be okay. And personally I think they're wrong, but the very fact that their approach isn't "I'mma get mine" means that there is a human with feelings in there, you guys. There are a lot of reasons people are conservative, a lot of it has to do with upbringing, sometimes with pipelines, sometimes with religions. Often the structure of politics doesn't make sense without conservatism to people. I get that. I grew up tradcath and I can't view religion without a Catholic lens, so I don't even bother (ugh).

My personal political view is this: while I prefer to work with people who totally get what the hell I'm talking about, my social media is absolutely batshit sometimes because I've got the opposite of an echo chamber going and the wrong post can set off a firestorm of discussion. Sometimes it's not great, but sometimes it can be really interesting. And, best of all, sometimes I can get a selection of different groups to help me on things I'm doing on an activist front, because it's not "I'm a communist, donate to this project", it's "this project is important because of X, Y, Z, please donate" and the charitable impulse from the further right and the mutual aid impulse from the further left can kick in.

I don't know. All that colored my writing of Mencken. This might be a stupid thing to post, but it also feels like necessary context. OP, thank you again for being willing to send me something like this. It means a lot and I know that people are vicious out there. In general, even if it comes to conflict, I prefer a sincere and good faith opponent to a disingenuous one 100%. Keep that spirit.

[automatismoateo]

"let -theists-believe what they believe. They're not hurting you" my thoughts on this are confounded. via /r/atheism

"let -theists-believe what they believe. They're not hurting you" my thoughts on this are confounded. It isn't me being a bigot. A big chunk of people upfront have no regard for empiricism. It makes me uncomfortable, just like it makes you uncomfortable to hear that there are sizable portions of people who believe the earth is flat. Now is someones disregard for empiricism directly hurting me? Maybe not. But my discomfort is rooted in the knowledge that many people have a sad grasp of what our physical world objectively is. It sounds less innocent when put that way, and I sincerely believe that believing in God isn't an innocent isloated incident. Ones lack of grasp on reality has to, has to effect their judgements and actions. How doesnt it? When our objective physical reality is in question due to a belief in God, they obviously have trouble making judgments about what this world is, what their minds and their experience are. All that is warped with this duality of God and man, good and evil, good and bad people, us vs. them. It's an age old mentality that I say is linked with the divisiveness we see in society. Yes people do bad things but I sincerely believe that misunderstandings come from this belief that even psychopaths included, that badness as a quality of character is not tangible, which links us back to a lack of appreciation in empiricism. Let's go back, someone's belief that the earth is however old itself doesn't effect me personally, but if somebody doesn't value the geology of earth, and they don't value the tangibility of God, chances are they won't appreciate science. I know what you'll say, that you know a scientist who believes in God. Two things. I dont care. Second, I'm sure they are outliers. Yes I'm sure unenlightened scientists exist. The human mind is interesting in how it can believe in something nonsensical and sensical at the same time. One can compartmentalize how the physical world they interact with during their career has objective qualities and can still have their heads up their asses with their metaphysical thoughts. Being a god believing scientist requires a lot of mental gymnastics in that regard that most of us dont have the capacity for. As a result, I'm eying the overall trends that God believing has on our rational and scientific world. And did I prove such trends exist? No, but such speculation isn't worthless. This isn't just a lack of appreciation of science which itself is a real trend, people do not understand how to interact with people with empathy I think because of the dualism I mentioned, as well as their lack of appreciation of thinking clearly whenever they make a judgement behind what they say or do to others in general. You can say religion is a side effect of a shitty society or something, but I'd say that ones comprehension of their physical reality and mind is imo directly connected with the shitty things they believe and do. Submitted May 08, 2024 at 05:12PM by appman1138 (From Reddit https://ift.tt/9mEHbSj)

[hjellacott]

Again your inventions and imagination @eva-does-her-best. There is nothing divisive about objective facts and science. What's divisive is whatever sentiment you want to apply to my words that isn't inherently there, which is why you're leaving like a coward, because you know you don't stand a chance against facts and science. There is also nothing discriminatory about my words and again, I am not treating all males as a danger, that's you putting words I haven't uttered into my words, as I am used to people like you doing, so it doesn't surprise me. But I will treat males as what they are, just like I treat sharks, cats and foxes as what they are, and tell you, in the simplest terms possible (as I can see you have poor reading comprehension, which also does not surprise me in the slightest), what that means. And what it means is some spaces, all sports, and all categories of awards and employment, where a division based on biology, science, particularly medicine, and sex, was once considered appropriate and necessary, ought to keep this division. And they ought to for two main big reasons. One big main reason is the same reason why you shouldn't behave cruelly to any animal, because, even when they're normally kind, you cannot deny that scientifically, behaving cruelly towards an animal, specially animals who have proven to have the ability to cause serious harm, can be deathly. So when we have so many trillions of statistics, so much research and so much science to explain why male and females should have separate private spaces, such as locker rooms, because this science shows us that if given the chance, many men will rape a women (and the latest, most horrific evidence comes from a case in France just at the moment where dozens of men raped a woman over the course of years as she was drugged by her husband), or in other ways cause her grave physical harm, and thus, these men should not be given the chance. If that implies excluding all males, even those who would not hurt a women, from these spaces, that should be fine, because any man who sincerely wishes the best for women will have no problem with having spaces for themselves and letting women do the same, and as we keep seeing over and over in the news, many men who have opposed this division (and in that I include trans women as I am referring to men as a biological category and being purely scientific and objective here) have later ended up being convicted for crimes of sexual nature, some including paedophilia. The most recent of these cases happened in the past few months in the UK, when a trans woman who had been a fierce opponent of sex-based spaces was convicted for having possession of sexual material relating children. This person was also a public figure with a big important, public job. So when we see kind men don't ever have an issue with sex-based separation of spaces, such as bathrooms, and men who do have a problem end up being convinced for crimes of a sexual nature, who obviously do not give a damn about the well-being of women, that only adds strength to the argument in favour of sex-based spaces.

