[OP: "Lapis Lazuli"--The Oh Hellos]

While the others were using wind currents to search for a "band of scurvy knaves" (Wally's words), Hanabi and Eichi were stuck at the Kage house with the world's worst babysitter.

You really couldn't have picked a person who knew less about children--or teens--than Lord Ay.

When they were left there, he told them after about two minutes:

"Go stand guard."

Now, any of his people would have said, "Yes, Lord Raikage," and gone out of his sight.

Eichi was perfectly willing to do just that, but Hanabi, not in a peaceful mood still, just folded her arms defiantly.

"We're not gonna stand guard when your Village hates us. Who would we be guarding? Ourselves?"

Unfortunately, this was good point, though Ay didn't like her tone.

"Well, then...go find something useful to do," he said.

"And what do we have clearance for?" Hanabi spat back.

Another good point.

"Then find somewhere to sit and keep quiet," Ay said.

"Oh, are we bothering you by existing?" Hanabi retorted. "Why should we have to sit and be quiet? We don't work for you."

"I see your leaders' insolent nature has carried over to you," Ay said.

Hanabi eyed him distastefully. "Who do we blame for yours then?"

"Hanabi!" Eichi gasped. He was sure Ay would throw her out the window.

Ay looked like he was tempted, too.

"Don't think I'll tolerate it from you just because your leaders have political power," he said. "They're not here now."

"I knew you'd start bullying us as soon as no one was around to stop you!" Hanabi knew this was reckless, but she didn't care.

This remark offended Ay. "Bullying? I detest the word. I demand respect."

"Why not try earning it instead?" she said.

Eichi decided to start saying his prayers now, just in case.

Ay was finding it hard to come up with a retort, and this was to a 14-year old! But he was never a very creative person.

In fact, children made him uneasy, deep down. He thought Hanabi was mocking him--because she was--and he couldn't penalize the little brat without forfeiting any good will with Lord Gaara.

Tsunade, who was still in the room, was trying not to laugh.

"Hanabi," she said, "speaking to a Kage like that is inappropriate."

"So, you'll back him up?" Hanabi said. "Fine...what else is new?"

She turned her back.

"Can't they just go with you?" Ay was not one to beg, but, when his own sanity depended on it, he might resort to it.

"No, I can't have them underfoot at the hospital, and I really should get back there." Tsunade was merciless. "Anyway, I'm terrible with kids." [Remember when she picked a fight with 12-year old Naruto for a petty reason? Good test of maturity for a leader.]

"I have no idea what to do with them! I can't even send them out on a mission," Ay said.

"And the Village hates them, so they'd never be safe if you did," Tsunade pointed out. "But you won't get any work done at this rate."

"I know!" Angry.

"Why not just close the office for the time being and find somewhere to take them where they'll be distracted?" Tsunade said. "Usually I'd say a bar, but that won't work for them... What do kids like...? Ice cream?"

"There is a famous ice cream vendor in the Village," Ay said. "But I have no time to coddle two little beasts."

"FYI, we can hear you," Hanabi called. "And I don't want to be stuck with a curmudgeonly old man either. He'll kill my street cred."

"And what street cred do you have?" Tsunade asked.

"Some... We survived a fight," Hanabi replied.

"I bailed you out of that fight," Ay said.

"That makes up for everything!" Hanabi glared at the wall.

"This is just a wild guess--" Tsunade leaned over to Ay. "--but I don't think she likes you very much."

"I was thinking that," Ay said. "And I don't think I like her either. Though her fighting spirit, if she were more respectful, might be useful in a ninja."

"Hanabi is no coward," Tsunade said. "Personally, though, I blame that Dabi Todoroki. He's got a big mouth. They're thick as thieves, too."

"Are they?" Ay never paid that close attention to Mabui's reports of their personal relationships. 

"Of course, the fact that she's a Hyuga does not help." Tsunade lowered her voice further.

Ay frowned. "That's in the past. We all agreed to put it behind us."

"Well and good for us to say," Tsunade said. "We weren't the ones who had to suffer for it. I wasn't even in Leaf at the time...and your Village only gained by it. Do you think that erases the pain for the people who lost their father or uncle because of that deal you made?"

Ay put his chin in his one hand. "We all make sacrifices to preserve peace."

Tsunade frowned. "I don't like to drag up the past because I know it's no use...but when was the last time you sacrificed anything for peace?"

Ay glanced at her sideways.

