Heavy breathing was one of the few things, outside the normal sounds of the forest, that could be heard at the moment. Eleven different breaths were being taken at that moment, as the twelfth wasn't currently conscious so it was only a soft rhythmic breathing.
"What… The hell… Happened?!" Hyō asked over their coms, not trusting to speak openly after the attack that just happened. Everyone could tell that he was pissed at being caught unaware. "Team three, what happened? Why weren't you able to sense them coming?!"
Neither of the three remaining members of the training squad spoke right away. They were supposed to be a sensory squad and they had dropped the ball, hell one of their members was now down as well.
"No chakra…" Kitsune muttered softly, however being surrounded by ANBU meant that they all heard her.
"What was that Kitsune?" Hyō asked, his tempter not as bad anymore now that he might be given answers.
"I can't sense any chakra right now. It's as if there's something blocking all chakra signatures in the area. Even now I can't sense any of you, it's as if you're not even here, but not just you. I can't since anything." Kitsune said, her face scrunched up in frustration under her mask.
"Damnit…" Hyō murmured out. He became still as he hung his head in thought. "Kitsune, is there any other way for you to sense long range?" Hyō asked, looking at the smallest member of their ANBU group.
"Well she does…" Inu started to say only to be quickly interrupted by Kitsune.
"That isn't fully tested Inu!" Kitsune growled out, in full knowledge of what he was going to say.
"What are you two talking about?" Hyō asked, putting a little killing intent to stop any arguments from starting up.
Kitsune shuffled her feet a bit before heaving a sigh, "I've been working on a long range sound sensory jutsu, but it wasn't completely finished. I can't use it on the move and it takes too long to get all the information to get back, and when I do get all the information back it takes a while to mentally sort everything out." Kitsune explained, her voice upset by having to talk about it.
"Will it let you see like you used to?" Hyō asked, everyone seemed to stare at the little girl while their captain was questioning her.
Kitsune took a moment to think it over, "Theoretically, yes it could. However I've never tested it at such a range, I'm not sure what it might do."
Hyō stopped and thought for a moment. He, like every ANBU, knew how dangerous an untested jutsu could be, hell it was even against the rules to do so. Even those that seemed completely harmless could backfire and kill. Hyō took a full minute to weigh the pros and cons.
"Do it, Kitsune."
The young kunoichi just stared at him, for a moment before resigning herself to her fate. She had been given an order and she had to follow it. Giving a small wave to everyone to stand back she began a series of complex hand seals.
"Banshī no Yobidashi (Banshee's Calling)" Kitsune muttered, before reaching up and pulling her mask up to uncover her mouth.
All of the ANBU watching, held breaths in wait. They could feel the chakra she had put into it, and Saru was ready to administer medical aid if she needed it.
What no one was expecting was for her to just tilt her head back and open then close her mouth a few times, before replacing her mask and sitting in a lotus meditation position.
"Umm, Kitsune…" Hyō started to say only to be interrupted with 'shushes' by Inu and Anaguma.
Inu, being from the Inuzuka clan, was the only one who was able to hear it what she had actually done so he spoke up. "She released a subsonic sound, boosted by her chakra. It goes out a distance that's regulated by how much chakra she puts into the jutsu, than reverberates back to her. With it she was hoping to be able to map out entire areas safely and from a long distance away."
"What's the maximum range she's gone before?" Hyō asked. While everything seemed fine and he was prepared to help intervene if necessary, he was also thinking of the possibilities of this jutsu. If what he was hearing correctly, she could, theoretically, take out and neutralize any surprise attacks. He was now looking at the young kunoichi in a different light, no longer as just a child he was worried he'd have to take care of.
"She's only tried up to a mile, but she's spot on with her accuracy of it. We were going to slowly work up more, but this mission got in the way." Anaguma said.
"And it works so much better when you all shut the hell up!" Kitsune hissed out. That brought total silence to the group.
Kitsune on the other hand was busy trying to piece together the entire layout of over a five mile radius in her head. Her mind was slightly overwhelmed by all the information, however she had become accustomed to receiving vast amounts of information to see the area around her. Just not five square miles worth and usually never in a forest with so much wild life in it.
