The healer at the local clinic worked quietly. Her chakra hands glowed soft green as they hovered over Nejire's ribs, sealing cracked bone and soothing bruised flesh. Naruto stood by the window, arms folded, his jaw tight.
Outside, the inn remained under lockdown. Shikako had ensured it. One Kumo-nin was unconscious and bound by a five-layered paralysis seal. The second—dead by his own hands. The third was gone.
The clinic's wooden walls creaked softly. A cicada buzzed just outside. Naruto's fingers twitched once, then stilled.
Nejire lay on the cot, half-awake now. The color was returning to her cheeks, but her silence lingered. Not out of fear—he could tell that much. She was thinking. Cataloguing. She was a Hyūga, after all.
"She's stable," the medic finally said, glancing at Naruto. "She'll need rest, but there's no permanent damage. You're lucky you got there to help her when you did."
He didn't answer right away.
He carried her back to inn for rest and privacy.
The room still smelled faintly of scorched wood and smoke.
A half-burnt curtain hung limp by the shattered window of Nejire's room in the inn. The aftermath of the Kumo-nin's failed abduction attempt was marked not just in the broken walls or the blood near the doorframe, but in the quiet—the heavy silence that always followed when a mission turned personal.
Nejire lay in bed, her wounds mostly healed, but her posture was rigid. Her white eyes stared at the ceiling, expression unreadable, the stiffness in her shoulders betraying the fury she refused to voice.
Naruto stood at the foot of her bed, arms folded, eyes sharp. Shikako Nara leaned near the doorframe, arms crossed, her usual slouch absent. Her eyes flicked toward Naruto, waiting. He hadn't spoken yet, not since the medic confirmed Nejire would recover.
He knelt now, using hand seal for summoning. The moment they hit the floor, his chakra flared.
A burst of smoke filled the air.
From the soft pop, Katsuyu emerged, small but unmistakable. Her translucent form settled gently on the wooden floorboards, antennae twitching as she looked from Naruto to Shikako, then to Nejire.
"Naruto-kun," she said her voice quiet but warm. "You've summoned me. Are you injured."
Naruto shook his head lightly. "I'm fine."
Shikako moved closer, kneeling beside Naruto now. Her expression was controlled, but her tone held weight.
"We had contact," she said. "Three Kumo shinobi. Two engaged. One escaped. They made a move on Nejire."
Naruto took over, voice clipped and cold.
"They bypassed the inn while we were separated. Waited until I was at the hot spring and Shikako was scouting the village records. They knew who they wanted and when to strike."
Katsuyu tilted her head. "And their objective?"
"To abduct Nejire," Naruto replied. "Not just capture. Restrain and extract. They knew she's Hyūga. They knew about the Caged Bird Seal—and they brought suppression cuffs calibrated for high chakra resistance."
Shikako added, "They also recognized her as part of the field corps. Which means they've been watching us longer than we realized."
Katsuyu was quiet for a moment, absorbing every word.
"One operative is dead," Naruto said. "Another is unconscious, under seal bound by paralysis seal.. We're holding him for now. The third vanished."
Nejire's voice finally came, raspy but clear.
"They weren't Kumo missing-nin."
Katsuyu's gaze turned toward her.
"They had discipline and precision," Nejire said flatly. "The moment they realized they couldn't subdue me quietly, they turned lethal. And when Naruto arrived—"
She paused.
Naruto's jaw tightened.
"They knew they'd failed," Nejire finished.
Naruto continued after her. "Let Tsunade-sama know Shikako and I will remain in the area until she gives the order to stay or extract."
The slug gave a quiet hum.
"Very well," she said. "I will relay this entire report to Tsunade-sama directly—along with your field position and the confirmed hostile contact."
Naruto nodded. "Tell her we're holding until further orders. If Kumo makes another move, we'll respond."
"Should I inform her that the situation is stable for now?"
He looked at Nejire for a moment, then back at Katsuyu.
"…Under control," he said. "But not stable."
Katsuyu nodded solemnly. "Understood."
With a quiet burst of chakra, her body dissolved into mist and smoke, her presence gone as quickly as it had appeared.
Silence returned to the room.
Shikako stood, brushing her pants off. "You think Kumo's gonna try to spin this?"
"They already did once," Nejire said quietly.
"'Didn't know Konoha lets branch members into field squads,'" Shikako muttered, bitter. "That wasn't small talk. That was probing."
"They weren't going to extract her eye," Naruto said grimly. "They wanted her. Alive. For breeding."
Shikako didn't speak for a long moment. Then, without looking at him, she said, "Then they forgot who they were dealing with."
Naruto stepped away from the bed and opened the window. The air outside had cooled. Night had settled like a blanket over the valley. But beneath it—beneath the quiet sounds of frogs and wind and distant water—he could feel tension building again.
Something had cracked.
A line crossed.
And there'd be no turning back.
"Next time," Naruto said quietly, "we don't wait for them to make the first move."
Late at Night
The inn's second floor creaked faintly as Shikako pushed open the door to the room she and Nejire now shared.
Inside, the night lamp flickered low, casting gentle light across the tatami mats. Nejire sat upright against the wall, a thin blanket drawn around her shoulders. Her wounds had healed thanks to the field medics summoned earlier, but there was still tension in her posture—shoulders drawn tight, fists lightly curled over her knees.
Shikako stepped in and shut the door softly behind her.
"Can't sleep?" she asked, not expecting an answer.
Nejire exhaled, long and slow. "I'm trying."
Shikako didn't sit immediately. She walked over to the far wall and checked the seal tag Naruto had placed on the window earlier, just to be sure. It glowed faintly, chakra-laced and stable. Satisfied, she finally moved to the spare futon and sat cross-legged on it.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The silence was comfortable, at first—until Nejire broke it.
"They looked at me like I was a weapon," she said, voice flat but soft. "Not even a person. Just a bloodline."
Shikako leaned her head back against the wall, eyes on the ceiling. "That's what they were taught to see."
Nejire turned her gaze toward her. "You're not even surprised."
Shikako's eyes narrowed slightly. "Disappointed. Not surprised."
"I always knew Kumo had… history," Nejire murmured. "But I didn't think they'd try it again. Not like this. Not after what happened with Hinata-sama."
Shikako scoffed. "You gave them too much credit."
Silence again.
Nejire looked down at her bandaged arm. "I wasn't strong enough to stop them."
"They were trained for this," Shikako said. "They waited until you were alone. They used sealing restraints. You held them off long enough for Naruto to get there. That's not weakness."
Nejire's fingers clenched slightly. "He looked so angry."
"Yeah." Shikako tilted her head toward her. "I've never seen him like that. Not even during the invasion."
"He saved me."
Shikako nodded slowly. "He does that."
A beat passed. Then she added, with a dry note, "But next time, let's not give him a reason."
Nejire offered a faint smile.
The lamp flickered again.
Shikako pulled the blanket off her futon and tossed it across the room, landing it neatly over Nejire's legs.
"We leave tomorrow," she said. "Get what rest you can. I'll be here."
"Thank you," Nejire said quietly.
Shikako didn't answer. She just leaned back and shut her eyes, one hand resting near the kunai tucked beneath her pillow.
Outside, the wind shifted through the trees. The night crept on. But in that small room above the springs, two kunoichi rested—tired, wounded, but not broken.