Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but Shizuka is my own character.
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Chapter ten: The Phoenix scroll
"You called, Lady Tsunade?" Shizuka mumbled as she walked into the Hokage's office. She noted in her head how Sasuke was the only other person there. "Yes. I've got a mission for you two." The fifth Hokage said. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, while Shizuka's face soured. "Just us? Where's Naruto? I know that Kakashi-sensei's on a mission but…" Tsunade sighed. "Naruto left with Jiraiya for a few days for training early this morning. It's just you two. I know your teamwork is a bit lacking, but Shizuka this is your area of expertise and Sasuke was the only one available that could go with you."
"My area of expertise? And why is Sasuke the only one who could come with me?" She asked. "I thought about sending you with one of the Chunin available but many of them don't know about your wings and you're going to need them. Your mission is a C-rank to the Land of Birds." Lady Tsunade finished. "So you called for me to go with Shizuka because I already know about her wings? Can't she go by herself?" Sasuke finally cut in with an emotionless look on his face as usual. "No. You're going with her and you two will co-operate weather you like it or not." Tsunade told them. "Here's your map and a bit more information on your mission. You leave in an hour, now get going."
A day and a half later, when they reached the small village that had requested their help in the Land of Birds, Shizuka's through felt dry and sore from not being used. Her and Sasuke had barely spoken. Only when they needed to decide who would take first watch at night, not that that was even a big deal considering there was only two of them. The villagers greeted the two ninja with pure happiness. A few were already thanking them, though they hadn't done anything yet. One of them told them that the leader of the village had been the one to send for them and where he would be. Shizuka thanked him and continued on.
"Sasuke…" She whispered. He turned his head. She nodded toward the biggest house in the village where the leader lived. He followed her silently. She looked down. He'd been like this the whole way here, completely silent.
Normally, Sasuke would at least answer her with "hn." Or something, but there was no reaction other then turning his head now. His eyes seemed to be colder. There was obviously something on his mind, but Shizuka just couldn't think of a way to get him to talk about it without bugging him too much.
She sighed, leaving her little inner battle for later and knocked on the door. The leader welcomed them with a smile. He lead them to a room which was obviously his office to tell them the details of their mission. A beautiful grand eagle stood proudly on the window sill with a letter strapped to one foot and pale orange ribbon tied to the other, claiming that he was a messenger. Shizuka smiled fondly and rushed over to the large bird. The eagle could have easily been almost double Kura's size but moved with the same grace. "Mi-Milady Kurotori! Welcome." He said, bowing his beak low. Shizuka smiled and place a hand on his head. "Thank you, now please stand on back up. Let's get that package of your leg shall we? It can't be very comfortable." She laughed. She untied the letter gently and lifted it from his foot. "Here this is yours I believe, Takeo-san." She said, handing the letter over to the village leader. The man nodded and took the letter. He sat down at his desk, and gestured for them to sit in the two chairs opposite him. "I must ask, before we speak about the mission. Does your village have any link to Kumogakure?" She asked. "Why, might I ask? It doesn't seem to have anything to do with this." Takeo said. "Actually it has to do with everything." She answered simply. He shook his head. "No, we refused to have any contact with the Raikage since the massacre of the Kurotori clan." Shizuka smiled. "Good, it's nice to know that there are still some who would lay still with my clan and oppose that village as we did. I am Kurotori Shizuka, and this is my teammate Uchiha Sasuke."
Takeo looked surprised. "Hm… Kurotori and Uchiha on one team, that's interesting." He mumbled. "And neither of us can even begin to comprehend what Lady Hokage was thinking. We don't get along very well." Shizuka laughed. Sasuke cleared his throat. "The mission?" He grumbled. "Right, of course."
"Your mission is to retrieve a sacred scroll that was stolen from the shrine on the northern most mountain just behind us. It's a scroll that has been passed down threw generations of the monks in the temple there and is very valuable. It was stolen late last night by a band of thieves. There known to have at least one Chunin level rogue-ninja in there group so I'd advise caution, should you have to confront them. Reports on the borders have told us that they haven't yet left the area but most likely will by nightfall, so the faster you find them the better. Please if you do not have to fight them, then don't. They may have a Jounin among them." Takeo explained. Shizuka scoffed. "Jounin-shmounin. It's not a big deal what rank they are." Sasuke nodded, for once agreeing with her. Takeo looked uneasy at the idea of a couple of young Genins taking down a Jounin. "Alright. If you want any more information on the thugs, then the head monk at the temple may know more."