"I found them!" Kitsune said with a huge exhale. She hadn't realized that she had been holding her breath as well while processing all the information.
"Where are they, and how many are we up against?" Hyō asked immediately. He didn't know if she could keep the information in her head long, and those were the most important questions right now.
Kitsune forced for a moment before she answered, "I'm reading 82 people in the area, not including us. It looks like their encampment is to the northeast, in a small clearing three and half miles out. Given sounds coming from four, along with the presence of chains, four of them are our jōnin captives. However we need to move fast. It sounds like two are kunoichi and their being dragged off from the others two." Kitsune said in an emotionless tone, going unnoticed by the others except for her team.
All of the ANBU tensed at that. They all knew what that could only mean, and they all were forced to try and suppress the rage that was building. ANBU watched out for those under them, they were the best of the best and they'd be damned if one of the shinobi they were sent to retrieve had to go through that.
"Kitsune, you, Inu, and Hato, go quickly and retrieve the kunoichi. I want them back safe and whole. Saru, stay with Anaguma and Kame, look after Taka and make sure he doesn't get worse. I know you said we need to get him back to the village, but see if you can buy us some time with your Medical Ninjutsu. Everyone else is coming with me. Kitsune how many are we going to be up against?" Hyō divided out the orders quickly.
Kitsune concentrated for a moment, "You'll have about thirteen to get through, they in the middle of the clearing in a tent. Hard to see what it's made out of, so I'm going to guess some type of thin clothe. It's big though, so you can't miss it."
Hyō nodded, "Good hunting." The captain said before they all dispersed to their orders.
XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX
The kunoichi retrieval squad was moving fast through the trees. No one said a word, they were completely focused on their task of getting to the kunoichi before it was too late.
"This is Hyō, we're three minutes from contact. Update again when we have the shinobi." Hyō's voice sounded from their ear pieces.
"Hai, Teichō. We'll hit the other group soon. Update as soon as we have secured the kunoichi." Inu's voice replied, though his voice held in hint of rage instead of his normally joking tone.
It wasn't but two minutes before they had reached the tree line of clearing the kunoichi were dragged to. The ANBU operatives could see that they women were putting up a hell of a struggle. Inu spared a quick glance to his teammate, Kitsune, to see how she was doing.
He had looked up her past when he found out that they were going to be on the same team. Nothing personal, he did it to the whole team. He just didn't trust easily anymore since his ninken was KIA. He had found out that she had been raped by the incident report that someone attempted to hide, whether for her sake or not he didn't know.
Inu figured this would be a tough situation for her to deal with, though she normally had a grip on her emotions; with the sole exception when they tried to blackmail her with the photos that they had taken, though that was normally just harmless fun. When she placed that mask on, he had only seen a cold, calculative kunoichi. Someone he would hate to get into a fight with, he wasn't sure he'd win that fight.
Looking at the blonde now, and he knew she was pissed. Probably more so than he had ever thought possible; the issue was you couldn't tell if she was pissed or not by usual means. The only way to tell was when her entire presence started to vanish, and your instincts kept telling you to keep an eye on her or run like hell. He wasn't even sure how she did it, but if she wanted to, he knew she could go around completely undetected by hiding her presence from anyone and everyone.
Right now, he had to physically look at her to make sure was still there. Hell he was fighting the urge to make sure it wasn't a genjutsu of her crouched on the tree limb not three feet in front of him.
"Kitsune," Inu said to get her attention. When she stayed completely still, in a perfect imitation of a statue, he was a little worried at first but continued on nonetheless, "Keep them busy, me and Hato will grab the kunoichi and we'll retreat then."
Time froze while he waited for a response, he started to worry that she wasn't focused on the mission anymore; however she slowly nodded her head in acknowledgement of the orders.
Both ANBU shinobi moved quietly through the trees, moving like shadows upon shadows in the dense forest. As they reached their positions, Inu clicked his wireless radio to tell Kitsune to attack.
