"They left me up there on the roof for three hours in the freezing rain before bothering to tell me that the mission had been scrubbed," Otonashi finished his story laughing at the memory.
Naruto smiled and looked down at his empty ramenbowl. He had been asked to talk to Otonashi to see if he was acting differently but, they had spent most of the morning together and he seemed normal. Granted at first it had been a bit uncomfortable. The last time the two of them talked, Otonashi had asked him to defect and then warned him that his village might try to kill him. They had handled that particularly awkward moment in their past in a reasonable and very adult manner. Both pretended it never happened
For the most part they just caught up with each other, Otonashi had told him about some of his clients and he in turn told him about Jiraiya and some of their misadventures. Neither of them had said anything really important at least Naruto didn't think so. "Will I guess I should get going and get some training in," he said standing up from the table.
"Have fun, I'm stuck in this apartment until I'm needed again." Otonashi picked up both of their bowls and headed to the small kitchen that had come with the apartment. "Naruto," he called over his shoulder as he was about to leave. "When you report to the Hokage would you mind telling her that I'm supposed to aid your village in it defense as a gesture of good faith? I was supposed to tell her that during our meeting but, frankly she scares me." He laughed to himself, "I'm not a very good ambassador, am I?"
Naruto froze ashamed he'd been caught spying on his friend and embarrassed that it had been that easy. "Um, how did you know?"
"This close to an attack I doubt your village would let you take a morning off to catch up with an old friend. My village would have done the same thing," he said turning away from him.
"Sorry," Naruto said dejectedly.
"It's no big deal. Just give that message to the Hokage okay."
Naruto nodded before beating a hasty retreat. He barely notice the guard stationed outside of the door as he turned to rush down the staircase only to come up short by a peculiar couple in the stairwell. The tall figure was familiar with his mask and book. Kakashi his sensei and leader of his team had not changed at all since the last time he had seen him. The figure next to him was unfamiliar but, at the same time he had the feeling that he should know him. Before he could ask what they were doing a bug that he had not noticed flew from his belt and landed on the unknown persons' outstretched hand before climbing up his sleeve.
"Shino," he questioned his brain unable to keep up with this string of odd events.
"Naruto it has not been that long since we last saw each other you should try harder to remember your comrades."
Yeah that was definitely Shino he thought before turning his attention to Kakashi who of the two would probably be less cryptic. "What are you doing here?"
Kakashi put away his book and looked at his student "Now don't get angry Naruto."
"Why are you here?" Naruto asked getting angry. He was starting to have a suspicion and didn't like it.
"Voice stress analysis," Shino supplied causing Naruto to blink at the unfamiliar words.
"Shino why don't you report back and I'll talk to Naruto."
Shino seemed to hesitate and said to Naruto, "I would like to catch up with you later." Then turned and left.
"We were eavesdropping in on your conversation," Kakashi held up a hand to forestall a righteous rant. "We only did this to strengthen Otonashi credentials. When somebody from his village comes offering information there are those who are skeptical and some who would dismiss it out of hand."
"Why?"
Kakashi paused collecting his thoughts. "You were probably only three or four when we were at war with Kumogakure. It was a short war but it was hard fought. They attacked us while we were allies but, that's not unusual. They also attacked us during negotiations and tried to kidnap one of the Hyuga"
"I know about that," Naruto grinned as Kakashi seemed surprised.
"Well after Kumogakure discovered the deception the Raikage almost restarted the war but he died in a tragic training accident when he fell on his own kenai." Kakashi's single eye curved up in a smile, "at least that's the official story. Unofficially there was a coup and another faction took power within the village. We know there are some in that village that would still like to see us destroyed so many are very wary about your friend."
"Otonashi doesn't want to attack the village."
"Yes, we now have undeniable evidence that Otonashi believes everything he has told us and you helped. You see when somebody is lying you can tell by the voice if you know what you're looking for. Unfortunately, it takes a long time especially when the person is prepared. You're conversation was the best opportunity we had."
"You should've told me you were going to do that," Naruto shouted taking a step forward.
Kakashi made a pleading motion, "it wasn't my call but, everything did turn out all right in the end."
Naruto considered that for a minute and decided it still wasn't all right and he was going to let his sensei know that.
Genma dismissed his team late in the afternoon. Normally, the three of them would have simply gone their separate ways but today was different. Even Takeo who initially didn't want anything to do with the bet that Akeno had made now was excited about the upcoming fight. Hanabi was less interested. Her stomach was upset and she realized this was what it was like to be anxious. Life in the Hyuga household was very structured with lots of rules and this was the first time she was consciously disobeying one. Still, it was worth it.
The three of them had grabbed a quick cup of tea before heading over to an empty training field. It hadn't been a tea she was used to and the conversation was sparse but it was better than her home. At home she could easily go through the day without talking to anyone besides her parents. In theory she could talk to branch members but they were either much older than herself or they were much younger.
"Here they come," Takeo said. "You know you can still back out of this Hanabi if you want to."
"No she can't. Besides it will be a walk in the park for her as long as she can use her Byakugan."
Hanabi head snapped around to look at her teammate, "I thought you said this was going to be hand-to-hand?"
