There were a lot of things I wanted to know about this situation, but like always, life didn’t wait for me. In the brief moments I stood there looking at the chaotic battlefield, the sand wave swept part of the golem army, then hit the fortress, denting metal and creating even more destruction.

“Dammit,” Tsunade said, then bolted toward the battle.

“There are people inside, keep them from destroying the thing!” I called out. I wasn’t sure if she heard me, but I’d leave the sannin to her business.

And before I could regain my bearings, Kumoko moved. “This way, snake girl.”

“Kumoko, wait!”

She didn’t.

It was still a mystery to me how Suna had gotten here before we did, but maybe it shouldn’t have been. Shisui told me about the attacks on Wind territory before I accepted the mission. It made sense that there’d be a response from Hidden Sand.

As aggressive as she was, thankfully, Kumoko didn’t wade through the battle. Her path skirted around and toward the palace in the rock. I created a beacon and handed it to Ino. Then, the reality of things hit me like a wet towel wielded by a cruel hand.

I left Karin and Tenten without a beacon and now had no way to spy—keep them safe.

One mistake after another.

Our passage wasn’t uncontested. Golems spilling out of the fortress were caught between a wave of attacks and tossed out, landing in our path. Instead of returning to the battlefield like good, mindless robots, they tried to impede our advance. Tried being the critical part.

We didn’t need to kill. We had to do enough damage so the golems would be out of commission for a while. With me keeping Kumoko safe, it fell to the nascent mind ninja to clear a path. She flickered all around, stabbing metal-clad enemies and leaving them to explode in pieces.

So damn cool.

If I weren’t in love already, that would have done it.

There were a few other close calls, mostly when a shinobi from Suna crossed our path. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman; most of the face was covered in bandages, and I could see no discernible body features. There was this tense moment where I wasn’t sure if they would attack. More golems arriving and Ino exploding them was enough to dissuade the sand shinobi from any idea.

They gave us a nod, then flickered away to join the battle.

Closer to the rock face, I scooped Kumoko up, coated my feet with chakra, and climbed or tried to. It had occurred to me that none of the Suna shinobi were trying to enter the palace, and a few steps on my climb, I understood why that was.

I heard a screech, and chakra invaded my mind; a genjutsu, or close enough. The rock wall I was stuck to faded, the world flipped, up became down, and the sunlight disappeared, leaving me in total darkness. Worse yet, it was like I was stepping on knives, and that my insides were being gouged out.

This didn’t feel like an attack targeted at me directly; it was more like a trap surrounding the entire area. But this was the third time I suffered under the illusions. Even if the genjutsu release didn’t work, I had thought of other ways of bypassing it.

I pushed out as many threads as possible, feeling for the surrounding area and discarding my compromised senses. Part of my threads wrapped around Ino and Kumoko. With the badger, I only made sure she wasn’t struggling against my grip, while with Ino, I piloted her body to follow me. This wasn’t something I did often with Ino. Unlike Karin, she didn’t like being controlled by threads, but needs must.

All the while, my chakra happily slurped down the genjutsu. It still wasn’t enough to dispel the technique, but it made resisting the effects easier. Now, instead of feeling trapped inside a nightmare, it was like watching a horror movie at night, with lights out, and alone in the house.

Still not something I’d recommend, but bearable.

Given the speed at which my chakra had adapted, one or more exposures would be enough to be just like a normal chakra. Easily eaten and incapable of affecting me.

With one last push, we crossed a threshold into the palace, and the technique ended. It was an area-based trap, then.

The room we entered looked like a vaulted hall or gallery, with cobwebs, dust, and detritus covering most of the area. There were stairs and doors leading deeper into the place, but the broken wall leading to a throne room showed where enemies had gone with no need to search.

“Lemme go,” Kumoko growled.

“Ouch, that was unpleasant,” Ino whimpered.

I put Kumoko down, then gave Ino a quick hug. Ino had a thin line of blood falling from her lips but otherwise seemed unhurt.

“Are you alright?” I asked anyway.

Kumoko didn’t wait. She dashed across the broken wall and toward the abandoned throne room.

“Almost broke the technique before we escaped it,” she said with a bloody grin.

“That—”

Another screech interrupted me. Whereas the others had been far away, this sounded close.

I looked around, and the bat-woman was flying toward us like a bullet. Well, it was time to end this. I was tired of being put in a genjutsu. My hands went to my pouch, ready to pick up a kunai, but Ino stopped me.