The second big reason, which is not comparable to animals, is that women deserve the same safety, dignity, respect and well-being that transgender people and any man demands for themselves. This is a matter of human rights, as has been very recently underlined by a United Nations Human Rights expert who has officially recommended sports remain separated between men and women and recommended the IOC brings back sexual testing. In a nutshell, the idea is that everyone has the right, regardless of their sex or gender, to feel respected, and to have their safety and well-being protected throughout their life, including at work. In the case of sports, it becomes specially important, because it has again been proven by experience unfortunately but also by science and tons and tons of expert review, including recently the international association of boxing, that mixing males and females, having them compete against each other in sports, is a serious risk to the health of women. This has nothing to do with the kindness and well-intentions of any man, but everything to do with the fact that strong, athletic men, cannot help it if they end up having a higher ability to knock out a woman, than another woman would. If any human being in this planet deserves dignity and respect, that should never exclude women, and achieving rights for some should never be done at the expense of others, let alone a legally, internationally protected sex category which is women, that statistically, suffers such amounts of violence annually to amount to sex-based terrorism.

I would suggest avoiding big words such as bioessentialism that you clearly do not understand. Because bioessentialism is defined as a "belief" not as science, and includes believing that one biology is better than another, which I have never said and which indeed I do not believe is the case. It is a dangerous term, which does not officially exist in science and is largely made up, and does, for what I've seen, confuse and mix many different things in the few definitions available online, none of which comes from any highly respected source and not from a completely scientific source either. Being a psychology means that I understand social psychology, constructive psychology, biological psychology, and terms such as biology and essentialism so well, that I can tell you that the belief that women are inferior to men has largely hurt women, which is what I think you meant to get to, but that is your belief. I do not belief women are inferior to men. I also do not believe, and I understand here you are asking me for my personal beliefs, that women are superior to men. Scientifically, women and men are not one better than the other. Women are superior in some things, such as chromosomal level (for reasons related to genetic medicine), or emotional intelligence, and men are superior in other things, such as a general easiness to develop high physical strength with less time and effort than women, and some kinds of reasoning and thinking. But they both have highs and lows, which is why as a whole, none is better than the other. The reason the world is full of males and females, and all pairs like that, like day or light, or dusk and dawn, is because all these pairs complement each other and need one another. The same is true to men and women.

That does not mean we should ignore biological differences. Inclusivity does not mean give all children in a classroom someone to take class notes for them. Inclusivity means gives the children who are blind someone to take quick class notes for them, but not the others. And the other children don't get to say "oh but he's got that, why can't I?", because what the blind child is given is to give that child the same advantages, advantages and overall playing field as the other children, and if all were given this assistance, it'd only enforce the disadvantage of the blind child and give the others an extra push they do not need. Similarly, when it comes to men and women, or LGBTQ+ people, equality should never be about giving everyone exactly the same, because their needs are not exactly the same. Men do not need laws that ensure companies have to hire them too. Everyone else does, because without those laws, many companies would be very happy to hire exclusively white men, and not POC, not immigrants, not women, not queer and other people. And when it comes to biological differences, they are supremely important, specially in the field of medicine. Equality in this instance does not mean give both men and women prostate exams, breast exams, and send them all information on menopause. Because whether you're a male or a female, some of you will need some, but not at all the others, and offering everything to everyone regardless, so that nobody feels left out, would be a waste of time, energy and resources that many countries, specially does with public tax-funded NHS, do not have.