Tsunade straightened. "Good luck. Don't lay a hand on them. I'll check later. I'm sure Miss Likstar has something up her sleeve as usual."

"Why do you let her dictate your actions then?" Ay said.

"Oh, please, Ay." Tsunade never bothered to call him Lord Ay. "As if you're not already dancing to her tune. You can't outwit them, and I've given up trying to. She'll always be one step ahead of you. Surely you see how they used this entire situation to gain more of a foothold than before?"

"How could they have planned that?" Ay said. "The kidnappers had no connection to them that could be seen. Why would they attack their own people?"

"That's not it. They don't do that." Tsunade shook her head. "I hate to say it, but they have honor. But any setback, they turn into an advantage. I've seen it before. Anyone who could get Uchiha to cooperate must be masterful at playing the situation. I warned you you'd never be a match for them. You're lucky they don't really intend you any harm."

"Then why use their leverage on us, who are hostile to each other, to be forced to occupy the same space?" Ay growled.

"For an old man, you've certainly not learned much wisdom about people. Not that I can claim I really understand it...but, I at least know that the answer to that is staring you in the face. Literally." She nodded at Hanabi. "This is a peace mission... How do you think peace is made? Enemies have to talk to each other and find some way to agree."

"That child is no real enemy," Ay said. "Easily crushed."

"Crushing your problems doesn't always solve them." Tsunade waved her hand dismissively. "You don't want to anger the Hyuga clan more than you already have. They have a lot of sway in Leaf. You should have taken better care of those two girls to begin with. Perhaps it's your second chance to prove you can be civil to them. Don't blow it."

She walked out the door. "I wouldn't push him," she said to Hanabi before leaving.

Hanabi just stuck her tongue out at Tsunade's back. She didn't dare do it to her face.

"I really think we should just try to leave them alone," Eichi said nervously. "Lord Ay is very busy I'm sure, and we could be here all day."

"How about if you stay quiet for 5 hours, we'll get ice cream." Ay tried the one idea Tsunade had had.

Eichi looks at him weirdly.

Hanabi just gave him a huff of scorn. "I'm not hungry."

"Five hours from now you might be," Ay said.

"Not for anything you have," Hanabi said tightly. "If we're supposed to get along all day, maybe you should just leave us alone."

"Gladly," Ay snapped. "If you were my shinobi, I'd knock you across the Village for speaking that way."

"If you were Leaf, you'd never dare talk to one of us like that," Hanabi shot back. "Big bully. What if you can't threaten your way out of something? Then what? I bet you'll just get frustrated and quit. I don't care anyway."

"Hanabi..." Eichi held up his hands. "This is not helping... If Lord Ay wants to discuss your problem, we should do it calmly."

"Problem? Who said anything about discussing a problem?" Ay said.

"See? He's not interested. I knew it," Hanabi sniffed.

"Well, we haven't ask him yet," Eichi said. 

"Asked what?" Ay was getting steamed again.

"If you want to make peace with the Hyuga clan." Eichi perhaps was a bit too blunt.

The silence was real after that.

Finally, Ay frowned. "We don't discuss past grievances."

"Sasuke," Hanabi stated.

"That was...recent," Ay said.

Hanabi glared at him. "So that makes it more important? But, I don't even know if I could talk about it with  you... Just makes me so mad..."

She walked out of the room angrily and slammed the door.

Even at her size, she made the whole wall rattle doing it.

Ay and Eichi looked at each other uncomfortably.

"Quite a temper," Ay said.

Eichi just raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to crush us?"

"I can't... We have a deal with Lord Gaara. If I want my people returned safely, I can't harm his," Ay stated.

Eichi decided to just accept it.

"Well, can I ask--?" he said. "And, I know this is an impertinent question, but--"

"Spit it out, boy. I don't have all day," Ay cut in.

Eichi swallowed. "About the Hyugas...do you really not feel guilty about that at all? I mean...even a little?"

Ay's face was hard to read. It looked like granite, to Eichi.

"Someday," he said stoically, "if you ever are in a leadership position, you will learn that some things are better left in the shadows."

Pause.

Eichi plucked up his courage. "Maybe that's not right."

"Eh?" Ay said, confused.

"Maybe that's the way ninjas do things, but maybe it's not right. Maybe...the shadows just make the monsters in them..." Eichi felt he was waxing poetic for some reason, but he thought of the bandits. "I've been in the shadows, sir... It wasn't better. I was ashamed of what I was and what I did, but when I owned up to it, surprisingly, people forgave me for working against them...even Hanabi."