The two Genin nodded and left. The simultaneously decided that they wanted to speak with the head monk first. Sasuke continued to walk beside her without a word. Shizuka felt like she should say something, anything to break the silence. It was awkward. She sighed, and stopped walking half-way up the stairs that led to the temple. Sasuke took a couple steps ahead before stopping to look down at her. He still didn't say a word, not even to ask why she had stopped. "Sasuke… Is there something wrong? You're talking even less then usual." She mumbled. His blank obsidian eyes showed no emotion. It shocked her when he did not deny that something was wrong. His mouth open on a fraction as he muttered one word before turning and continuing up the stairs. "Tomorrow."
She paused. To them today, tomorrow held not the same meaning as it held to other. It did not mean that he would tell her tomorrow. It was an explanation in itself. It hit her like a rock. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was the anniversary of the Uchiha massacre. She couldn't believe that she'd forgotten.
Shizuka dragged her way back to Sasuke's side. She grabbed his hand to get him to stop. He didn't even try to shake her off as she held his hand. "I know that you don't want my pity, but I'm sorry anyways." And with that she let go and kept walking, sad for having picked up the subject in the first place. Sasuke didn't say a word, and the subject was left alone.
The head monk at the temple met with the pair of Shinobi outside. He welcomed them and explained more in detail. "The scroll that you are here to find is known as the Phoenix scroll. It allows us to speak with the guarding spirit of this area, so you can understand just how important this mission is to those who live here. The spirit decides what happens to this area so well you can imagine. The men who stole it are believe to be mostly samurai, but there have been rumors that a few Chunin, maybe even a Jounin level ninja are leading them. Take caution should you have to face them. It would be preferable to avoid fighting, I understand that both of you two have fire chakra, am I right? It would be sad to all of us should any trees be burned down."
Shizuka nodded. "Should we even need to fight, we would attempt to hold back the use of Katon jutsu. But how did you know that we both use Fire-style?" He laughed. "They send two Sharingan users into my midst and expect me not to know that they like to play with fire." Shizuka stiffened and covered her left eye. She had not used her Byaringan, not even turned it on to give him a hint that she had it. "H-how did you know?" The monk chuckled. "You look much like your mother, Lady Kurotori." And without a better explanation he turned and walked back into the temple.
Shizuka and Sasuke stood there for a moment in silence. "We should start looking for the scroll." Sasuke said turning to leave. "No need to waste our energy looking ourselves." Shizuka told him. Her wings spread gently behind her as she bent down to the ground. She bit her thumb just enough to draw blood and brought her hand down to the ground. After drawing a quick symbol on the rough ground, which Sasuke didn't see, she slammed her hand onto it and said. "Summoning jutsu."
In the time it took him to blink she was standing up with her wings spread. On her shoulder sat a raven the size of an eagle. It pure black feathers were smooth reflecting a whole rainbow of colors in the sun. On the branches of the tree just in front stood another seven ravens, some normal size some a bit big but not nearly as much as there leader. For a second Sasuke took a step back and emotion danced across his face. Shizuka could summon ravens, just like his bastard of a brother Itachi.
Shizuka looked back towards the group of raven summons in the tree before her, and nodded. She'd explained to them what they must do. They were to find the scroll and report back immediately. Once they found it Sasuke and her could go and get it back. The leader let out a great croak and took off into the skies. His team followed shortly after. They did one circle above her head before splitting up to find the scroll.
Shizuka turned back to Sasuke slowly, folding her wings back gently, hiding them away again. Sasuke's expression shocked her, causing her to take a step back. He was glaring. It wasn't a death glare or anything, but more like a confused shocked glare. It didn't take long for her to piece it together. Ravens, Itachi, ravens… Itachi… Her. It was a spinning cycle in her head. Itachi was one of the last people who could summon ravens too. He was the only one outside of her clan who could, the only other had been the man he killed for the Mangekyou Sharingan, Shisui Uchiha. She knew that, her father had been the guardian of the ravens contract, but she'd forgotten.
She looked down at the ground not wanting to face his eyes, and lied. "Itachi stole the contract from my clan when I was young, we got it back but only after he'd already made an agreement with the ravens."
Sasuke nodded. "What now?" He mumbled. "We wait. It won't be too long." Shizuka said sitting down on the top step of the temple.
It was only about twenty minutes later that one of her ravens came back. Shizuka and Sasuke set out just as the sun began to fall in the sky. It took them less then ten minutes to find the thieves. They were sitting around the camp that they'd obviously just finished putting up, dragging out crates of sake and sitting around a fire. With a quick look Shizuka deducted that all the ones out of the tents were samurai. It didn't take her long to point out anyone else. She turned back to Sasuke. "There are nine samurai outside of the tents, three inside, and one ninja. High chakra level, a Jonin. He's in the biggest tent, with the scroll."
