M-chan: Finally, the next chapter, for your reading pleasure.
"..."- Talking
'...'- Thinking
Kyubi talking to Konoko
Konoko talking to Kyubi
Chapter 8
It was the day after I had asked Kakashi for a week off, and I'll be damned if I don't use it properly. Of course, with the people accompanying be, it always turns out to be a little out of control. I brushed a few stray locks out of my eyes as I scanned our group of 5. Great we were missing one person. What else wrong could happen now?
"Come on, Kono-chan, we're going to be late."
"Call me that again and I'll kill you Hikaru."
The redheaded chunin smirked, shaking her head. "Never. You'll always be Kono-chan."
I pouted slightly at that. "Yeah, well, I don't particularly like it."
A voice boomed from behind me and I groaned. "Kono-chan, huh?"
"You are not calling me Kono-chan, Akira."
Hands suddenly picked me up and I was thrown over Akira's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Put me down!"
"No."
I sighed into his back. "I hate you, you know."
"Of course you do, Kono-chan."
I heard the patronizing tone of Akira's voice and growled, blond hair falling into my eyes. I then caught sight of the brown-haired jounin in our group, Ryuzaki Yue. I held out to him, yelling. "Oi, Ryu-kun! Make this bastard put me down."
Yue glanced at the back of Akira's head, then at me, before grabbing my wrist and pulling to wrench me out of Akira's grasp. Unfortunately, Akira caught hold of the hem of my pants and so it ended with me clinging to Yue while Akira held my pants and one of my shoes.
I sighed before turning my head to look at the evil stealer of clothes. "Akira, give me back my pants. And my shoe."
Akira shook his head, grinning as he walked away with the articles. "Come and get them."
"Akira! Akira, get back here! Aki—uh…Ryu-kun?" I paused in my yells at the fool with my pants as my attention turned to Yue. The silent joining had picked me off my feet to carry me, bridal style. I blinked at him, not quite understanding what he was doing. "Ne, Ryu-kun, what are you doing?"
"…I'll carry you there…"
The voice was soft, deep, silky in tone, and coming from Yue. Which was surprising in and of itself—Yue rarely ever talked. Everyone blinked rapidly, staring at the usually silent man, before I smiled. "Thank you, Ryu-kun, but showing up without pants on would be disrespectful to Kyo-sensei."
Hikaru smacked Akira. "You hear that, Aki-chan? Now give Kono-chan back her pants before Yuu-chan hurts you. And Kyo-sensei punishes you."
Akira glared at Hikaru, massaging where she had hit him. "Why do you give people such idiotic nicknames, Hikaru?"
"What does that have to do with returning Kono-chan's pants and shoe?"
"Nothing."
Before Hikaru could grab him, Akira dashed off a head of us with an insane grin on his face, and I growled. "You lazy, god-forsaken, pants-stealing, mud-eating bastard! Get back here right now!"
"NO!"
Akira turned his head to stick his tongue out at me and didn't notice the shadow dropping down in front of him until he was thrown backwards, at Sen's feet. The Hyuga sighed, picking up and handing me my stolen clothes. As I pulled on my pants, the shadow that had dropped down stepped forward into the light and waved, smiling.
"Ohayo minna."
"…Mizuki-san…"
Akira groaned from the ground. "You're late, you know, Mizuki."
Sasuke huffed, bored, as he watched the group, finally free of Sakura clinging to him. They had arrived at a village of Konoha no Kuni—one closest to the newly formed Sound Country—an hour ago. Sakura was off gathering supplies and information from the villagers at his 'request' while he tracked the group. In so much as he could tell, the group was compose if shinobi Akira, Yue, Mizuki, Hikaru, Hyuga Sen and their target; Yohiro Konoko.
As he watched the group's antics, he couldn't help but think how idiotic and absolutely useless they all were. Was this all one needed to become a chunin—or even a jounin for that matter? Why was he even doing this? It was even more useless that these people. Why were there so many people with Yohiro-san anyway?!
Sasuke frowned as the group stopped. There merely stood there, as if waiting for some sort of signal. Sasuke's frown deepened. It made no sense: Yohiro was on vacation so why not go to the beach or something, not a small town no one's heard of. It wasn't even much of a town anyway. There was nothing here.
"Everyone's here right? No one else that was invited that might be coming?"
