Yugito Nii stalked the length of the corridor like a predator trapped in a cage. Her boots made no sound against the polished stone floor, a habit born of a lifetime of stealth. Outside, beyond the stone balustrade where May perched with precarious grace, the world was a canvas of white and grey. The courtyard below was buried under deep drifts of snow, and the wind howled with fury. Yet, on the balcony itself, the air remained still. Expensive barrier seals hummed with a faint vibration, burning chakra to shear away the biting chill before it could touch the skin of the inhabitants.

  Within the seal that bound them together, Matatabi lay resting in her cage. The giant cat made of blue fire watched through the eyes of her host, her tails flicking with agitation. She felt the anxiety radiating off her partner. The beast watched as Yugito paced back and forth, back and forth, tracing an invisible line of worry into the floor.

  "Did you confirm it was him? You were always better at the sensing stuff than I am. He has those children with him, does he not?" May asked. Her voice was light and airy, carrying a musical quality that she used to disarm men. She sat on the railing of the open balcony, legs dangling over the precipice, looking for all the world like a bored concubine rather than a deadly kunoichi.

  Yugito stopped her pacing and glared at the endless white horizon. "Confirmed? It is difficult to say. The man known as the Paper Lantern has always been a ghost. He excels at erasing his presence from sensory ninjas. His face matches the picture in the Bingo Book; maybe a few years younger, but I never acquired his scent or a sample of his chakra signature in the past. I have nothing concrete to compare against whoever this man is."

  "Hey, do not ruin my mission just because you do not wish to rot in this frozen wasteland with me," May chided, inspecting her fingernails with feigned disinterest. "I have Doto wrapped around my little finger. Soon, I will be royalty. You are looking at a future Queen Mother."

  Yugito ignored the vapid mask her partner wore. May played the role of the fool, but her dispite her short comings in traditional ninja arts, she made for a great spy. Yugito turned her thoughts inward to the mission. Her orders had been clear when she departed the Land of Lightning. Eliminate the envoy from the Land of Fire. But the intelligence reports had shifted like the snow dunes outside. The target was not a mere bureaucrat but a shinobi. And not just any shinobi, but one posing as Amon, the Paper Lantern.

  If the identification held true, the parameters of her mission spiraled into complexity. A simple grunt could die without consequence. The world would not mourn a foot soldier. But a master of Fuinjutsu who also possessed elite medical skills? That was a prize of war. The Council back in the Clouds would want her to capture him, but hesitation gnawed at her gut. She was an assassin. Her efficiency in wet work had earned her respect within the village that went beyond her status as the vessel for Matatabi. She killed. She did not capture.

  But if the Cloud Village could secure Amon, the balance of power would shift. The Hidden Leaf hoarded their secrets like a dragon hoarded gold. Their libraries of sealing rituals were the envy of the nations. A specialist in those arts could change everything. Yugito knew the value of bloodlines better than most. She had been chosen as the vessel for Matatabi precisely because of her distant lineage. Her blonde hair and pale complexion were markers of the Uzumaki clan, traits that had earned her mockery in her youth but made her a resilient container for the Tailed Beast. She had been the contingency plan, the backup vessel prepared in secret after a squad of Cloud ninja failed to abduct Kushina Uzumaki years ago.

  "They already gave that one kid the Beast of Eight Tails," Yugito mumbled, her voice barely rising above the wind.

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  "Hmm? I mean, you say you can defeat Amon, but I heard rumors that he was supposed to be super powerful," May said, kicking her heels against the stone. "Didn’t he defeat the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?"

  "Please, do not make me laugh," Yugito scoffed. "That is merely propaganda from the Leaf. Do you truly believe a medical ninja could dismantle such a group? The best-case scenario is that he had assistance and took the credit."

  "I do not know. People say that the White Fang was his teacher."

  "The White Fang was a sword master. Did you see a blade on this man?"