However, as soon as the click went through, before he could even tell her to attack; Kitsune was behind one of the four men with her blade draw. A quick flick of her wrist and the man's head was silently severed from his body, a small geyser of blood slowly erupting from the corpse as it fell forward. Before it even touched the ground, Kitsune kicked the severed head into the back of one of the remaining three, it hitting just right and with enough force to actually leave a very visible intent on his skull effectively killing the man from trauma to his brain; while she threw he sword into the back of a second man, the tip piercing coming a full two inches out of his chest where his heart would be.
Wiping out a kunai, Kitsune sent it barreling into the last man's crotch as he turned to see what was going on, the small blade severing his organ. Before he could even register the pain, the kunoichi moved with blinding speed and slammed another kunai into the man's right temple.
Inu and Hato stood there stunned. In the span of FOUR seconds, the youngest member of their group had annihilated and slaughtered all four men. The last man had caught their attention more than the others due to the specific injury that was inflicted, and both almost felt sorry for the man… Almost.
"Inu, it's clear." Kitsune's emotionless voice cracked over the headsets. While it might have seemed emotionless, her teammate could hear the complete and utter rage underlining her words.
Inu stood there watching the young girl move to the kunoichi and help them up. Quickly shaking his head, he headed down with Hato in tow, who was just as shell shocked by what he saw as well, and proceeded to help the kunoichi.
"Thank you so much for your help." One of the kunoichi said to the ANBU. Giving a nod, Inu turned his back to the kunoichi and crouched down, giving a signal for her to climb on his back. Hato did the same thing for the other kunoichi as well.
"Don't worry, another team is currently saving the other two members of your team." Inu said in a soft voice. The women had just been through a traumatic experience, and no matter how much training one had no one was ever prepared to face a possible rape.
As Inu hoped, the women seemed to relax a little with the knowledge that they're friends would be alright. "Thank you ANBU-san." Both women muttered as they climbed onto the backs of the two ANBU and took off into the forest.
"So, any ideas on why you were captured?" Inu asked, hoping to keep their minds busy with answering questions instead of dwelling on what almost happened.
"Slavery." The one riding on Hato's back said, "They wanted to sell our friends off to another village while me and Kurenai here would be sold to be bastard's pleasure thing." The woman said with more venom then a snake could produce.
"So your Kurenai Yuhi eh?" Inu asked, though he already knew who the kunoichi were. Both were rather infamous for being two of the most beautiful kunoichi in the village. Kurenai was known for being generally cold towards men as well as being the best user of genjutsu in the village, while the other one was Anko Mitarashi who was known for just being sadistic towards everyone at times. While Kurenai was a recently promoted jōnin, not having the rank for more than seven months, Anko had taken the ANBU course and passed a year ago. Inu guessed that being in T&I had slowed down her training enough that she was able to be captured, or they used her teammates against her.
Kurenai, instead of answering chose to look at the young ANBU who was now currently leading them away. She had been under the man who had his head cut off, and her outfit was currently soaked in the vile man's blood. The horror of seeing her almost-rapist killed wasn't what caught her eye, it wasn't even the fact that she was obviously very young. It was how she moved with such grace and fluidity, how her very presence seemed to escape her notice, even now, or maybe it was the fact that the girl had saved her from her rapist.
Inu stole a quick glance at the woman on his back when she didn't respond, and he noticed her gaze on his teammate. He also wasn't the only one, as the other two shinobi were had also looked at her when she didn't respond.
Kurenai then leaned forward to try and whisper Inu's ear, "Isn't she a little young to be an ANBU, or is she just short? I'm not trying to be mean, just curious."
Inu's mind, for a moment, couldn't think. Suddenly he burst out laughing, "Oh kami someone actually asked!" He kept saying as he tried to breathe through his fits of laughter. While laughing he somehow was able to keep up with the other two ANBU and not drop from the trees.
Kitsune on the other hand almost missed her landing on a tree limb. Not even turning to dignify the question she just sent the message that they were on their way back. Afterwards she proceeded to sulk a little about being called short as she kept jumping with everyone else, occasionally muttering "I'm not short…"
As they reached the area that they were supposed to regroup at, Kitsune's head perked up. Inu seeing this asked what was going on.