"And what could a child like you have done?" Ay was curious now. 

"I'm not that young, sir. A lot of murderers were young than I, from what I've heard," Eichi said, a bit offended now. 

"True... Bee and I were killers at your age." Ay said it like it was nothing. "But you seem inexperienced."

"I am...thankfully," Eichi shuddered. "I don't think I'm a killer. But I was a thief."

"A thief? That's not honorable," Ay said.

Eichi wanted to say "and stealing a child is?" but thought better of it. Which was more than Hanabi would have done.

"I know," he said instead, swallowing his pride. "I didn't like it. I was forced to work for them...but I still felt guilty. I was working against innocent people...and even if I didn't kill them, I was helping the people who were...hundreds of people. I figured I'd be branded as one of them forever, but Hanabi offered to help me escape them, me and...my mother...so, we took it. Now, it's as if we started over."

"Sounds more as if you got off without consequences."

Eichi frowned. "I wouldn't say that. I think...there's always consequences, sir, even if you don't see them right away. Missing all that time with my family...having to live with remembering all those horrible things I saw...those are consequences. But there's good things too. I got to do something important and to help people who deserve it instead, of my own free will. I don't know what point there would be now in punishment. I'm not sure I even want it for the b-----ds who forced us to work for them. I think they've suffered enough too."

"A foolish view to take. If we all thought like that, rebellions would never be stopped and rogues would do what they pleased."

"I guess not everyone should be let off, but if they really want to stop what they do and do right, why would you need to punish them?" 

Ay frowned as if he didn't have an answer. "On principle."

"I think it's a weird principle then, if it doesn't help anything." Eichi stated. "Do you even follow it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean do you think you should still be punished for what you did to the Hyugas, even though it was years ago, because of the principle?"

Pause.

Ay had somehow not seen that coming.

"You're too young to understand what is necessary to protect a Village," he said.

Eichi frowned at him also. "I'm not too young to understand that. Why does killing innocent people protect anyone?"

"Do you really think the Hyugas were innocent?!" Ay boomed, making Eichi flinch. "Why, in the last war they killed dozens of us single-handedly. The clan has far too much power! What's wrong with leveling the playing field?"

But he'd forgotten his caution now, that he shouldn't have owned up to it at all. When he got angry, Ay lost his tact faster than just about any other Cloud.

Eichi was a little afraid of him, but after Ay didn't strike out, he calmed a bit. 

"I guess you might feel like they deserve it," he said. "But what did...what did Hinata ever do to you? She was just a kid. I don't understand why you'd pick her of all people... I'm not Leaf, sir. I'm not looking at it from their perspective. I'm just looking at the situation."

Ay thought he sounded a bit pretentious, as teens usually do when they try too hard to sound grown up.

Still, it was hard to defend the incident now.

"Things were different. We were enemies at the time, and Leaf had plenty of responsibility in that that you don't know about," he said. "As for the girl, it's not about who's innocent but about who is useful."

"But didn't you get angry that Leaf shinobi tried to kidnap your brother for the same reason?" Eichi was puzzled. "And it wasn't right then, was it?"

"We had the right to seek revenge. I never said it wasn't to be expected of enemies to try to gain leverage."

Eichi considered. "So it's not wrong, it's just that you have the right to punish them for it because turnabout is fair play?"

"That's a bit crude, but something like that," Ay agreed. "See, there's no real justice in the world, boy. Only what you can force people to give you. You have to be willing to make them respect you and fall in line, or they'll take advantage of you. That's the way of Cloud. We're lightning--we strike faster and harder than our enemies so they don't get a chance to strike us."

"I'm an Earth shinobi, sir," Eichi said. "And our way is to try to ground ourselves only in our own people and not support anyone else--but also to believe that none of us really matter because it's the Land and the Village that matter. That's what I heard from my parents...but then, I heard from my new friends that, if a Village is made up of individuals, it can only be as important as each of them is, because a bunch of useless things together does not have more worth than them apart."

That had been expressed to Eichi some time ago by the team, when they'd told him the stories of their time in Stone in more detail.

Ay had to wrap his brain around what Eichi had just said. It was more complex than ninja philosophy tended to be.

"Sounds like word games," he said. "One of Likstar's, no doubt. A Village represents the good of all, not individual rights."