“Follow Kumoko, I’ll deal with the enemy.”

I looked from the approaching woman to Ino. Her eyes were firm and confident. I didn’t want to.

The idea of splitting the party didn’t sit well with me. Hypocritical thinking that now, when it was Ino being left behind instead of Karin.

“Don’t wanna,” I muttered the words without meaning to.

Ino rolled her eyes, grinned. She pushed me toward where Kumoko had gone. “I know how to counter her, now.”

Ino’s grin was almost feral. With blood smeared across her lip, her grin looked downright villainous.

I nodded. I didn’t want to leave, but I wasn’t really leaving. Ino had my beacon. There was no chance I would ignore this battle and not intervene if things went south. But Ino didn’t know that. I didn’t want to rob her of chances to grow and prove herself.

Ino wanted to become stronger, maybe even more than I did. Coddling her would just offend and stunt her growth.

“Give her hell,” I said, then turned around and dashed toward Kumoko.

“Like you won’t believe.”

More screeches heralded the woman’s arrival, but that wasn’t my battle. I kept part of my attention on the beacon in case I needed to jump back to help, but otherwise, I left Ino to do as she pleased.

The deeper areas of the palace weren’t different from my expectations: dilapidated walls and decorations, eroded pillars, and dust everywhere. The throne dominated most of the room. It was massive, looking like it was sculpted from a granite slab. Someone had done a number on the throne. It lay broken, many of the pieces scattered about.

Aside from the recent vandalism, this place wasn’t new by any means, and no one had been here for a long time.

I found Kumoko waiting in the area before the giant stone throne. A broken tear on the floor led into darkness.

“That’s where the skunk went,” Kumoko said, tail lashing. It wasn’t any of the normal tail tells. It was like a mix of anticipation and fear.

I approached, then looked inside the pathway into the abyss, just plain darkness. I could see parts of ancient machinery on the abyss walls near the broken floor, but the person who broke their way through clearly didn’t care.

“What are we waiting for, snake girl?” Kumoko asked, tail wagging like an excited dog.

I cast one more look into the darkness. “You don’t have to come with me,” I said.

“I’m not going home,” she growled. “Pops would never let me have this much fun.”

That was a good enough reason to send Kumoko back, all things considered. Bratty and snooty she was, she was still the daughter of the clan’s patriarch. Her year of service was nothing more than Tsuchigaru’s attempt to give the she-devil more life experience. There was an unspoken agreement that I would keep her safe or at least that was how I saw the whole thing. I wasn’t keen on letting her die, then having to face an already grieving gigantic badger and tell him his only daughter died under my watch.

I extended my hand to her. “Stay close, and if things turn dangerous, cancel the summon,” I ordered.

Kumoko growled but didn’t say anything back. She climbed onto my hand until she was perched on my shoulder. With one last look toward the ongoing battle between Ino and the batwoman, I summoned a ball of light, then jumped into the abyss.

The fall, all things considered, wasn’t bad. We picked up speed, but coating hands and feet in chakra, I used the walls to cut momentum, allowing for a partially controlled descent. The tunnel downward was long and desolate until the light from below indicated the end of the path.

I gestured for Kumoko to stay quiet, canceled my light, and hopped down the last few meters until we were at the lip of the tunnel.

Down was a vast circular chamber illuminated by bluish light. It reminded me somehow of the light from the stone in my pouch. The walls were decorated with faded reliefs, rotten banners, and dust. From my vantage point, I could see the layers of sigils and inscribed seals covering the whole floor, converging on the center. Some of the sigils were familiar: time and space; others were alien to me.

The same old man I saw Temujin carry away was crumpled near one of the many pillars around the room. I couldn’t tell if he was alive or dead. There was a small pool of blood near his body.

In the room’s center stood a grotesquely muscular man. Heads taller than even Jiraiya. I couldn’t see his face from where I was, but he was barefooted, shirtless, and wearing dark trousers. He held that Temujin guy by the neck, the same Temujin who had kidnapped Kahiko. There was a gleaming sword by the giant’s feet. The ornate pommel was beautiful, even though the blade was broken.

I don’t think they were friends anymore or that Temujin was alive.

The tall guy had punched through the metal armor and Temujin’s torso, his bloody hand on the other side held a familiar blue-green stone.