"I can sense again…" Kitsune said in confused yet happy tone. Inu's brow furrowed, but chose not to question it further. He may be her teammate but he didn't know a lot about chakra sensing so it would be useless for him to ask, not to mention he needed to keep his mind focused on his task. As they dropped down from the trees to where they had left the injured, they quickly had the kunoichi sit down so Saru take quick scans to make sure they were alright. He found that they both had a few bruises, and Kurenai's ankle was tweaked a little but nothing too bad.
Kitsune, Inu, and Hato all took up defensive positions around the group with Kitsune being the closest to the group, effectively putting herself in the middle so she could extend her range to cover as much as she could. They only had to wait five minutes when the others showed up.
"Kitsune," Hyō asked, quickly addressing the younger ANBU, "Are you still unable to sense chakra?"
The young blonde shook her head in the negative, "No, for some reason I was suddenly able to sense chakra a few minutes ago." Kitsune reported, still confused on the matter herself.
"Hmm, we destroyed a set of seals a few minutes ago before we left their camp. Maybe that's what was causing it… Either way, we made a quick sketch of it and we'll leave it for the Intelligence Division to figure it out. Now give me a chakra sensory perimeter, a mile out at least. Inu, you're lead, get us back to the village quickly and make sure we don't run across any of their trails. Command will probably send in hunter squads to take these guys out, so we don't need to fight them anymore. We just need get back to the village in one piece. Move out!"
"Hai!" Every ANBU in the clearing said as they gave a quick salute. Saru help Anaguma picked up Taka and situated him properly on his back, while everyone moved into a defensive formation around the ex-hostages and the wounded.
XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX
It took them close to five hours to get back, and when they did everyone seemed to just sigh all at once in relief that their mission was over.
"Alright everyone, you know the drill by now. I want reports from everyone before the end of tomorrow. Otherwise you're all off duty as soon as the Hokage lets us go." Hyō said in a rather tired tone. He wasn't used to getting ambushed or having to lead more than just his team, so he was outside of his comfort zone most of the time and felt exhausted.
Everyone just nodded as they made their way to the Hokage's office, Saru and Anaguma leaving the group to take Taka to the infirmary. As they approached their leader's office, they noticed another group was currently inside, so Hyō took this time to ask everyone individually what happened so he could give a full report instead of having to play hot-potato with the answers.
He wasn't able to fully finish before the doors opened and a team, chūnin judging by the vests, walked out and left down the hallway.
XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX
"And that's when we returned back to the village." Hyō said, finishing his verbal report. It took close to an hour to get everything out, and just about everyone, with the exception of the Hokage, seemed restless standing there for so long.
Hiruzen was currently seated in his chair, puffing away at his pipe more than usual. Groups of missing-nin were always a problem, but they usually stayed in smaller groups so as to not attract a lot of attention from the villages. Then there was the seal…
"And you're absolutely sure this was the seal what was engraved in the ground at the camp?" Hiruzen asked as he held up the drawing he was given.
"Hai." Was the only response Hyō gave.
"Hmm…" Hiruzen said, mulling over the idea on how someone had gotten such a complex seal.
"Hokage-sama, if I might ask, what is so special about that seal?" Kurenai asked. She had been listening to everything that was being said so far and she was able to notice that their Kage was disturbed by the seal. She didn't know anything about seals outside of the standard storage scroll or explosive note.
"This seal," Hiruzen said, holding the drawing up for everyone to see, "Is part of a barrier seal. Unlike most barriers that hold out physical objects, this is a masking barrier. It completely cloaks any and all chakra signatures inside it's radius. It was developed several years back by the Yondaime to be used to hide the village. However there was a drawback that he could never work out. While all chakra signatures couldn't be sensed at all from the outside, you also couldn't sense them from the inside as well, which as all of you could figure out in a shinobi village would be dangerous. Due to that factor, as well as the enormous amount of chakra needed to power the seal, it was never put into use." The Sandaime finished his explanation.
