Nonō Yakushi asked Fox, "When will you kill K?"
Yako looked at her and asked instead, "Why? Do you want him dead too?"
She hesitated, then nodded. "K is the one who liaises with the orphanage. As long as he's alive, none of the children are safe."
"Good," Yako said. "It seems we now share a common enemy."
"The old Root agents are utterly loyal to Danzo. The new ones are just puppets and mission tools, controlled by the Seal of Tongue Eradication. Killing the new recruits accomplishes little. Killing K would hurt Danzo far more."
"I won't hide it from you. Under orders from Lord Yellow Dog, I plan to use K for an experiment—to see if we can break the Seal of Tongue Eradication."
"That seal is a real problem. Once applied, the victim can't divulge any mission-related details. It lets Danzo act without consequence."
"Among Root's elders, C never leaves Danzo's side. He doesn't take outside missions. K is the perfect test case."
"If I can break that seal, then maybe some of the children Danzo stole from you can be freed."
"...Thank you."
Emotion flickered across Nonō's eyes. She couldn't even control her expression.
Yako stared.
The synthetic skin along her cheeks had started to slip.
He raised a finger and pointed to her face.
Realizing her disguise was failing, Nonō turned away and peeled off the damaged layer.
When she turned back around, Yako saw the real her: a gentle, kind face—just as it had been in the original timeline.
"Sorry you had to see that…"
Yako hadn't expected his words about the seal to move her so deeply.
"Fox," she said quietly, "of the seven children who went to Root… three are already dead."
"This month, they took three more from the orphanage."
"I don't know how much longer the orphanage can hold out. I don't know if it'll collapse first… or if I will."
"Root's training is brutal. It demands results—no care for a child's body."
"It's too cruel… one of them, trying to master grappling techniques, died—his tiny body twisted into…"
She couldn't go on. She couldn't even think about it.
No wonder she'd reacted so strongly—Danzo had come again.
Yako wanted to tell her to just shut the orphanage down.
But he understood. People need anchors—places of meaning, emotional ties, things they can't abandon.
Even the bloodiest of shinobi had feelings.
Somewhere along the way, Yako's heart had also started to change toward the scattered survivors of the Uzumaki clan.
Maybe it started with that lab in the Land of Whirlpools.
Yuka's father had left a mark.
Not as an Uzumaki—but simply as a father, trying to leave behind one final act of love for his daughter.
Yako said, "Don't be fooled by my reputation—I may be infamous in ANBU, but I still have people I care about. And I understand how you feel."
"We're shinobi. We get our hands dirty to reach our goals. That's normal. But there's still a line that shouldn't be crossed."
"I could've just grabbed a sealed child and used him to test the Tongue Eradication Seal. That would've been easier than capturing K. But I didn't. I couldn't."
"I have a slightly higher bottom line than Danzo."
"You have my word. I will never experiment on any of your orphans."
This woman—this wandering priestess who had withstood death and deception in countless guises—now cried in silence.
Yako looked toward the starlight glinting at the mouth of the cave.
He felt genuine sympathy—for her, and for those children.
The silence stretched.
After over a minute passed with her still crying, Yako stepped forward and pulled Nonō into an embrace.
"Don't give up. We still have a chance."
Her body flinched slightly.
He placed her forehead against his shoulder.
The motion came instinctively.
Yuka often leaned on him like this.
He wrapped one arm around Nonō's back, the other gently patting her head.
"When we first met," he whispered, "your disguises scared me. I never knew when you'd betray me."
"But now? I want you to stand strong—for the orphanage, for yourself. Don't let go."
"If I ever become head of ANBU, I swear I'll never lay a hand on your children."
"...Mm."
Her breathing steadied.
Yako suddenly felt something slick against his neck. He reached back and pulled free a strange, rubbery paste.
Nonō quickly turned. "Sorry! That's the prosthetic gel I use for shapeshifting."
She frantically cleaned the sides of her ears and neck.
"It's a single molded piece to change my body shape—it gets messy."
In her rush, she accidentally peeled off a large strip from under her collar, deforming her shoulder.
Even the outline of her chest had been sculpted into the clay.
Yako blinked.
She followed his gaze—from the fake mold to her chest—and her expression turned unreadable.
Then she sighed, stepped forward boldly, and began demonstrating her disguise techniques.
Stripping off the full-body prosthetic, she stood before him with her clothes in disarray.
Yako stepped in and brushed his fingers against her bare skin.
"Your skin's so smooth under all that... is that from medical ninjutsu maintenance?"
Her heart pounded.
She'd worn so many faces before so many people… but facing Fox like this, in her real form—it felt different.
She reached toward his face, trying to remove his mask.
He didn't stop her.
Beneath the mask was a second: a half-face veil.
—Half an hour later—
"My body sculpting technique can reshape the hips," she murmured. "Want to try it?"
"Huh? That's… tight—"
Fox fell, defeated once more.
Nonō took a long while to catch her breath. Then she re-applied the prosthetic gel and reshaped her figure.
Yako cupped her cheek and said, "Strange… I feel like all my doubts about you are gone."
"Hmph." She pulled a playful scowl. "You better watch out. I might still feed you fake intel."
"I might still scam you!"
Shifting into a completely new appearance with her disguise technique, she retrieved two scrolls.
On them were written: "Left" and "Right."
"These are intel-sharing scrolls I made with my operatives," Nonō explained. "Each set is paired and unique."
"Until now, we relied on ciphers and backdoor notes from the orphanage—it was too slow."
"You take the 'Right' scroll. I'll hold the 'Left.'"
"When I have information, I'll seal it into the Left scroll. You'll be able to unseal it through the Right."
Truly, the Wandering Priestess had her own efficient ways.
Compared to this, even Yako and Yuka's reverse-summoning panda statues seemed slow.
"Understood," Yako said. "Find me intel on the Hidden Cloud's base camp. I'll need it soon."
He was preparing to end the conflict with the Hidden Cloud by next month.
Over the past two months, Hatake Sakumo had completed his merit-based ninjutsu reward program for the genin and chūnin on the front lines. His reputation had been solidified.
If the war dragged on now, it would only make Sakumo look incompetent.
As Nonō turned to leave, Yako suddenly had a strange feeling.
'Wait… did I just get played?'
'I gave her my body, and now I have to go hunt down K for her?'
'She really is a master of deception.'
'Still… it really was tight. Definitely worth it.'