I would also be careful with the gender autodetermination laws comments which you make. Because I know where they currently are at in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the US, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, England, Ireland and Scotland. And I know for not just "a" fact, but many, that gender autodetermination laws, in many parts of the world, do allow criminals to change their charges just by changing their legal sex. The reason is that the official, legal name in law, in many countries, with several crimes and more precisely the crimes related to sex violence, depends a lot on gender. There are multiple instances, for example the one I think I already mentioned in Spain, where as I'm sure I've explained before, a woman cannot be accused of the same sex crime as a man, because men are considered to have a naturally-occurring, biological advantage of physical strength above women, regardless of how much either party hits the gym. So for example in Spain, if you're a man and you sexually assault a woman, that is infinitely more serious than if a woman assaults a woman. So if a male is accused of such crime, he can, as it's indeed happened, declare himself a woman upon arrest, and then, because the law has that huge flaw, he cannot face as serious punishments and sentencing as a man, because the law does not consider a woman can be as hurtful as a man can. So before you make blatant, ignorant, and wrongful affirmations, generalising about things you clearly know nothing about, I suggest, at the bare minimum, a quick Google search.

Your comment: "I use women lockers, women bathrooms, I would go to a women's prison if I broke the law, if that upsets you I really don't care, you are the one commiting abuse and violence against me anyway". Shows precisely why you shouldn't be allowed any of this. The difference between you and me is I have consideration and concern for the health and well-being of everyone else, specially those who are going to be in a vulnerable position in front of me, for example a child in a locker room, or a rape survivor in prison. You don't. People can be vulnerable and fragile, people can be naked, in my presence, and not in yours, because unlike with you, with me they know I will care about their welfare, feelings, safety, well-being, emotions. You won't. You ask people to care about yours, and you won't give any damn about others'. How uniquely selfish, but again, how not surprising at all. Nobody is committing any violence or abuse against you, but you are, against a protected category which is women, and if the comment you've just made was in your public, work profiles, if you were a relevant person with a relevant public profile, that comment would doubtless cost you everything. But your comment doesn't upset me. You do not have the power to upset me. In fact, I feel sorry for you, because you are so arrogant, self-centred and selfish and cannot spare two seconds to put yourself in somebody else's feet, while you want them all to do that for you. You don't care if a woman who was gang-raped by men has to see you change in front of her in a locker-room. You don't care if a woman who's survived sexual violence, has to share a locker room with you and see the dick that you are every single day. But if you were in their feet, truth is, you wouldn't last a single minute, before crying for your rights and your safety and how nobody cares about you.

It is interesting that you accuse me of exactly what you're doing, but in fact, I've seen your people do this so often, that it is just not surprising at all at this point. And not just to me, I've seen you do that to all kinds of people, including doctor. You accuse people who want to do everything for the safety of women, children, and other protective categories of creating fear, while openly admitting you don't care about how afraid a woman might be of being alone with you naked beside them. You accuse me of hurting children's development and future by chaining them to ideologies of us vs them, when it is you who tells a child if they dislike their bodies they should chop it off, you who tells a child to believe in gender IDEOLOGY over their right minds, facts and science, and you who encourages entirely ruining a child's whole life by encouraging them to go into medical treatments that will likely, as evidence by scientific research and so many statements from detransitioners, leave them sterile, without the ability to feel sexual pleasure, and in chronic pain for the rest of their lives, all while you encourage them to ignore scientific evidence, reseach, specialised doctors and psychologists. You accuse me of promoting binaries and roles and stereotypes while you claim clothes or the colours blue and pink determine the essence of someone's being and I encourage boys and girls to play with whatever, dress however they like, assume whichever role they're comfortable with in their relationships (as adults, since these would be romantic and domestic), love whoever they want to love and cut their hair however they want, knowing they will not be less good as women or men for doing so. And you accuse me of trying to "doom" society to "strict" "bioessentialist" (again you clearly don't know what this word means, nor that it's not an actual word) and gender essentialist forms of oppressed life, when you are the one wanting to force people to go through surgery and hormonal treatments in order to try and resemble the other sex, which is supposed to be their real identity based on the colours they like, the sports they like to practice, or their love for dance. You want people oppressed and doomed, boxed into a specific kind of woman or a specific kind of men, based on 1920s sexism and gender stereotypes, while I want people free to be who they are so long as they care about their well-being of others as much as they care about their own.

Again, you use terms such as "othering"... do you even know what that means? because I do. It's an essential term of biological studies and I can assure you, you're the one creating division and aggression, by openly confronting women for caring about their safety and well-being and imposing yourself, forcing them to take you into their spaces, with zero regard for their feelings, well-being, emotional health, or traumas.

I hope you do find a brain somewhere and start doing some research, because it clearly will do you a lot of work if you can at least comprehend what you read. What you're doing, your victimisation, your narrative of others hate you, others are divisive, others are aggressive... when we're not, when we're literally, very calmly merely stating biological and scientific evidence, while standing up for the safety and well-being of women and children, is very common on transgender people. It's evidence of the deep psychological troubles you ought to be dealing with, and until you can listen to others without making yourself a victim and the other an aggressive wolf, you will never see reason.

"It seems a "safe space" is now somewhere a man can get his dick out, but women can't talk about Harry Potter".

[cerezsis]

End of the Universe

Chapter Four

The Doctor makes some starling discoveries at Division. Meanwhile, Spades works to reunite the family.

--

“Pattern optimization in progress,” the Ood said, still stood by the monitor, “Matter compression increasing. Spatial distribution and destruction analysis now available.”