  "I guess not." May shrugged her shoulders, the silk of her robe slipping slightly. "But he was still sent here alone to deal with the Village Hidden in the Snow. Clearly, Konohagakure thinks he can handle himself."

  "That is just more arrogance from the elders of the Leaf," Yugito spat. "Their village has been spoiled with resources for generations. Comfort has clouded their judgment. They spend all their time preaching peace and unity, which is easy to say when your village is the largest and possesses the most fertile lands. The Snow Village will play a massive role in the next Great War. With you acquiring their bloodline, their development of technology, and their location so far removed from the other nations, we can craft an army with little outside disturbance. Once the next conflict begins, the other villages will not know what hit them."

  "And Doto?" May asked.

  "That is your job," Yugito replied coldly. "Control him or have him replaced. I am guessing the reason why the village elders back home want the girl here is in case we need a backup option. The emissary was supposed to bring her. Either the Leaf knows what we are planning, or they are going to try to use her for their own benefit. If only the Snow ninja had not failed their mission of capturing her during the coup."

  "Hmm. Doto also wants the girl back, but not for sentimental reasons. He wants her necklace. He claims it acts as a key to a vault."

  Yugito nodded. "Sosetsu hid a hoard of his valuable research materials and documents in there, plus a decent stockpile of treasure. Doto still has access to most of the research that his brother was funding, but the truly advanced discoveries are behind the door of the vault."

  Matatabi yawned within the seal, the sound vibrating through the skull of her host. "I offered to break in for you, but you were too much of a frightened kitten to try it."

  "Neither Matatabi nor I could break in without risking damage to the treasure inside," Yugito muttered, answering the voice in her head.

  "Well, I guess you have the problem right there," May said, hopping down from the railing. "Amon did not bring the girl, which means we have no easy replacement for Doto, and we have no special necklace to open up the vault."

  "And if I kill the representative from the Leaf, they will most likely not send another. Which means it will be next to impossible to reach the princess."

  May smiled, a mischievous expression that twinkled in her eyes. "Which means I could spend more time with my favorite bloodthirsty feline friend."

  "We need to find a way to convince Amon to bring the girl here."

  "Well, he did say that he was willing to bring her," May mused. "We just need to convince him that the girl will be safe and that it is in his best interest to do so."

  Yugito thought for a moment, silence stretching between them. It was Matatabi who spoke in her mind, her voice dripping with ancient malice. "What about the vault? If he is some sort of scholar for sealing arts, will he not be interested in such a mechanism?"

  "The vault could work," Yugito said aloud.

  "The vault with all the treasure?" May asked, raising an eyebrow. "Will that be too tempting for the ninja of the Leaf? He might try to take it for himself."

  "He will not try to steal it for himself if he thinks he is going to be given the contents," Yugito explained, the plan forming rapidly. "If you can convince Doto to show off the vault to Amon, we can have Doto tell Amon that the Snow will aid the Leaf Village if they return the girl. Then, after we have the girl and the necklace in our custody, we can kill Amon. We just need to ensure that the Leaf Village does not know about the existence of the vault. We convince Amon that the treasure would benefit him personally first, and then he could help his village second."

  "That is a fine line to walk, but I believe I can convince the two men," May said. "Also, Amon is not a part of any major clan in his village. I could get him to take a small bribe. Then, after we get the princess, we can convince him to join our village." May saw the grimace form on the face of her friend. "And then we could orchestrate an accident if you prefer. We could just claim the Leaf ninja killed him for turning traitor, or we found out that he was a double agent, and we had to kill him in defense of our own lives after he realized we knew his secret."

  Yugito nodded her head slowly. The logic was sound. It covered their tracks and achieved the objectives of the Cloud. "That feels like a reasonable plan to follow until the elders of Kumogakure decide on our next move. I will leave the manipulation to your capable hands."

  May stood up on the railing, balancing perfectly against the howling wind. She gave Yugito a mock salute before she jumped off the balcony, plummeting into the castle grounds below in search of Doto.