Aimi sat up before the older woman could respond, "If I go willingly, you won't hurt them?"<br/><br/>"Not now." Chiyo said, "As long as they don't follow us. And I can make no guarantee if we should meet on the battlefield... Our villages are now enemies, you know."<br/><br/>Aimi nodded solemnly, "I ran away from home a few years ago. The villagers feared the demon inside of me... as rightfully they should. You have seen what it can do when I lose control..." She looked up at Chiyo, "I expected you to come for me then... But you never did."<br/><br/>The puppeteer remained silent.<br/><br/>"My brother ordered you not to, right?" Aimi asked, "...and now?"<br/><br/>"I was told to retrieve the Shukaku. It is vital importance to our village's success." Chiyo replied, "Aimi's cooperation was preferable, but not needed. If need be, my orders were to extract the beast from her body, killing Aimi. Then we would seal it within a more cooperative host. For what it's worth, I did not relish this possibility."<br/><br/>Squeezing empathy out of Chiyo was like squeezing water out of a rock. Even so, in the brief time they spent with her, they could tell her feelings had softened a bit. She shifted in her seat, found her foot caught on something and then shook it off. It was, of all things, something like the root of a tree. Yet there was nothing but boulders and a few cacti around.<br/><br/>"Well." Hitomi said, "If there's going to be war, the minor villages are going to have to take a side. Amegakure's right in the middle of this mess, it seems. That kind of situation always attracts mercenaries like myself... so my master's probably there as well."<br/><br/>"Then it's settled- They must return to their villages and loved ones..." Chiyo added, then looked down to Aimi, "And I have to return you to the Kazekage."<br/><br/>The older woman closed her eyes and sighed, "Perhaps it's time I retired..."