“I’ll handle the analytics,” the woman the Doctor now knew to be Tecteun said, not even looking at the alien as she took his place at the monitor, “Go check experiment NZ9X6.”

“Yes, Tecteun.” Ever obedient, he disappeared down the corridor.

“I know what you’re doing,” the Doctor said, speaking quickly as she tried to push past the whirlwind of thoughts swirling around in her head. So much had been revealed in such little time: she finally found Division, the structure they were in was somehow residing in a space outside of their universe, and the woman responsible for all this, for everything from finding a lost child to putting the Time Lords up on their pedestals, was stood right in front of her. Any one of those things would be enough to send her on a barrage of questions, yet she had no time to dwell on any. “You're generating the final waves of the Flux from here, forcing spatial compression on that universe. You're trying to move this structure into the next universe while you wreck the one you leave behind. No wonder this place feels under so much pressure!”

“We all need to clear up after ourselves.” Looking up from the monitor, she casually stepped aside and began to walk toward her. “That's why I had you brought here, to ensure you won't be in the universe to save it.”

The structure rumbled, and the Doctor found herself taking a step back, straightening her posture as she looked to the older woman.

“So…” she said, forcing her face to stay neutral as she felt her stomach twist, “Is what the Master showed me on Gallifrey true?”

Another, smaller rumble went through the structure before Tecteun gave her answer.

“Yes,” she confirmed, her expression unchanged.

Despite already knowing that deep down, the Doctor recoiled. With how thorough Division had been with concealing her past, getting such a straightforward answer wasn’t something she expected.

“I found you,” Tecteun continued, a little too calmly, “A lost child, alone, beneath a monument on a deserted planet, seemingly deposited there by a wormhole. No way back, no one to care for you.”

The words echoed in her head, the seeming sincerity lighting fires of anger deep in her chest. “You took something that didn’t belong to you.”

Tecteun laughed, but by the time she looked back at the Doctor, anything but humor was left in her eyes. “I rescued you. Would you prefer to have been left?”

“You assumed I came through that wormhole, but you don't know. What if I was waiting there to be collected? What if I was supposed to be taken through it? What if whoever left me there was taken by that wormhole?”

“What if, what if, what if?”

“You denied me my life!”

“I gave you a life. Everything you are, is because of me.” Her tone switched suddenly, now much softer and calming. “But I understand. You think you could have been something else. Someone else.”

The words cut deep in the Doctor’s core. The fires suddenly extinguished, replaced by a crushing sadness that lingered in her voice.

“Maybe. I’ll never know.”

Another rumble was felt through the structure, followed quickly by footsteps that signaled the Ood’s return. With it was a soft fussing, one that sent a cold horror through the Doctor’s veins.

“Tecteun,” the Ood said as he approached, “experiment NZ9X6 requires attention.”

The Doctor couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even move as her worst fear acted out in front of her. Mouth agape, all she could do was watch as her – until now – missing son was placed in Tecteun’s arms.

Read More on AO3

[babu-haitani]

A Letter to 'HIM' (Tokyo Revengers)

Genre: Heavy Angst

Pairings: Chifuyu writing a letter to BAJI KEISUKE

TW: May contain some spoilers about Baji and Chifuyu's Relationship and about Baji's Death

A/N: This is not a fanfic, this is simply a 'LETTER'. I had this idea while I was watching RuPaul's Drag Race...I know...weird but it was a good idea!

Dear Baji-san,

How are you? I'm doing great...well, kinda? Your mom? she's doing great, she would always place cat food on your window so the cats can still eat even though you're gone now. Toman is also doing great, Mikey-san visited me one time to talk about you but it was alright ---It wasn't a dramatic conversation.

I don't know how to feel to be honest...I feel like shit, right now.

Peke J. misses you as well Baji-san, everytime I visit your house he would always rush to your room.

I don't know why but I hate you and I hate myself, why do you need to kill yourself? Why can't I protect you? I know about your suffering but... I DIDN'T HELP.

I'm sorry...

I hope you don't mind, I kinda nominated Takemichi as the next 1st Division Captain. I didn't nominate myself cause I know I'll never be like you, you were a great fighter and a great friend. To me, I wasn't close enough to who you were.

I feel like crying, Baji-san...but for some reason tears won't come out and all I can let out are deep sighs.

Don't worry...I know I may not be you but I'll make sure to fulfill that dream of yours to have your own pet-shop. I hate Kazutora but I know you would want to work with him, so I'll hire him once we already have the pet-shop.

By the way! Remember when you told me to learn how to cook peyoung yakisoba from scratch? I actually learned how with the help of Mitsuya-san of course.

And Remember when you told me you wanted the earrings that I wore? well...I bought you a same one and left it on your grave, I hope you're wearing it in the afterlife or I'll beat you! those earring were expensive for it's size :<

Everyone misses you Baji-san...Mikey, Draken, Peh Yan, Pah Chin, Mitsuya, Hakkai, Angry, Smiley, Mucho, Sanzu, Takemichi, Emma, Yuzuha, Your Mom...and Me... We all miss you.