'However there were only three people who knew of the seal outside of Minato and Kushina; myself, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru. I know Jiraiya wouldn't sell this, and I haven't seen it in years, so Orochimaru must be involved somehow.' Hiruzen thought to himself. While he was thinking, the shinobi stood at attention waiting to be dismissed.
After a few moments, Kitsune quietly scuffed her boot on the ground which seemed to draw him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, my apologies. I'm holding you all up," Hiruzen said with a small smile, "You know the standard protocol for paperwork. ANBU, you are dismissed. Jōnin, I want all of you to get a full physical tomorrow, so I know you all are in good health. Dismissed." The Sandaime said with a small wave of his hand.
The ANBU each gave a quick salute and then quickly left the office via shunshin.
XXXxxxXXXxxxXXX
*Knock*
*Knock*
*Knock*
Yūgao looked up from the dinner she was making, and moved to answer her door. She figured it was her girlfriend that had finally gotten back from ANBU HQ, it wasn't hard to hear of such a large group of ANBU coming back since normally they only operated in small four man teams.
Yūgao had heard that the mission hadn't gone quite well, and she wanted to do something nice for her younger girlfriend. While cooking wasn't a specialty of hers… okay she absolutely sucked at it and normally ate out; she did know how to make a few dishes and the thought of just staying in with Naruko was enough for her to cook.
As she opened the door Yūgao was privy to the sight of Naruko in a small white tank top with black shorts, however it wasn't the clothing that surprised her. It was the fact that Naruko looked to barely be holding herself and her sword up.
"Naru-chan?" Yūgao said in disbelief at the state the blonde was in, as she quickly moved to support the girl.
Naruko gave a weak smile, "Hey Yu-chan, sorry I was stupid on the mission and I'm starting to feel the effects right now." Naruko said in her usual caring voice that she generally kept reserved for Yūgao, or private moments with the Hokage.
"What happened?!" Yūgao asked in a worried tone, as she moved the girl inside and closed the door behind her. Sitting Naruko in a chair at her table, once she was settled Yūgao quickly rushed to get her a glass of water.
"We went after the squad like we were supposed to. We ended up getting ambushed before we could get to them." Naruko said as she stopped to chug the water down. Her body was sore, and she was still sweating even after her armor was removed. Yūgao looked at her stunned. It was unheard of for Naruko to be caught surprised, and she'd know since she's constantly trying to catch the girl unaware.
"How did you get ambushed?" Yūgao asked, partially worried as well as curious.
"They had seals set up that stopped my ability to sense any chakra, and you know how well my sound sensory abilities become when I'm forced to just use my hearing on the move." Naruko said as she leaned back into her chair. Yūgao just nodded, Naruko's ability to sense become reduced by a great deal simply because all the sounds tend to mesh together when she's moving at a high rate of speed that ANBU normally do. "Anyway Taka was injured during that attack. Hyō told me to use my new wide range jutsu and it took more out of me than I'd care to admit, more than it ever should really." Naruko said in a tired tone as she tried to keep awake, her body however just wanted her to sleep.
Yūgao however was working on keeping her rage down right now. Use of an untested jutsu is against protocol within ANBU, and she knew Hyō knew that. To order someone to use an untested jutsu was bad, but to order someone who wasn't even officially ANBU yet… Yūgao was going to go to the ANBU commander with this knowledge when she was on duty next.
Naruko, unaware of Yūgao's inner-raging, continued on with her story, "When I was able to locate where they were, me and two others went to get two of them while Hyō and another squad went after another two. The two we were after turned out to be the kunoichi of the group. When my group arrived on the scene they were about to be raped, or they were getting ready to rape the kunoichi. Either way I ended up losing it. I used my chakra to help me move as fast as possible and quickly killed the enemy. But it took everything I had left to get back after the adrenaline wore off." Naruko finished, her tone conveying how truly tired she was.
Yūgao moved to stand behind her girlfriend and slowly started to massage her shoulders and neck, prompting a soft moan from the young blonde.