"But, sir, who does it benefit if not the individual?" Eichi said. "I've heard that you once even asked an enemy for help just over one person."

Ay bristled at that. "That was different."

"I don't see how," Eichi said. "I just think, if one person matters so much you could swallow your pride, why is it so hard to see the Hyuga think the same way? I don't mean to step out of line, sir, but aren't they just as precious to their cIan as your people are to yours? And didn't their father only do what you would have done? And yet he had to die for it because Cloud claimed they didn't do anything."

"Watch it, boy. You're not even Leaf. What business is it of yours?"

"Maybe it's not," Eichi allowed. "But would they say the same? How could you just expect them forget that? I don't understand. I guess you don't want to be embarrassed by admitting it was a bad thing to do...but, whether you admit it or not, it's still bad. Just seems weak to not say so."

"And now you're growing as impertinent as the other one."

"I didn't mean to be impertinent, sir, but if it's just the truth, and that's what offends you, isn't that something I can't help?" Eichi said simply.

Ay glared at him. "You're an Earth whelp who thinks he knows it all now because he's been part of some group of lowlifes and some fools who told him he could put the past behind him by joining them. They probably just said that to use you."

Eichi finally got mad. "And if that's true, why are they out there risking their safety to bring back your own civilians when you didn't even want to do it? How is that using us? And why did they make me stay here, if they only wanted to use me?"

Ay had no answer.

"I get," Eichi said, "that you don't think they're good people...but that's not even what we're talking about. I know I'm no one to speak to a Kage about what they've done wrong, but I don't know that there's a difference between a Kage and a lowlife, if they've both done something wrong. Even the same thing."

That cut deep.

Arguing was not how shinobi usually handled things. They used force.

But Ay, much like many of Team Zoe when they'd first joined, now that he could no longer use violence to make his point, was at a loss for how to defend himself.

How could, Ay wondered, this little thief boy, who had no power to speak of, with his pathetic jutsu that no one had even seen him use thus far, be able to make him, the Raikage, feel so flabbergasted. How could he be off balance?

Surely there was no way he was right. And even if he was, what point was there to acknowledging it?

Eichi wondered if he'd pushed his luck too far with Ay.

The silence lasted so long, he wondered if the Raikage had forgotten what they were even talking about, and he was startled when Ay finally spoke:

"What's the use now?" he asked.

Eichi jumped a little. "What?"

"Useless questions," Ay said flatly. "Besides, if we ever acknowledge blame in this, the other Villages would be on us like vultures. They all hate Cloud, so, if we give them any foothold, they'll never let it go."

"But denying you did it so they hate you more will not do that" Eichi said oddly. "They hate you either way."

Ay scowled. "Well, this way we maintain some level of distance from the situation."

"You mean...you deny it so that at least they'll always wonder if you really are aware of it?" Eichi said. "Because they can't really say they're any better, so as long as everyone lies about the same thing, then it's like no one is really lying?" [That's also the premise of the Chunin Exams first arc, you know.]

"I wouldn't call it lying, but I suppose that's about it. Everyone is as bad as everyone else," Ay conceded.

"Isn't that what Lord Gaara wants to change?" Eichi asked.

"That's probably not possible," Ay said.

Eichi stiffened. "That's what the Tsuchikage thought."

Ay frowned at him. He didn't like being compared to Onoki. "The old codger?" (They were only 10-15 years apart, if that much, but Ay did look a lot better for his age; the Cloud genes were in play again.)

"Yeah, he thought that, and look where it got him." Eichi forgot for a moment that he wasn't supposed to talk about it.

"Where did it get him?" Ay asked.

Eichi paused. "Well, you know, up till the Alliance, Stone was always backstabbing everyone else, and they didn't believe in peace. And if you act like that all the time, then no one is going to trust you. And if you, in Cloud, think we can't all get along, then...well...we can't."

He thought of something he'd seen on one of Momo's notebooks. "'Whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right,'" he added aloud. [Quote by Henry Ford.]

"I think I'm just speaking from experience," Ay said.

"Yes, sir...well, you do have a lot more experience than I do," Eichi admitted. "But if...uh, in all those decades nothing has changed, isn't that more of a bad sign?"

"What's wrong with things staying this way?" Ay said. "Cloud has always done well on its own. We avoid the in-fighting of the other Villages."