I can't help but cry right now... FUCK, HAHAHA...

I'll make sure to fulfill the duties you left me...I'll protect Toman along with Takemichi and we will remove Kisaki from Toman, I'll make sure of that. Toman was only formed by You, Mikey, Draken, Mitsuya, Pah Chin and Kazutora and Kisaki is not the 3rd Division Captain. It's Pah Chin and it will always be him!

I gotta go now Baji-san...I just remembered me and Takemichi were supposed to meet up to plan on kicking out Kisaki from Toman.

Again...I hope you're okay in the afterlife, I miss you Baji-san...

Ti'll the next letter I write, BYE!

Sincerely Yours,

Matsuno, Chifuyu

[mychemicalficrecs]

Hi! Can you show recs of good (long!) podfics? so many links i try to find are broken but I love listening to them!

Hmmmmm, I definitely remember getting an ask like this before and answering it with a link to a podfic site that I later found out had a lot of broken links (sorry). I can't even find that post anymore (thanks tumblr).

So I did a little digging on ao3, and while I don't listen to podfic myself, these all look very promising! I only tested the first few download links because I didn't actually want to download all these, but I think the links should still work. Some of the streams might be broken now, but the downloads seem fine.

I didn't always include all parts of a series because some of the works seemed to focus on other band characters, so if you like a work, it might make sense to check out the original fic series and see if there's more you'd be interested in.

Happy listening!

Long Podfics

Nesty Verse, written by Bexless, cimorene:

Absence Sort of Does Make the Heart, by Cimorene by daniomalley, Bob/Ray, 3:15 hours, Explicit. Set in 2003 and 2004. Bob goes up to Jersey in the gap between tours to check out the scene. And also to check out this guy he met...

Worth It, by cimorene by daniomalley, Bob/Ray, 1:15 hours, NC17. "When I moved from my first apartment into the last one, I still had unpacked boxes lying around for a year afterwards. And I didn't have anybody staying around to help me unpack." (When your choice of free labor at short notice consists of high school kids, scene guys who may or may not have sucked you off at a recent party, or Gerard Way, that's understandable, thinks Bob.)

Conclusions by Bexless by rosekolodny, Frank/Gerard, 4:14 hours, Explicit. Set in 2006. "Smokes," Mikey reads aloud. "Likes dogs in case ever get one. Likes rock music. Likes loud rock music. Is interesting. Does not hog bathroom." He looks at Frank over the top of his glasses. "Dude, it's like you're meant to be."

---

[Podfic] Some Girls are Built for Speed by akamine_chan, dapatty, Frank/Gerard, 2:46 hours, Explicit. Roller derby AU. When Frank joins his best friend's roller derby team, he has no idea what he's in for. A story of crossdressing, lies, roller derby and love.

Podfic of Public Enemy by Tabula_x_rasa by Rhea314 (Rhea), Frank/Gerard, 2:18 hours, Explicit. In 1932, Gerard Way has been making a name for himself robbing banks up and down New Jersey. Frank Iero, analyst for J. Edgar Hoover's Division of Investigation, is determined to catch him.

[Podfic] Sideshow by dapatty, 2:01 hours, Teens And Up. It's Warped 2005. One of them is learning to be a front-man. One of them is learning to stay sober. Maybe they'll be friends. Stranger things have happened.

[Podfic] momentum keeps us going, gravity makes us strong by argentumlupine, Frank/Gerard, 2:31 hours, Explicit. The problem was that Gerard was a frankenstein. The Way family had five generations of frankensteins to their name and Gerard was the best and brightest of them. Frankensteins had that spark of genius which made them scientists and artists, and musicians and inventors. Frankensteins were also severely lacking in common sense, and Gerard was no exception to that particular characteristic.

Won't Know 'til You Begin by knight_tracer, Sena, Frank/Mikey, 2:45 hours, Explicit. In which Frank is an accidental pervert, Mikey sleeps with Fabio, Gerard is much too sincere when talking about pain sluts, Ray is terrible with women and great with guitars, and Otter's got really bad taste in music. Alternately, the one where Frank realizes he has a thing for Mikey, Mikey realizes he has a thing for guys, and they're both adorably stupid failboats.

[Podfic] Five times Gerard pays for it (and one time he doesn't) by takola, Frank/Gerard, 2-2.5 hours, Explicit. This story is a cliché rentboy fic wherein Gerard (the customer) falls for Frank (the service-provider) and can’t figure out how to go from paying-for-sex to ‘dating’ or if that’s even possible. Added to the mix are Gerard’s perpetually low self-esteem, Frank’s neuroses, and both boys’ epic communication-fails. Will these two ever manage to get out of their own way long enough to see that they’re meant for each other? With a little bit of help from a meddling younger brother, they just might.