"It is but you can use defensive Jutsu. That's how they defeated me. He created all this mist and I couldn't see anything."
Akeno comment confused Hanabi since what he was saying now was very different then what he had said earlier. Before she could ask for an explanation Hoshiko spoke up from the approaching trio.
"You brought the Princess, it won't make any difference," she said smirking.
Hanabi's jaw clenched at the old nickname. Hoshiko's hatred towards her stemmed from the fact that she had taken her place at the top of the class. Why this would upset her so much was beyond Hanabi's comprehension but, the nickname she had given her caught on among the other students. Apparently she hadn't changed much since graduation. In fact the only thing that was different about her was her clothes. They had gotten considerably shorter showing even more of the light scarring that covered her arms and legs.
"Hum, I think we need to call this off." Kado the so-called lost Uchiha spoke up glancing over at his teammates nervously. Despite his pedigree Hanabi did not think that he had distinguished himself in any particular way at the Academy.
"Relax," Hoshiko snapped. "Ranmaru is fine with it, right." She added bringing out a wad of bills.
Ranmaru shrugged and stepped forward apparently he was the one fighting from their team. She struggled to remember something about him. He had been strong academically and had a strong defense but he never seemed to be able to take advantage of openings. At least that's what she could remember from the handful of times she had seen him spar someone else at the Academy.
"Same rules as before no weapons, no offense Jutsu and no grappling," Akeno said from behind her.
Something was telling Hanabi to step away. This was very different than what she had been initially told but, she was sure Akeno wouldn't forgive her if she backed out now. Instead she took several steps forward and tried to ignore her instincts. Everybody else fell back leaving her and Ranmaru alone in the field.
"Whenever the princess is ready," Hoshiko shouted from the edge of the field.
Hanabi felt a flash of anger and she dropped into a defensive stance. Ranmaru on the other end of the field just smiled at her not bothering to move. He seemed to be inviting an attack so she stood her ground wanting him to go on the offensive.
The late day sun pounded down on them ruthlessly. Seconds stretched into minutes and neither moved. Suddenly he quickly made several hand signs and a dense mist arose out of no where. For a moment she was impressed because despite the heat there was little humidity in the air and no water in the area. However, the Hidden Mist Technique which she guessed he was using was useless against the Byakugan.
Her world shrank to thirty meters as people were reduced to their mere chakra circulatory system. She could feel the increase in blood flow as a slight throbbing around her eyes it was not a wholly unpleasant sensation. Ranmaru had hardly moved from his place and she was beginning to wonder what he was up too. Suddenly she felt as if someone was standing behind her but before she could react, her world went black and she fell to the ground.
The first sensation that came back to Hanabi was literally a pain in her neck closely followed by a headache. Opening her eyes she noticed that the sky was changing colors. Sitting up she rubbed her neck and looked from side to side only to discover that she was alone.
"You're awake. I was just about to take you to the hospital."
Hanabi spun around on her knees to see who had spoken. The voice belonged to a young woman who was wearing a trench coat and little else. Casually she finished the dango she was eating and said, "Fighting for money. I wonder what your father would think."
She felt her face flush with shame and she swallowed her pride. The thought of what her father would say to her and worst what he would think of her was too much. "Please don't tell him."
"Follow with your eyes," the woman moved the empty dango stick in a slow circle as Hanabi followed it with her eyes. "You're fine." The woman looked down at her skeptically. "I'll tell you what you run a few laps around Konoha and I will keep this little incident to myself, okay?"
Hanabi nodded which caused a slight wave of nausea to come over her. She stood ready to fulfill her part of the agreement when a thought occurred to her. "Where are my teammates?"
"Oh, they're already running," the woman answered examining the empty stick as if expecting more dango to magically appear on it.
She nodded grateful that they just hadn't left her for no reason and wondered if she could catch up with them. Starting at a slow jog she felt something fly passed her ear. The empty dango stick embedded itself a meter in front of her causing her to freeze. The woman shouted. "I said run!"
As Hanabi disappeared over the horizon Anko pondered the wad of money she had confiscated from her three students. It was hardly enough to cover a month's worth of dango but she couldn't let them keep it. She didn't always follow the rules either but, they had all put one of their teammates in danger and that she wouldn't tolerate.
Hopefully the girl would keep her mouth shut to keep herself out of trouble. However, if she ran and told her father what had happened there could be trouble in Ranmaru's future. On the bright side she mused they now knew that Ranmaru could hide his presence even from the Byakugan. Still, what had he been thinking knocking her out like that?
She briefly amused herself with what she would do to punish her students. They were on a mission right now. That was why she had to track them down originally even before handing in her own report from her last assassination mission. The thought of the report she still had to write and the mission that had been more frustrating than difficult darkened her mood further. Then she thought about the upcoming attack and her mood dramatically improved. This could lead to another chance to kill her former teacher and she would have a few days to let her imagination run wild on her young student's punishment.
"There's another one in that bar. The bomb is in the storage room on the floor covered by a bunch of boxes."