"But it's only on the principle that you can't ever do anything outside of Cloud? Didn't your people turn on Tsukura-san as soon as they thought she colluded with us, though we know she didn't?" Eichi countered sensibly. "And that's not fair. She's your loyal servant, but she's getting treated like a criminal because Cloud never trusts anyone outside of Cloud. And what if the alliance had not allowed them to join them in the war? What if they'd let the Akatsuki wipe out Cloud?"

"They need us," Ay said.

"They could have decided not to see it that way," Eichi said. "I mean, same with Stone. I'm amazed they didn't--Stone had such a bad track record, but Lord Gaara wanted to give them a new chance. He got a new chance himself. He was the Terror of Sand, and now he's a peace maker... If all that can change, why are you so afraid of change, Lord Raikage?"

"Afraid?" Ay narrowed his eyes.

"You seem afraid," Eichi said succinctly. "Afraid that something will be lost if you make changes... Maybe you think Cloud will lose what makes it more secure than the other Villages. You like being independent, right? Maybe you're more like Mr. Uchiha than you think."

"How dare you compare me to that scum!" Ay said.

But, sir--" Eichi was starting to think Ay wasn't going to crush him after this long without it happening, so he was bolder. "--if you consider it, Cloud broke off from the other Villages and wouldn't come to the summits or exams, much the same way Mr. Uchiha broke off from his Village. Isn't that just a bigger version of the same thing? Independence? Not thinking the other Villages have anything to offer you? Allying with their enemies...or at least not stopping them? I mean...it's funny how much you hate Sasuke, when all he did was what you guys all do, and don't you think that Alliance of Kages might see it that way? Like your whole Village is rogues compared to them."

"That's quite an accusation." Ay's tone said Eichi had better tread carefully if he didn't want to get in huge trouble now.

Eichi wished Hanabi had not left him here alone--but then, she would only have poured fuel on the fire.

"I'm not trying to accuse you," he said, trying to sound calm still, "just to ask why it's okay for you Cloud to do it but not anyone else...just like with kidnapping. It's okay for you, but not for them. I know you see Leaf as enemies and all that, but if all is fair in war, what grounds were there to demand Sasuke owed you anything?"

"Because they came to our territory," Ay said. "Our turf."

"I guess that's fair," Eichi said. "So when you go to Leaf again, they should demand you die because of the Hyuga incident?"

Dead silence.

Ay had walked into a trap. And this time, even worse of one than before.

Eichi hadn't even done it on purpose--he'd just realized it as Ay was speaking.

Ay stared at him a long moment. Deciding whether he was furious or impressed was hard to say. He could look the same either way, honestly.

"Is that what that woman is planning?" he asked finally. "Some kind of sick twist?"

"No, no." Eichi shook his head. "They would never do that. But that's just it--they never would. They're so much more merciful than anyone else I've ever met. But the thing is, they're all so adamant about doing the right thing that I felt worse about caving in to the pressure to steal after meeting them. I know they wouldn't do it...probably, anyway. And they're smart enough to get out of it, but I wasn't. So in a way, it's tough to be around them... I was wondering if partly you don't like them because they're so willing to overlook the ways you could have offended them. If they really demanded justice, would anyone back up Cloud in the other Villages?"

This was just the idea Ay had been worried about since they'd arrived.

He scowled at the boy.

"Well, your little friend certainly doesn't overlook," he said.

"But she's not calling her whole clan down on you," Eichi said. "I mean, she could have told them about being attacked here. Leaf would have contacted you by now if she did...so even she's being kinder to you than you would be to us. Does that make you feel small?"

"Don't get presumptous, boy," Ay snapped.

Eichi looked down. "I was just wondering. Maybe we have more in common than it seems Iike. I've tried to understand why Team Zoe wanted to come here at all when they said over and over they expected you to treat them this way."

"Before they came?" Ay had not heard this before.

"Oh, yeah," Eichi dodged. "They said it over and over again. Team Taka never wanted to come here at all. Yhey thought you'd kill them. But, Miss Likstar said they had to try... Well, she didn't force them, but she said she would try. And Lord Gaara agreed to, even though they were all ready to go home and it was later in the year than they wanted to come here, but they knew Cloud would be offended if they didn't accept the invitation. So they changed their plans to accommodate you."

"Did they?" Ay frowned again. 

"Yeah, they said you were pretty stubborn though," Eichi mused. "Didn't know if you'd be forgiving or want peace, really. But Miss Likstar said she thought you weren't as bad as the Tsuchikage. I'm not sure why she thinks that. Something you did, maybe."