[Podfic of] To Solve a Paradox [2018] by stoplightglow by sparklehag, Frank/Gerard, 3.5-4 hours, Mature. Ray shifts so he's no longer just a head hovering in the doorway. "Lily Dale? Brian, isn't that the place you were telling me about with all the psychics?" Frank's head snaps to stare at Brian incredulously. "With all the what?"

[Podfic] Crash by akamine_chan, dapatty, Frank/Mikey, 2:38 hours, Explicit. In a future version of Seattle, Frank Iero's a lot of things: bike messenger, cage fighter, sometimes thief, Ray Toro's roommate. Mikey Way's also a lot of things: record label owner, co-heir to his grandmother's fortune, younger brother. Neither are normal. But they don't know just how far each other's abnormalities go until Frank's past and a secret of Mikey's unexpectedly shove together. (Dark Angel AU.)

[Podfic of] Turn It Up by brooklinegirl by mistresscurvy, Frank/Jamia, 2:37 hours, Explicit. Asshole!Frank meets his match when he gets into a relationship with Asshole!Jamia. Frank's not one hundred percent sure why the relationship thing isn't freaking him out as much as it should - all he knows is that lately, the only girl he wants to put his dick in is Jamia. What's it going to take for these two to make it work? Apparently, a lot of dirty, dirty sex, and Jamia pushing every boundary Frank has. Oh, and a little help from his friends, of course. 

A story that proves that even assholes can fall in love - and how.

[Podfic of] Forever, Now by klb, Frank/Gerard, 9:18 hours, Teen And Up. Gerard and Mikey have lost their parents, but they've found Brian.

[heatherhasbetterthingstodo]

Letter 16 of 22

January 28, 2022

Dear Premier Stefanson,

It has been fifteen (15) days since I sent correspondence with feedback that was expressly solicited when you said on January 12th that you "will be taking advice from other Manitobans…moving forward." I have yet to receive any acknowledgement that my advice going to be taken into consideration (or that it's even been received); therefore, this email - with additional commentary - will be re-sent to you and a few other key decision-makers every day until policy changes in Manitoba to adequately address my concerns and/or you respond to me personally.

This edition of "The Pandemic Isn't Over Yet and Pretending It Is Won't Make It Go Away" is brought to you by the new variant Omicron BA.2, which you can read about here: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/01/27/1076123109/new-covid-variant-omicron-ba-2

Cause for concern? Probably. I know it's cliché, but maybe it's better to be safe than sorry? Yet - since MB Gov has essentially removed all ways for the public to accurately know how the virus is spreading among our communities - testing, notifying close contacts, etc - we have no clear idea how bad circumstances actually are (besides hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths). Considering the reported numbers before "daily" tracking stopped, however, things are inarguably the highest they've ever been case-wise…and what is the provincial government going to do? Hopefully something more, not less. Please choose the next course of action wisely; and may I suggest some decisive proactiveness public-health-order-wise.

Sincerely, X

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Dear Premier Stefanson et al,

Greetings from Southern Manitoba. In light of the comments made at yesterday's press conference (i.e. January 12, 2022) - where it was specifically stated that the provincial government "will be taking advice from other Manitobans as well moving forward" - I would like to take this statement seriously/literally and provide you with some feedback from a deeply concerned resident of the Rural Municipality of Hanover. While the term "stakeholders" was likely used to refer primarily to business owners, I think it's vital to point out what should be obvious: all residents/citizens collectively are the most significant stakeholders in Manitoba, and if these voices - like my own - are not being listened to, what this conveys is that there is some serious misgovernance taking place (which undermines the democratic purpose/process of politicians acting on behalf of those who they are supposed to represent). Obviously, I don't expect a response, since it's clear that leaders in the current administration aren't even willing to answer direct questions from official members of the press. But if any confidence in this current government has any hope of being restored, I would appreciate if this correspondence was at the very least passed along to the people to whom it's addressed. Accordingly, at this time I would like to name four different issues: suppressing public health recommendations, the provincial response level, forced back to school, and expanding the proof of vaccination.

First, it was painfully obvious at yesterday's press conference that the government was indeed advised by its own public health division that stricter measures were needed in order to protect all Manitobans. Instead, what we saw was a blatant disregard of such recommendations in favour of a what was termed a "balanced" approach, which is clearly no longer concerned at all with "containing" the spread of Covid-19 but resigned to allow the entire population to contract the virus that some of us have been trying extremely hard to fight against these past two years. We're only in this position now - of supposedly needing to accept that "Covid is here to stay" - because the provincial response to the pandemic has ever tended to be reactive (as opposed to proactive) and has not listened to expertise from medical professionals soon enough to "mitigate" the collateral damage of human lives that we've seen. Granted - this is a worldwide problem and not a shortcoming that's specific to Manitoba; however, this does not release us from the responsibility to do our utmost to keep people safe - no matter the cost. Sure, listen to multiple sources. But if it's a veritable issue of life/death or health/illness, this alone trumps any political, economic, or religious interests. Therefore, if public health and/or medical experts are telling the government anything that has relevance to decisions that are being made at the provincial level, this ought to be transparently disclosed and must factor into policies that are enacted to protect the well-being of those who call Manitoba home.