Sasuke nodded. "Then lets go." He said immediately wanting to go and fight. Shizuka could tell he was in a bad mood and just wanted to take his anger out on something. She felt bad for the samurai. She held an arm in front of Sasuke. "No, we'll wait. They're guzzling down that sake like pigs. In ten minutes they'll be drunk if not unconscious. I leave you to deal with the samurai, it won't take long. Make as much noise as possible then hide. When the jonin comes out to see what's going on I'll sneak past him and grab the scroll. With any luck we won't have to fight him."
"We can take one jonin." Sasuke smirked. "Sasuke, just because neither of us are scared of facing a jonin, doesn't mean it's a good idea. Look is it doesn't work out, then we fight. But it's best to avoid a fight when its not necessary." She said. Sasuke gave her a weird look. "What? Being a missing nin for three and a half years teaches you a lot about survival. You can trust that this Jonin won't be a pampered one, and he certainly won't fight fair."
By the time there little plan was over, the samurai were plenty drunk enough, but the ninja hadn't come out at all, just as planned. Sasuke dropped down to the ground silently, and ran strait into the middle of their camp. Least to say that his loud Chidori easily caused panic amongst those that weren't quite completely drunk yet. The sound of a thousand birds filled the area, loud and clear. The Jonin in the tent did not waste any time coming out to see what was up. Nor did Sasuke waste any time hiding before he noticed him.
Shizuka made not a single pin drop worth of noise as she snuck behind the Jonin's back. Not even a highly trained ninja should have been able to sense the wind made by her movements. Years worth of training on the silent killing technique were on her side. It should have been enough. It wasn't enough.
She hadn't calculated where this ninja was from. But now, when she was painstakingly close, it was hard not to see it. Kirigakure was the originator of the silent killing technique. It was only natural that one of it's Shinobi would be able to sniff it out.
The Kiri-jonin made no move for a second, but by the next he had turned on her. His hand flashed forward, her Sharingan eye following its movement. In half an instant, it was wrapped around her neck. She could sense Sasuke tense behind them. He didn't move, none of them did.
The Jonin looked out at his fallen troops. There was no blood, they were all just knocked out. The girl was clean. He turned his grim face back to her. "Where did your little friend go? You're not here alone." He asked in a feral voice. Shizuka smiled, a fox-like grin. "What ever makes you think that? Is it so wrong for me to be alone? I'm a kunoichi, I can handle myself after all." She laughed. Her laughter was brutally cut of by the tightening of his hand on her neck. She gasped, staring up defiant into the enemies eyes, praying that Sasuke wouldn't do anything stupid.
"You're a Konoha genin, your sensei must be close. He wouldn't have abandoned you." Shizuka smirked again. "Contrary to popular belief, my sensei isn't here. I came alone, for the sake of my friends in the land of birds." The man looked down at her, and chuckled. "Then no one will know if I kill you." His hand tightened brutally on her neck, cutting off any air.
His attention was so solely focused on her that he didn't notice as Sasuke dropped down behind him, kunai in hand. A kunai in which quickly found itself being raked across the neck of the mist nin. A thin line of blood began streaming down his neck as he fell to the ground.
Shizuka watched as blood started to pool at their feet and didn't even blink as she watched the color fade in the lifeless eyes of the Jonin. Sasuke had killed someone to save her without the slightest bit of hesitation and somehow she couldn't come to terms with weather that was a good thing or a bad thing. He had killed, possibly one of his first kills ever, without hesitation. To a ninja, to do so was a skill to be learned. To someone with a complicated past, such a skill could turn them into a monster.
At the spark she saw in his eyes, she prayed that he would never fall. She prayed that he fought it.
Sasuke walked over to the tent, and came out carrying the stolen scroll. "Let's go." He told to her still form. She was still crouched down, eyes surveying the body before her. She nodded, standing up. Sasuke turned to leave. "Wait." She whispered, not knowing if he would hear. He stopped and turned. She dug around in her back pocket before she found a copy of the bingo book. She pulled it out flipping to the page with the dead jonin's info on it. He was worth a reward from the Mizukage.
She'd send a message to the mist village, and leave the body in the village here so that they could have the money. She didn't need it. She sighed as she sealed the Jonin's body into a scroll, before turning to follow Sasuke back.
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An: Hmmm. Interesting chapter…