"Is that so?" Ay was still frowning.

Eichi realized he had just made a mistake. "Is that...bad?"

"Interesting to know their perception of me." Ay scowled.

Eichi looked him up and down. "Have you proven them wrong so far, sir?"

Pause.

Eichi thought Ay might kill him for real.

But, surprisingly, Ay finally chuckled, though it was dry, as if he only found it partially funny and was partially insulted.

"Being relenting is not a trait Cloud requires in a leader," he said. "Just the opposite. If it's a flaw, I don't know that I've ever cared. Not sure I'm about to change now. One thing though, is that no matter what I do, that pretentious Kazekage and his upstart senseis always seem able to get what they want out of it. Did they ask you to speak to me about this also?"

"Not at all. They didn't ask me to do anything." Eichi shook his head. "I swear. I don't think they expect that much of me." A bit abashedly.

"At least you're honest about being useless." Ay said what was either a compliment or a backhanded insult. Hard to know.

Eichi was encouraged enough to want to change the subject.

"Sir, can I ask another question?" he said. "Not related to what we were talking about."

"What more harm can it do?" Ay sat back, not anticipating much.

"I've been noticing that, aside from Mabui-san, no one around here ever seems to be from a big clan," Eichi said, "or use anything jutsu other than Lightning Style. I mean, you didn't send any sensory types with Team Zoe. Which seems weird."

"We didn't ask a lot of people. Most of them are busy elsewhere," Ay said tightly. "And it's none of your concern."

"But if Mabui-san works for you because of her clan's jutsu, why haven't you replaced her with someone else from a powerful clan, so there's still the same power balance?" Eichi said. "Is there a reason you're not replacing her?"

"Well, she would be hard to replace," Ay admitted. "By far the best assistant I've had in all these years. Besides, her family has always been close to the Kages."

"But never the Kages?" Eichi noted.

"There's only been 3 before me, and they were my forefathers. We have the power to do it. But as, I have no family, I suppose I will have to pick someone else to succeed me."

Eichi thought. "So her clan was linked to the Kages? That makes sense, I guess. Their power is pretty cool. But it would be better with support power, like the Ino-Shika-Cho combo. Have you ever thought  about that?"

"No," Ay said shortly. "And this is still none of your concern. Go find your little girlfriend. I have work to do. Don't leave the Kage house."

His tone said this conversation was over.

Eichi did not push it any further. He was glad he'd escaped this without getting the desk flung at his head.

[Me too.]

* * *

Hanabi had wandered into the cleaning storage room, which was one of the only ones without a lock on it.

No one had noticed her in there. The Kage house was so understaffed, that the one clerk had stepped out, and no one had come in since.

"Are you okay?" Eichi asked her.

"What do you think?" Hanabi asked.

Eichi was a 14-year old boy. He didn't really know how to answer that.

"I...uh, think you're still mad," he guessed.

"No crap." Hanabi flicked a piece of dust off a stack of crates. "Did Ay try to eat you alive?"

"It was...rough, but he didn't seem as angry by the time I left," Eichi hedged. "But it was weird. I asked him something about Miss Mabui's clan, since we still don't know a lot about her, and he wouldn't say much about it..."

He repeated it.

Hanabi was interested--and it took her mind off her problem for a short time.

"You know, it's been almost two weeks, and we haven't met any other big clans or even seen any other clan house--and in the Village," she said. "Isn't that weird?"

"Is it?" Eichi said. "I don't remember that many in Stone either."

"Well, we didn't meet them all, but they have their style differences," Hanabi said.

"True, there's a lot of similar attacks," Eichi said. "I did think it was weird he would give her a team without supporting jutsu."

"Eichi, have we seen any Cloud use an attack other than Lightning Style or swords?" Hanabi asked. "Other than Bee, but that's just 'cause he's a jinchuriki."

Eichi thought about it. "No...don't they really like sword fighting, though? It was in one of the books Dabi got."

"Yeah, exactly, and did that book mention any other clan?" Hanabi said.

"Did it mention Mabui's?" Eichi asked.

"Not much, but I think it did briefly mention it." Hanabi had glanced over some of it ,and Dabi had not cared to mention anything in it, so it wasn't that interesting.

"But what are you thinking?" Eichi said.

"It's a crazy idea," Hanabi said, "but I just had a dumb thought: What if Cloud shinobi don't have any other clan jutsus? I mean...what if they don't have any other special styles, period?"