Second, it was a common refrain the last few press conferences that Manitoba has had more strict measures in place than the other provinces across Canada (as some kind of justification/rationalization for not stepping up the current response level). To be perfectly honest, regardless of what our neighbours to the West, East, or South are doing, what matters above all else is to hold to a higher standard than those whose response has been subpar. In other words, the province of Manitoba should be seeking to be a leader nationally and globally in its championing of health and safety (instead of a follower, or a pariah). As it stands, we currently have the worst rate of active Covid-19 cases in Canada (again), and the province's response is to keep the response level at Orange - even though case numbers are worse than they have ever been throughout the entire pandemic. This is completely irresponsible and unacceptable. The province's response level should have been at Red long ago - with stay-at-home orders for all not-yet-vaccinated people (except for essentials), no guests at all for households that have any unvaccinated individuals, no special treatment for religious organizations, expanded and consistent enforcement of public health orders, etc. What's more, what Canada needs is a more unified approach, because what's happened to date - with each province essentially acting in isolation - is not working. Similar to the federal mandate for all civil servants to be vaccinated, a more unified partnership/coordination across provinces and territories to implement public health measure compliance is necessary to have any hope of preventing and containing future waves of the virus.

Third, this rhetoric of schools being "last to close, first to open" has to stop. Obviously no one wants schools to be closed since in-person learning spaces are inarguably preferable to online/virtual formats for most students. The reality of the capitalistic world that we occupy is that most people are reliant on children being in school so that parents/caregivers can work. And yet, by compelling students, staff and teachers to attend classes at an unsafe time during a global epidemic - without ensuring sufficient access to scientifically proven medical-grade masks for all, not substantially upgrading ventilation, not allowing time for students to get their second dose before restarting classes, etc - is nothing less than willing endangerment of human life. My kids, for example, got their first dose of the vaccine on the very first day they were eligible (i.e. November 28th); however, with the 8-week period that they are supposed to wait until their next vaccine appointment, the earliest we could make a booking was January 23rd (which we have done). Based on the "Severe Outcomes by Vaccination Status" graphs shown in the press conference, two doses provides significantly more protection than one (with any number of doses being preferrable to zero). That being said, there is no way that we are sending our children back to school before they have the opportunity to receive their second shot. Fortunately, we have the flexibility to do this as a family. But what about the large number of families who have no other option than to send their children back to school, or for those whose employment is school-based (who themselves have no option to strike because of the collective bargaining agreement)? Thus, it's crucial that the province delays the start of in-class learning until this present wave peaks and/or the province can adequately demonstrate that safety measures have in fact been systematically, expansively and verifiably increased at each school across every school division. Alternatively, distance options should at least be provided for families who have been advised to "look after themselves."

Finally, we already have a reliable system in place to ensure that the most people in public spaces are vaccinated, but it has not be expanded to its full potential. Only a vocal minority of Manitobans have expressed disagreement with proof of vaccination, so this should not prevent its continued use long-term. After all, there should be a lasting benefit for those who have faithfully abided by the province's strong recommendation to be vaccinated (and enduring consequences for obstinance). Also - if the province actually believes in vaccines as an important measure to contend with the Coronavirus (i.e. something "we're going to need to learn to live with…in the longer term"), then Manitoba seriously needs to consider implementing a vaccine mandate for all citizens and permanent residents, as well as requiring vaccines as a condition of attending public schools. Requirement is proven to yield more results than recommendation, and while there will always be those who stand in opposition, the cost-benefit of safeguarding life for all outweighs the preferences of individuals…otherwise, we wouldn't have laws that protect each other from harm.

All this to say, when it's communicated to us that, "it's up to Manitobans to look after themselves," what this signals is resignation and abdicating responsibility. That's not what we need from elected officials. We need you to set an example for us to follow; to inspire us to do better; to make hard decisions that will cost financial and political supporters; to answer questions honestly when asked directly; to keep calm and carry on with all of the things. That is the way out of the pandemic: not giving up.

Sincerely, X

p.s. Next time when N95 or medical grade masks are provided for Manitobans - which we as a family did not receive - please consider doing so at a location where there's more access for everyone, such as a Canada Post office. Not every community has a Liquor Mart, but even the smallest town has a post office (or is proximate to one).

[creamocrop]

Warning: OOC to the max. This is actually a continuation of a three year old post that I had rediscovered recently.

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Sherlock: *Huffs* He won't listen to me.

Molly: *Gently strokes her husband's cheek* Just be patient.

Sherlock: I have been patient for the last ten minutes!

Molly: *Looks out through their open bedroom door and into the silent sitting room* Reason with him in the same way you've reasoned with him before. *Looks back at her frustrated husband* You won't be able to do that if you hide here.