"Well why don't you go and take a shower then, while I finish up dinner. You can stay the night here instead of going back to your place." Yūgao said in a soft whispers as she continued her ministrations on Naruko's shoulders. The young girl could do nothing but nod her head slowly, though she didn't move at all to do as she was supposed to.
Yūgao giggled before removing her hands and walking towards the stove, "Go on, I'm sure dinner will be ready by the time you get out." The purple haired woman said with her back to the blonde. With a soft groan, Naruko hauled herself out of the chair and headed through the door that lead to her girlfriend's single bedroom and bathroom, leaving her sword by the door.
Yūgao hummed softly to herself, no tune really coming to mind so it kept switching rhythm over and over. She stirred the stew she was making when the shower turned on. Checking the stew she figured she had about twenty minutes left before it was done, perfect time for Naruko to finish her shower. So to pass the time she walked over to a cabinet by the front door and pulled out her sword cleaning kit.
Grabbing Naruko's blade she went about cleansing the blade and using a polish to keep it from rusting. As her hands went about the methodical movements she was used to after years of doing them, her mind was allowed to slip away and her thoughts allowed to turn towards her next problem.
Hyō.
He was a pain in the ass, even on his good days. Since he's been made ANBU Captain there have been serious inquires about his ability to take charge. He doesn't seemed to like to follow the rules at all, and normally ends up getting his squad members hurt. There have been numerous occasions of this.
However his record normally withstood those questions. He normally took the higher risk missions, missions that even most ANBU normally wouldn't want. Hyō seemed to like the danger of those missions, so much so that many have questioned whether he's actually trying to commit suicide via mission. He wouldn't be the first to make the attempt either if that was the case.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
Yūgao's mind quickly came back to the present, and her hands stilled on the blade she had been working over for the last fifteen minutes.
'Who would be visiting me at this time of the night?' The purple haired kunoichi asked herself. Most of her friends normally knew not to bother her this late, since she normally would be asleep due to her ANBU duties. Deciding it was better just to figure it out than to try to guess, Yūgao walked over to the door and opened it.
There stood two of her best friends, though not dressed as they normally were. Kurenai looked like hell while she wore a long sleeve shirt with what looked to be sweat pants, and Anko was wearing something close to it as well, wearing a short sleeve shirt instead of a long.
"Umm…" Yūgao started to say. She could tell something was up by the fact that they were dressed like that; well that and the two big bottles of Sake that Anko had in her hands also clued her in as well.
Anko didn't wait for any question, just side stepped the purple haired woman and walked into the apartment, followed by Kurenai.
"Sorry Yu-chan, we just need to really forget out mission. So we'd thought we'd all drink until we hate ourselves tomorrow!" Anko said, trying and failing to keep her usual childlike manner.
"Wait! I didn't say you could come in damnit!" Yūgao exclaimed, as she tried to cut the two women off, only to turn to see them already sitting at her table.
Yūgao hadn't told them about her relationship with Naruko, hell most people didn't know anything about the blonde girl. The Hokage had been very adamant about keeping everything pertaining to Naruko top secret until she came of proper age and well outside of anyone's possible grasp; he worried about the reaction of the civilians and he refused to allow his advisors to get the hands on her.
So Yūgao had kept their relationship a secret from everyone. While she trusted her friends she also knew them very well. Anko, while very loyal, also tended to drink a lot with her T&I buddies, which lead to her spilling other secrets on accident as well. Kurenai she knew wouldn't approve at all. She was a more prim and proper woman, and being with someone several years… okay closer to nine years your junior was not something she would like.
"Ah, come on Yu-chan! You rarely hang out with us anymore! You've been too caught up in your ANBU duties to hang with us at all!" Anko whined. Yūgao winced, it was true she had been rather busy the last couple of months.
Taking a deep breath Yūgao addressed the two women, "Look, I know that I've been busy, but seriously. Right now is not a good time!" Yūgao tried to stress.
Anko just snorted, and looked to be about to retort; however she wasn't able to as the door to Yūgao's bedroom opened up to reveal Naruko with her head covered by a towel. She was wearing similar clothing she had on earlier only her tank top was a hunter green now. Yūgao was mentally berating herself for not paying attention to whether or not the shower had still been going.
