Natsyourlord: Welcome back, everyone.
LordXwee: In honor of the tenth chapter, we're making a special Squad One battlescene chapter! Woo!
Natsyourlord: This should be interesting...
LordXwee: Oh - and as for the popularity contest, the only person ANYONE voted for was Kodomo!
Natsyourlord: What a surprise.
LordXwee: Tee hee... yup. Wait - no! The medic-nin got two votes! I GET TO DRAW SOMETHING!
Natsyourlord: Oh, God. Poor medic nin. And Makoto and Seki got tied for third. Sadly, they don't get a drawing by me, but on the bright side, there's no drawing from LordXwee, either.
LordXwee: -kick- But anyway, Kodomo's full-scale drawing, along with some of the chibis, are now on Natsyourlord's freewebs account. Theres a link on our profile and another on hers.
Natsyourlord: Be sure to tell me what you think...
LordXwee: But we've rambled enough. Time to get on with the story!!
Kodomo stared as the man stepped out from the shadows. In the light, he could see that the man had long black hair pulled into a ponytail and green eyes. He stooped to pick up the folder.
The spiky-haired boy held his breath. Who was this strange man and what was he doing with the folder? He probably wasn't supposed to be back here in the first place, and with a folder that full, with that kind of title, he probably wasn't doing recreational reading.
The man flipped open the folder and skimmed through the papers, a smile growing on his face. He suddenly snapped the package shut and turned to the bookshelf Kodomo was hiding behind. Kodomo flinched. It felt as if the man could actually see him.
"Come on out," he said. His voice was very low and dripped with malice. "I know you're there. You obviously don't have much chakra control."
Kodomo's eyes widened. So he had sensed him. That wasn't good. Quickly he tried to think of a way out, but ruled that option out immediately. The room was too small and bare to escape from without being grabbed by the man, and if he tried to fight him he would likely lose. His only choice was to come out of his hiding spot.
Swallowing hard, he stood and walked around the bookcase. The tall man looked down at him with an amused smirk. "Oh, so you're a leaf village shinobi," he said,seeing Kodomo's headband.
Kodomo simply stared back.
"Did you pick up this folder?" asked the man, waving it in front of Kodomo's face. The genin simply stared back at the man in defiance.
The man cocked an eyebrow. "What are you, mute? Say something."
Without answering, Kodomo continued to stare into those penetrating green eyes.
The man sighed. "Okay, okay, kid." He twisted his face into an extremely fake smile. "My name's Denrei. What's yours?" he asked.
Kodomo allowed his stare to become more fierce, but other than that did nothing. His heart was pounding in his chest, screaming at him that this was a dangerous man, this Denrei. However he wasn't quite sure how he was going to deal with this for much longer. Denrei's demeanor was quite intimidating.
"Fine. Don't say anything." Denrei turned to look out into the hallway, and Kodomo spotted a scar on his face that mixed a length of white hair in with the black.
"Okay. No one's coming," said the ponytailed man, turning back to Kodomo. "Now, what does this order say?" he reached into an a pocket invisible to Kodomo and pulled out a slip of paper. "If there are any incidences where a civilian gets involved in the retrieval of essential documents," Denrei read aloud, "eliminate the civilian and continue with the operation." He smiled. "And guess what, kid? You're a civilian, and you've gotten involved in the retrieval of essential documents." His hand began to glow with chakra. "I wonder what that means."
Kodomo bit his lip. He had one chance to escape, and he had to escape now. But he wouldn't be able to get an exploding tag without drawing attention to it, and that would probably lead to an even quicker death.
Wait. There was always that option.
As quickly as he could, he began to focus his chakra to his forehead, which was covered by his Konohagakure headband. The energy was flowing quickly... any second now...
Denrei plunged his hand towards Kodomo's chest. The brown-haired boy closed his eyes and willed his chakra to go faster...
Something struck him unbelievably hard in the chest at the same time as the exploding tag beneath his headband detonated. Kodomo got thrown back by both blasts, and he immediately got to his feet and began running. His headband fell off somewhere in the hallway, but he didn't notice. Red blood unsurprisingly began to seep into his eyes, obscuring his vision. Quickly he wiped his eyes and kept going. He could hear Denrei screaming in furious agony from behind him, and that only drove him to run even faster.
Stuffing his hand into his weapons pouch, he pulled out two custom-made paper bombs. He stuck them to the walls and kept running. From behind him he heard an explosion followed by another howl of pain, and knew that his exploding tags had done the job.
He finally arrived in the central area of the library. Much to his dismay, there was no one at the front desk, but he could hear voices wafting down from the second floor. Mustering up his strength, he screamed "MAKE GO BOOM!!!" and hoped that Seki would hear. But he didn't have time to wait for his sensei - he kept running as fast as he could, arms and legs pumping furiously. He had to get out of the library before-
A sudden pain erupted in his chest where Denrei had struck him, sapping away at his strength. Kodomo screamed and fell to his knees. From behind him, Denrei seized him by the collar and pulled him limply to his feet.