Sherlock: *Huffs and ruffles his curls* I have explained to him. I have reasoned with him. Bargained. Bribed. Even 'begged' *Points wildly to himself* Begged! *Throws his hand in the air* Me!

Molly: Sherlock...

Sherlock: *Looks pleadingly to his wife* Please, Molly. I have a case. Lestrade has a case waiting for me. *Gestures towards the sitting room* Waiting for 'us'. You have to intervene now.

Molly: *Contemplates for a few seconds before nodding* Okay, I'll try. *Grabs something from the bedside table* Come on!

*Husband and wife both goes out of their bedroom and into their sitting room.*

John: *Quietly sitting in the sofa and staring at the approaching couple*

Molly: *Moves towards the center of the room then stops a few feet away from the sofa* Hi, John.

John: *Nods* Hello, Molly.

Molly: *Stares back at her husband before facing John and kneeling*

John: *Eyebrows shot up but remains quiet.*

Molly: *Smiles softly at John before turning back to stare at her still standing husband*

Sherlock: *Huffs but goes and kneels beside his wife*

Molly: *Whispers to her husband* Why don't you try again?

Sherlock: *Sighs deeply but bends closer towards the floor* I have explained to you using logical reasoning. I have bargained with a fair match. I have bribed with a rich price. And I have 'begged' with utmost sincerity. Still, you remain stub-

Molly: *Nudges her husband* No wonder he won't listen to you! You sound like a nagging robot. My turn. *Looks straight back before lowering herself closer to the floor* Evan, sweetheart, *she says with a sweet and gentle voice* Daddy needs his scarf back now. He and Uncle John have a case and they need to go out to catch the bad guy. But it is cold outside, so he needs his scarf. Would you please give it back to daddy?

Sherlock: *whispers bitterly* How is that any different from what I did?

Evan Hooper-Holmes, 11 month old extraordinaire who had been sitting on the floor beside his godfather's leg: *clutches his prized possession closer to his body* Nooo.

Molly: *Still smiling sweetly* I know you like that scarf sweetie, But Daddy needs it. He'll get sick if you don't give it to him. Do you want daddy to get sick?

Sherlock: *protests* I don't get sick!

Molly: *turns back to glare at her husband before looking again at their stubborn toddler*

Evan "Ain't-I-the-cutest" Holmes: *Looks at his hard-earned price before staring back to his poor daddy who is now wearing his "have-pity-on-me" face* Noooooo, ba scaffy ain!

Molly: *leans closer to her baby and touches the edge of the blue scarf* I know, it's your sweetheart -

Sherlock: *protests* It's mine!

Molly: *looks back again to glare at her husband*

Sherlock: *sags in resignation* Fine...

Molly: *Smiles back at her son.* I know it's yours sweetheart so maybe you can let daddy use it for now? So that he won't get sick?

Evan "I-have-the-British-government-wrapped-in-my-pudgy-fingers-even-if-he-denies-it" Holmes: *Looks down at his precious treasure*

Molly: *Sees her baby boy's resolve breaking down* Tell you what Evan, while you are lending Daddy the scarf, I'll lend to you Mommy's scarf. *offers her possession that she had snatched before exiting their bedroom*

Evan "I-can-make-the-girls-swoon-faster-than-my-three-continents-godfather" Holmes: *Sees the elusive but equally, if not more precious treasure, goes to throw away the blue scarf and grab the pink one* Eyyyyyy.

Sherlock: *Sees how easy it is for his son to discard his scarf in favor of his mom's, starts to get competitive* That *points at his discarded scarf* is a vintage Paul Smith cashmere scarf that is not produced anymore! Meanwhile, 'that' *points at the black and pink scarf now being chomped by his son* is just a home knitted scarf that your mother's spinster aunt give out every year! Spawn, you clearly still need a lesson in taste!

Evan "I-can-make-anything-my-division" Holmes: *Stops and stares at his father*

Sherlock: *stares back at his mini-me, willing him to understand how far superior his scarf is over that of Molly's*

Evan "genius-in-the-making" Holmes: *Giggles at his silly father before taking a bigger bite of his recent acquisition*

John: *Stands up from the sofa and retrieves his best-friend's discarded scarf* Come on, man! You've clearly lost this one. At least now you have your 'cashmere' scarf back *Drops the scarf on the head of the still kneeling consulting detective*

Molly: *Giggling at the sour look of her husband* Come on, Sherlock. At least you got it back!

Sherlock: *Stands up and finally loops the scarf in his neck* I don't even need this, I don't get sick anyway!

John: *Waiting outside the flat's door* Then why did you spend 10 minutes 'begging' to get it back?

Sherlock:*bends down to kiss his wife goodbye* Principles, John. Principles.

John: *Snorts* More like, your costume won't be complete without it.

Sherlock: *Moves on to ruffling his son's curls before straightening up and exiting the flat* As I said. Principles.

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Edit: As @sherlolly29 asked, this is the old story written three years ago: http://creamocrop.tumblr.com/post/78315599726/a-pair-of-aquamarine-eyes-stared-at-the-expanse-of