Sasuke could vaguely see Yohiro glanced at the Hyuga of the group before she nodded to Mizuki. "Yeah, everyone's here. And we're not all like you Mizuki."
The man arched an eyebrow. "Then we shouldn't keep him waiting any longer."
He? Who was this 'he'? The Uchiha's eyes narrowed slightly at the words, then narrowed further when a gate swung open, the hinges squeaking as it did. The groups filed through silently, the mood about them abruptly changing to a much more sombre one. Once they had all disappeared from view did Sasuke prowl forward to follow. He peeked into the guarded area and the dark eyes widened in surprise.
A cemetery. Filled with the twittering of birds darting between trees, but a cemetery none the less. A cemetery was why Yohiro-san had decided to take a 'vacation'. A cemetery, where she and her…friends decided to spend their week off? What were they, insane? They must be. They had to be. Sasuke had half a mind to turn around and leave, disgusted. But leaving the cemetery meant going back, and that meant having Sakura hang around and annoy him with her idiotic single-mindedness.
So he stayed, creeping forward carefully and hiding behind gravestones when he needed to. He caught sighed of the group again, as a while after peering around a manoloseum. They stood in a kind of disjointed rectangle, with one of the shorter sides missing. Sasuke considered edging closer to hear what they said but there were no more above group crypts or overly ornate tombstones to hide behind with getting an obstructed view.
"It's rude to spy on people, Uchiha Sasuke-san."
Sasuke turned, startled, to see a young, white-haired child. He scowled at the sight, annoyed that he hadn't picked up on the girl's presence. "Go away. I have business to attend to."
Sasuke turned his back on the girl to peek out once more. The girl didn't reply at first and he assume she had left him be.
"I see that your brother was right about you, Uchiha Sasuke-san."
The words froze Sasuke for a moment before awakening the rage that seethed inside of him. "…You…you know my brother?"
The girl tilted her head, her face ever solemn. "That I do."
Sasuke turned on her and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Tell me. Tell me where he is."
"With your power? You'd die instantly."
Sasuke growled, eyes narrowing. "How dare you—!"
"How dare I what? You know the difference in power between yourself and Yohiro Konoko-san. How can you say you're ready to take on your brother when you cannot defeat someone like her?"
"And what can you tell me?"
"Very little, but it is enough."
Sasuke frowned as he let go of the child. "Well?"
The girl shook her head. "I cannot tell you now. I have wasted much time here with you. I must return to my domain before it is discovered that I am missing."
"Domain? You're a child."
The girl looked up at him dispassionately. "I am youkai. My appearance does not reflect who I truly am. I must go, as I said before. But if you insist on knowing about your brother's whereabouts, I suggest spying on Yohiro Konoko-san more than you already are—though at this moment you are incapable of doing so properly. She knows much more than she lets on. I believe that your brother and many other people have their eyes on her."
Sasuke frowned, thinking over the child's words carefully and with a high dose of doubt. "…Youkai…"
"Of course. I will come again to speak with you, Uchiha Sasuke-san." The girl turned away, taking small steps towards the edge of the crypt before she turned her head back for a moment. "If you wish it, approach a man known as Orochimaru. Tell him Yume-sama sent you. He will explain why Yohiro-san attracts attention so."
The child's face seemed to darken with the only smile Sasuke had seen on her face. "That is, if you don't mind selling your future to him for information and power."
naruto-fanfic: I'm glad you like it. -
korrd: Here's the update. And I don't think I'll be making it that pairing. I'm just not sure what the pairing will finally be.
Hikagi: Who knows? A lot of things can happen between now and then. :D
bloodykazekitsune: Well, here's more for you to read! Hope you like it.
megumi-blessing: Um…this isn't a sasunaru fic. At least, not in the sense that they're going to be paired together. But I'm glad you think it's cute. Anyway, here's an update.
Dragon Man 180: More about the pair has been revealed! Hope ya like it.
ZeroM: Updated! And I'm glad you think it's a great story.
Nekomata: Thanks! Now, tell me what you think of this fic!
sanity-san: Updated!
Goldensage1: h?
Shinagami Darkness05: The pairing? Who knows. But isn't not going to be naru/sasu.
M-chan: Sorry for taking so long! But here's the next chapter. Review please!!!