"You've caused me enough trouble, kid," growled the man, staring furiously into his face. "Now I'm gonna kill you once and for all."
Kodomo winced. So this was how he would die... at the mercy of a man in a strange cloak trying to cover up... something. He still didn't know.
Denrei's glare changed into another insane smile. "G'bye, kid!!!" he roared.
"Oi! What do you think you're doing with our teammate?"
Shocked to hear Makoto's voice, Kodomo's eyes flickered over to the entrance of the library. There stood both Makoto and Aoiro, heroically standing in fighting positions. Aoiro had pulled two scrolls and a wrist-worn bottle of ink from her weapons pouch, and Makoto was clutching a kunai in one hand and several shuriken in the other.
"Wow," said Aoiro. "That was dramatic." Makoto, Kodomo, and Denrei all stared at her for a second before turning back to the task at hand.
"Let Kodomo go," said Makoto, "And we won't have to hurt you."
Denrei snorted. "You? Hurt me? You're a freakin' Konoha genin!" You couldn't hurt me if my hands were tied and you had a chainsaw!" He shook Kodomo again, who cried out in pain. "This your teammate? Good. You'll get your first glimpse of death, then."
"Let him GO!" yelled Aoiro and Makoto at the same time, both charging at the black-haired man. He blinked, then suddenly disappeared, taking Kodomo with him.
"What - where'd he go?" exclaimed Aoiro. Makoto and Aoiro looked around but Denrei wasn't anywhere in sight.
"Come on, he's probably still in the library! Split up!" Makoto commanded.
Aoiro nodded and sprinted into the east wing of the library, eyes widening at the obvious damage done. She knew Kodomo was good with exploding tags, but... wow. A whole wall was crumbling. She made a mental note to claim to know nothing if she was commanded to pay back the library.
She continued in her pursuit, finally stopping at the doorway of a small room that had clearly suffered catestrophic damage - quite recently, by the looks of it. The blue-haired girl stooped to the ground, where a soot-coated Konoha hitai-ate lay. Next to it rested an overstuffed folder, some of the contents splayed across the floor. She picked up the folder, which was labeled A Compilation of Terrorist Organizations a Threat to Shinobi Villages by Chou Kinomi.
"Ereshkigal..." Aoiro mumbled, brushing the ash off the front. She opened the folder and flipped to the most recent-looking page. Only a few sentences were scrawled on it:
March 27th - today I have found a documentation in Sunagakure's library. It tells of a daughter of the infamous Sabaku no Sasori, along with an exiled Jounin of the Sunagakure shinobi ranks. Apparently the two of them were not involved romantically, but rather were drafted into an unknown organization. Both left without explanation, and I can only assume that they were up to no good. The possibility still remains that their destination was that of the organization I have been researching, and if this is the case, they are far more powerful than I imagined.
March 30th - A new discovery I have found here in the Sunagakure library - a terrorist group by the name of Ereshkigal. It seems that this group was founded by Akatsuki, its sole purpose to replace the Akatsuki in the unlikely event that they ever were exterminated. However, Ereshkigal eventually rebelled, and separated from Akatsuki. They had recruited only a few members, but were powerful enough to make themselves disappear completely. Could this be where Sasori's daughter and the exile Jounin have gone - to join these Ereshkigal people? I don't know for certain. However, in a few days the Rokudaime is being assigned his position, and my services are required. This may be the last time I ever write in this folder, and I hope that whomever may read these words puts my workings to good use.
Wide eyed, Aoiro slowly closed the folder. So Ereshkigal were subordinates of Akatsuki? The concept made her go numb. If that was true, which it probably was, then she, Makoto, and Kodomo would definitely die. Akatsuki had been immensely powerful, and from Seki's stories, so was the woman in the black and silver cloak he'd fought. Three genin would be little more than pests to a shinobi of that caliber.
LordXwee: Mwahaha. We are evil.
Natsyourlord: You did NO WORK.
LordXwee: Not true! I wrote one sentence!
Natsyourlord: Yeah. ONE SENTENCE.
LordXwee: That's why we cut this chapter short - it was mostly just worked on by Natsyourlord, who was super busy and couldn't work that much. Plus my internet is HORRIBLE.
Natsyourlord: I swear to god, Xwee, I'm going to eat you.
LordXwee: You wouldn't. Bodily fluids would spew from your orfices. Such as snot. And saliva. And whatever that liquid in your eyes is called.
Natsyourlord: That stuff spews from orfices anyway! Saliva from the mouth, snot from the nose, liquidy-stuff from the eyes.
LordXwee: ...BE THAT WAY, THEN!!!
Natsyourlord: Wow, we're disgusting.
LordXwee: Yup. MAKE GO BOOM!
-Natsyourlord and LordXwee