You Can Drop the Act

"Three kilometers out! The poison fog is coming!"

Kitahara Kaede lifted the tent flap and stepped outside.

The distant rain was stained a dark purple.

The fog rolled along the ground. It wasn't moving especially fast, but it advanced steadily.

Hanzo's poison was different from Chiyo's. He was spraying poison gas over a wide area, straight into the air.

One breath was enough to drop you.

At the front line, the moment the purple fog touched the first row of defenses, people began collapsing in droves.

No struggling. No screams.

They breathed it in, their legs went weak, and they crumpled into the muddy water like lumps of clay, faces turning purple as their limbs convulsed.

"Fall back! Everyone, fall back!"

The commander's voice cracked on the spot.

But no one could outrun the purple fog. In the blink of an eye, it swallowed the middle of the position.

"Damn it!"

Tsunade bit her finger and immediately formed Hand Seals.

"Summoning Technique!"

A cloud of white smoke burst open.

Dozens of slugs of varying sizes landed along the edge of the position.

"Get on them!"

Tsunade slammed both palms against the main slug beneath her, pouring in a torrent of chakra.

Green light spread out, and the slug clones quickly crawled onto the seriously wounded who were still breathing.

But they couldn't reach those farther away.

"We can't bring the ones outside back!" a medical Chunin shouted from the rear.

Tsunade didn't answer.

She pulled out three high-concentration antidote injections and turned to charge into the purple fog.

"Tsunade!"

Jiraiya had only taken two steps after her when the lingering poison drifting over from the edge choked him. He staggered back several steps, covering his mouth as he coughed violently, tears streaming from his eyes.

Someone was faster than Tsunade.

Kitahara Kaede dashed past from the flank without slowing at all, plunging straight into the purple haze.

Tsunade was crouched beside a Chunin who was foaming at the mouth, giving him an injection. She caught sight of that figure from the corner of her eye.

She jerked her head up.

"Get out of there!" she shouted. "If you breathe that poison in, you'll—"

The words caught in her throat.

Kitahara Kaede stood right in the middle of the poison fog.

He wore no mask and wasn't covering his mouth with an antidote. His breathing was steady and normal.

As if he were standing in an ordinary rainstorm.

Tsunade froze.

"You—"

"Save them first."

Kitahara Kaede bent down, grabbed a Chunin whose eyes had rolled back with one hand, hoisted him over his shoulder, and turned to run back.

As he passed a fallen Genin, he reached out with his free hand, seized the back of the boy's collar, and dragged him along too.

He made the trip once.

Then he went back again. He wasn't poisoned.

There wasn't a trace of gray or blue in his face. He looked perfectly healthy, and his pace hadn't slowed in the slightest.

Tsunade stared at his figure, swallowed all the words she wanted to say, then lowered her head and kept desperately injecting the wounded at her feet.

On a distant rise.

Rain pelted Hanzo's dark blue armor.

He stood atop Ibuse, his kusarigama hanging at his side.

Ibuse kept its mouth open, spewing poison fog without pause.

Hanzo's gaze pierced the curtain of rain and fixed on the center of the purple haze.

He'd been running in and out of it for six minutes, with no protection against poison at all, breathing freely the whole time.

Hanzo narrowed his eyes slightly.

The last person to counter his poison had been Chiyo of Sunagakure.

Chiyo had used an antidote.

But this boy hadn't taken anything.

Had the poison been neutralized?

Hanzo looked down.

Within the area covered by the poison fog, the other Konoha Ninja were still collapsing in droves.

The poison hadn't been neutralized.

Only that one person was unaffected.

"...Interesting."

Hanzo turned his gaze toward the rear.

That female medical ninja was desperately keeping people alive.

Dozens of slugs glowed green as they forcibly kept the wounded alive.

One was pulling people out at the front, while the other was saving them at the rear.

Hanzo tapped the handle of his kusarigama.

"Withdraw."

Ibuse shut its mouth. A flash of white smoke, and its massive body vanished on the spot.

With its source gone, the rain began to thin the poison fog.

The poison fog dispersed.

The ninjas at the front hadn't even recovered their wits.

The commander stood on a raised platform.

"Hanzo... retreated?"

The purple haze cleared.

The ground was covered with wounded, but far more people had survived than expected.

"Hanzo's Summoning Technique creature withdrew on its own," the messenger ninja reported, head bowed.

The commander didn't respond.

He looked at Tsunade treating the wounded, then turned to Kitahara Kaede.

The man who'd carried people back and forth was crouched in the muddy water, handing the last injured person to the Medical Corps.

"He didn't use any antidote, and he was active in the poison zone for at least six minutes," the messenger ninja continued.

The commander stared at that figure. Hanzo's retreat certainly hadn't been a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Late that night, in a rear camp tent.

Rain pattered loudly against the tent roof.

But the noise inside was even louder.

Hrrr—snore—

Jiraiya lay sprawled on his back on the floor bedding, mouth wide open, his snores rising and falling in waves.

Wrapped in a blanket beside him, Tsunade had turned over twelve times.

She couldn't take it anymore.

She threw off the blanket and sat up. As she passed Jiraiya, she landed a perfectly aimed kick on his shin.