Kado Uchiha noted the building on the map that was surreptitiously strapped to his arm while his third teammate wrote down the location of the tag in a similar manner. The three of them had been wandering the streets of Konoha for the last several hours on a mission to find exploding
tags. So far they had found four in separate locations. Casually he noticed that all the tags were placed where they would start fires when they exploded. Granted alcohol wasn't a great accelerant but it would probably take out the building.
The trio ducked into a nearby alley so he could reposition the map on his arm. Glancing up at the star speckled sky he made a suggestion. "I think we should call it a night."
"What are you insane? There are," she cut herself off and looked towards the crowded street. Their mission was supposed to be a secret. That was why the Hokage had assigned Ranmaru to sweep the village for exploding tags. He was a lot more subtle than a Hyuga whose veins became pronounced when activating their Byakugan.
Hoshiko glared at him but she had lost most of her edge that had scared him when they were younger. There were days now that Kado could almost imagine her as a friend. "We can't call it a night," she said firmly.
Ranmaru broke the stalemate, "it's getting late and were starting to stand out. There aren't too many people our age out this late at night."
"Fine but give me the map and I'll hand it in. I want to see both of you here tomorrow by six so we can finish our sweep." With that she yanked the map off his arm and took to the rooftops.
"She's in a bad mood," he commented.
"Sensei is angry with us and that's upsetting her."
Kado hadn't been expecting a response from his shortest teammate but, now that he brought up the subject. "Why'd you go through with the fight when you saw that you were going to fight a Hyuga?"
Ranmaru shrugged, "I'm not supposed to activate my eyes where a Hyuga can see. There was mist blocking her view."
"I don't think that's what they meant," Kado said shaking his head. Ranmaru's kekkei genkai was somewhat of an open secret. Only about ten people knew about it and only a handful of them knew its full extent. In fact they were still finding things out about it. For example they had only found out recently that he could not only conceal his presence from other highly trained ninja but he could also conceal the presence of others.
It was an interesting Dojutsu which was why nobody wanted the Hyuga to know about it. He could only guess at the type of pressure they could put on Ranmaru. A brief look through some of his own clan's records showed him how nasty they could get and Ranmaru wasn't prepared for that.
The only reason he was allowed in on the secret was the simple fact that all the remaining Uchiha were male. Not that Sasuke would care even if there was some way he could take advantage of it.
"See you tomorrow," Ranmaru said turning and waving over his shoulder.
"Yeah, see you." He watched the lavender hair boy leave before sighing. The one good thing about this late day mission was that it gave him an excuse to avoid Sasuke. He was pretty sure that Sasuke wouldn't be too upset with him for helping Ino to win one match against him. Then again he could be moody.
Trudging home he had the vague hope that he could get to his room before being stopped and questioned by Sasuke. A smirk tugged at his lips, when he had left Kemurigakure to live with his only remaining relative he had expected someone very different than Sasuke. The thought of his hometown darkened his mood. Kemurigakure had been destroyed not long after he had left by samurai using weapons that weren't supposed to exist. The thought of his dead friends and acquaintances was painful enough but, what really bothered him was the thought of the untended grave of his mother. He had never known her but he still felt a connection to her more so than to the countless dead Uchiha one of which was his father.
He hardly noticed entering the district he called home and he had no idea he was being watched until the dark figure spoke. "You're back late."
Kado spun around on his heel looking for Sasuke. It took him a second to find the black on black figure. He was casually leaning against a sloped roof a book in hand although it was too dark to be reading outside.
He forced a smile, "Sasuke so good to see you. I have an early mission tomorrow so I'm off to bed."
"Not so fast." Sasuke leapt down in front of him. "I had a match with Ino this morning. Like always I had my Sharingan activated and for a moment I could not predict her movements. Care to explain?"
"Not really," stepping around him he felt a hand grab his shoulder holding him back.
"Who's idea was it," it wasn't a question but a command.
Shrugging off his hand Kado turned to face him. "Listen when you went off to take your exam she stopped by and we got to talking about your training."
"You told her about the Shadow Step?" Sasuke said referring to the training Kado and his Sensei helped him with. It could confuse the Sharingan ability to predict movement which was what had happen to Sasuke during the fight.
"Sort of but, I just helped her with the one move and it was completely her idea," Sasuke had an unusual expression on his face. Kado realized that Sasuke was pleased a rare event and suddenly everything clicked. "You like her!"
"Don't be stupid," Sasuke said turning away from him.
Kado knew he was kicking a sleeping dog but it wasn't everyday he had something like this on Sasuke. "Think of your children combining the Sharingan with the Yamanaka family's special Jutsu, it would certainly be interesting."
"That's enough."
"And she has childbearing hips. You always say you want to rebuild the clan..."
Sasuke rounded on him trying to suppress a smile, "you know I've been thinking about that."
Kado blinked Sasuke was only fifteen years old and barely at that. There was no way he could be seriously considering marriage at his age, "but you're too young."
"Not for me for you. As the clan head its one of my duties to arrange marriages. I've been thinking about Hoshiko for you. I'm sure if I offer her enough money and control of your household she will agree."
Kado blinked at Sasuke's retreating back before running to catch up with him. "Hey, you're kidding right? You do know she's a psycho."