Naruko just stood there, the only movement was her hands that kept trying to towel dry her hair. She moved it so the towel was around the back of her neck, her bangs falling so they kept her eyes covered and moved towards the kitchen, completely ignoring the three women.
Yūgao looked at her two friends to gauge their reactions. Anko looked really confused, while Kurenai looked at Naruko with a look that almost looked like a realization.
Naruko walked over to a cabinet and pulled out four glasses and set them on the counter. Grabbing one, she walked over to the sink and filled it with water before draining it and refilling it again. This time she nursed the water, leaving the sounds of her drinking the only sound the broke the awkward silence.
However the silence didn't last long since Anko was around, "Who the fuck are you?!" Anko demanded, standing up from her chair with her hands planted on the table. Yūgao felt anger start to swell inside her had her friends rude comment towards her girlfriend. However before she could say a single word Naruko spoke up.
"It's not polite to ask someone's name without giving your own first." Naruko said in her usual emotionless tone, as she set her half drank glass down on the counter. Naruko's bangs obscured her eyes from everyone in the room as she stared at Anko.
Anko growled a little at the young girl, however she didn't make any attempt to move for her stance. Naruko just walked over to the table and grabbed her cleaned blade and returned it to its sheath.
While the girl moved slowly to place it by the door, everything resumed its awkward silence. After the sword was placed Naruko continued to move around the kitchen while everyone just stared at her. It wasn't until she had a bowl of the stew Yūgao was making that Anko spoke up again.
"Alright, fine! My name is Anko Mitarashi, what's yours?" Anko asked through her gritted teeth. Naruko swallowed a spoonful of the stew slowly before turning her head.
"Naruko Uzumaki, a pleasure." Naruko said keeping to her usual monotone voice she used with everyone but the Hokage and Yūgao, before she went back to eating. Yūgao just stood there for another moment before sighing and went and grabbed some of the stew for herself.
"Umm, Can I ask why you are here?" Kurenai asked looking at the blonde.
"I don't know can you?" Naruko inquired with a small tilt to her head as she raised another spoonful to her mouth. Kurenai's mouth fell open at slightly rude comment.
"Be nice." Yūgao said, walking right behind Naruko and tapping her on the head with her own spoon.
Naruko just shrugged and continued to eat.
"Okay, why are you here?" Kurenai asked more directly this time, in a much more forceful tone.
For a moment as Naruko continued to eat, she thought she was just going to ignore her, "I could ask you the same thing." Naruko said after swallowing what food was in her mouth. That comment made Kurenai grit her teeth in anger.
"I'm here to talk with a good friend! What's your excuse?" Kurenai forcefully asked finding it very hard to stop from yelling at the tiny girl. Yūgao had stopped moving and was glaring daggers at the red-eyed jōnin; however she wasn't being watched by anyone as Anko too had her eyes on Naruko.
Naruko just looked in Yūgao's way, a silent question passing between the two. After a moment of silence, which seemed to tax Kurenai of her all her patience, Yūgao sighed and nodded to the blonde.
"I'm here visiting my girlfriend." Naruko said simply and hopped up to get another bowl of food, completely ignoring the responses of the two guests.
Of course that would be assuming they had responses, when in fact both just froze. If it wasn't for the fact that Naruko could hear their shallow breathing and hearts rapidly beating, she would have thought that they had become statues.
Four bowl for Naruko and two for Yūgao later, and the two jōnin finally had a response.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Anko and Kurenai exclaimed loudly. Naruko just yawned in response as she pushed her bowl away.
"Why don't you go lay down Naru-chan." Yūgao said in a soft tone, standing up and grabbing the dishes. That had both other jōnin looking between their friend and Naruko. Naruko just nodded and lazily walked into the bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her.
When the click of the door was heard both jōnin turned to the ANBU Captain and began demanding answers.
"What the hell is going on? Is what she said true?"
"Yeah are you dating her?"
"How did you even meet?"
"You do realize you're a cradle robber right?"