Jiraiya grunted and rolled over. His snoring changed pitch, then continued.

There was no saving him.

Tsunade ground her teeth and cursed under her breath, then looked toward the corner.

Kitahara Kaede leaned against a bedroll, eyes closed, breathing evenly.

He wasn't asleep.

He was thinking.

The poison fog today had proved one thing—his poison immunity really did work.

But it only worked for him.

It didn't work for Tsunade or Jiraiya, and it certainly wouldn't work for the ordinary ninjas on the battlefield.

If Hanzo attacked again, he could guarantee his own safety, but he couldn't protect everyone.

Then a question suddenly occurred to him.

Ibuse, Hanzo's Summoning Technique creature, had a limited capacity for poison.

He remembered Chiyo mentioning a minor weakness of the salamander when she fought Hanzo: after each poison spray, it needed about five minutes to build up its supply again.

Five minutes.

That was a window.

If he could close in during the five minutes after the poison fog dissipated—

But what then, once he got close?

Hanzo's Kusarigama Technique and Taijutsu were both at Kage Level.

In close combat, Kitahara Kaede wouldn't have the advantage.

Before he could think of a solution, someone grabbed his wrist.

Kitahara Kaede opened his eyes.

Tsunade crouched in front of him and pointed at the tent flap.

"Come outside."

She mouthed the words without making a sound.

The two of them lifted the flap and slipped out.

The night wind swept rain into them, and Tsunade shivered.

She found a sheltered spot beneath a bulging rock and plopped down on it.

Kitahara Kaede walked over and sat beside her.

Rain ran down the rock face, dripping steadily.

"Finally, some peace and quiet."

Tsunade let out a long breath.

Kitahara Kaede leaned against the rock wall and glanced at her.

"You dragged me out in the middle of the night to freeze in the wind just to get away from Jiraiya's snoring?"

"What else? We have to treat people again tomorrow. His noise is giving me a headache."

Tsunade grumbled as she patted her pockets, but came up empty.

They sat quietly for a while.

The sound of the rain filled the silence.

Kitahara Kaede watched the rain and said nothing.

Tsunade suddenly turned her head and stared at him.

"What exactly was going on with you in the poison fog today?"

She'd finally asked.

Kitahara Kaede had already thought of an explanation.

"I got lucky. I once got poisoned after eating some wild herbs by mistake. Maybe my body built up a little resistance."

"Bullshit."

Tsunade grabbed his left hand.

She placed two fingers on his pulse and sent her chakra straight into his body.

It traveled through his chakra network.

There was nothing.

Completely clean.

His chakra network was unobstructed, and there wasn't even a trace of poison left in his blood.

"Eating the wrong herbs lets you withstand Hanzo's deadly poison?"

Tsunade glared at him.

"Then how do you explain nearly dying from Chiyo's poison last time? Where was your 'resistance' then?"

Kitahara Kaede had no answer.

Tsunade stared at him for several seconds. The anger in her eyes slowly changed into something else.

She wasn't angry that he'd lied.

She was afraid.

The moment he charged into the poison fog today, she'd pictured what happened last time at the field hospital: he'd handed her the poison sac, then his heart had stopped beating.

That fear of almost being too late had come over her again today.

She didn't want to go through it again.

Kitahara Kaede let her hold his wrist.

"Tsunade, I'm really fine."

Tsunade didn't let go or say a word.

She looked down at his hand.

His palm was turned upward, covered in calluses.

By the faint firelight from the distant camp, she saw it.

Right in the middle of his palm.

A deep, old scar.

It ran all the way across his palm.

Tsunade froze.

Her hand, which had been about to release his, stopped in midair.

She turned his palm fully upward.

She reached out, her fingertip settling at one end of the old scar.

Gently, she traced it downward.

All the way to the other end.

It tickled a little.

Kitahara Kaede tried to pull his hand away.

Tsunade tightened her grip.

"That survival exercise back then..."

Her voice was low, almost drowned out by the rain.

"You took that Mist Village defector's kunai with your bare hand to push me out of the way."

It had nearly pierced right through his palm.

"It left a scar this long."

Tsunade turned her head away.

"It's hideous."

Kitahara Kaede glanced down.

Her fingertip still hadn't left his palm.

Slightly flushed, it rested lightly against the raised white scar.

He turned his wrist.

And held Tsunade's hand.

Tsunade's body stiffened.

She looked up.

Her eyes met his.

"This scar is the most precious thing I have."

Tsunade's breath caught.

The firelight fell across his face, his expression quiet.

But the weight of those words pressed against her chest.

The most precious thing.

Because he'd gotten it saving her.

Tsunade felt her ears grow hot.

The heat spread down her neck and across her face.

"Y-you can cut that out!"

She yanked her hand back, moving so abruptly that her back struck the rock wall.

"It's just a scar. What's so precious about it? I'll mix up some scar cream for you tomorrow!"

She deliberately turned her face toward the rain.

But her ears were bright red, impossible to hide even in the dark.

Kitahara Kaede drew his hand back.

He loosely curled it into a fist and rested it on his knee.

Her palm's warmth still lingered on his fingertips.