"How old is she?!"
"How's the sex?"
"Is this because Hayate broke up with you?"
You can probably imagine which woman asked which question. Yūgao just stayed silent while they continued asking their questions without waiting for answers. As the questions kept coming, she moved to do the dishes. By the time she was finished they were silently waiting for their answers.
"Okay, Yes I am dating her. We've known each other for a long time now, but if you must know I met her in the hospital. As for if this is because Hayate broke up with me? That was a long time ago and I've been over it." Yūgao said without turning around.
"What about my questions?!" Anko exclaimed a little louder than what she meant to.
"Come up with less immature questions and I'll answer them." Yūgao said, not at all fazed by her friends line of questioning.
"Fine, does she know about your condition?" Anko asked. It had been the source of a lot of Yūgao's issues in the past. People could be very mean, and Yūgao had found that out early on.
"Yes she does, and she's told me she doesn't care." Yūgao said, as she finished drying the dishes and put them away. She knew her friends were only questioning it because they cared, but it still angered her a little that they were questioning her relationship with Naruko.
"How old is she?"
Yūgao turned around and looked at Kurenai. This, she knew, was going to be the hardest part. Kurenai was always too proper sometimes, especially with their line of work. However it was because of this unwavering strength she had to hold to her personal beliefs that had allowed for such a strong friendship between them.
The other problem was the fact that, despite her age, Naruko was ranked as high as all of them. However do to orders she had personally received, as well as the rest of the ANBU corps, she wasn't allowed to talk about that. Or any of her missions at the moment. Hell she wasn't even allowed to talk about any of her combat skills either.
So Yūgao chose what she could say without lying to her friends, "She's currently at the academy, graduating year." Yūgao said, choosing to give them only part of the information.
Yūgao could see the slight disgust building in her friends eyes before it was reined in, as well as any other emotions her face might have leaked. Leaning back in the chair Kurenai began to think on the situation at hand. That was the thing about Kurenai, didn't matter what the situation was in, she would always tried to look at it from an objective point of view.
Anko however was not going to think on it too much. She had seen the harsher side of their job, so age to her meant nothing. Anko had a different question however, "Is there something wrong with her face? Cause she kept it hidden the entire time she was here." Anko asked, curiosity getting the better of her.
Yūgao sighed, "Naruko doesn't like a lot of people knowing because they treat her differently when they find out, so if you see her again I suggest you don't. Truth be told, she's blind." Yūgao said in a slightly defeated tone. While she knew that her girlfriend was fine with being blind, as well as turned it into her own advantage against everyone, she also knew it was a great burden to live with. It made her life hard, even if she refused to show it.
Both of the women looked at her in surprise. Anko was the first to come out of it however, "She's blind and she's still going to the academy? The Hokage is okay with having a blind shinobi?"
Yūgao chuckled, 'Oh if they only knew that Naruko could see better than most of the shinobi core.' The ANBU captain thought smugly. "The Hokage actually was the one who helped enroll her. He taught her how to see without the use of her eyes." Yūgao said out loud.
Anko excepted this since, like most, she knew how smart the Hokage was, and if anyone had a way to see again it would be him. Kurenai had a curious look on her face, however kept her question on "How" to herself.
"Okay that's enough questions, I the early shift tomorrow, so we can have our talk on why you brought two giant bottles of booze with you tomorrow." Yūgao said while trying to usher them out.
As the two guests made their way to the door, Kurenai turned to look her friend in the eye before asking one last question, "One last one. Are you happy?" Kurenai asked studying her friends face and reactions for any sigh of lying.
"Yes." Yūgao stated simply, however her face showed more love then either Anko or Kurenai had seen before. Nodding at the answer, Kurenai grabbed Anko and took off with her.
Yūgao just breathed a sigh of relief as she locked the door. Quickly making her way to her bedroom, she took notice that Naruko was fast asleep in just her panties, her clothes folded neatly on the dresser. After she quickly stripped so she was only in her boy short panties, she snuggled up to Naruko's back and slowly followed her girlfriend into the land of dreams.
