Chapter 10
Lies and The Attractive Ninja
A week had passed since Gaara gave her information about the mission. It was a B-ranked mission, to go and guard a highly wanted rich guy and take him from the sand village to the rock village or Iwa. He had somehow made it to Suna and originally was from a smaller non-ninja village. Many people were not pleased with his deals he had made and wanted him dead so he decided to pay for ninjas to protect him. Suna didn't care what his matters were, except that it was a job that paid.
Kari was scheduled to leave for the mission with Kankuro and Trinity in an hour or so. Oh the fun that would be, Kankuro seemed to be showing a slight interest in her. She was hoping, the more he saw her real side… he would just want to be friends.
As she packed her last thing in her traveling pack Kari used the rest of her spare time to relax and prepare for her mission mentally. As she sat on her couch and began to run over the details of the mission in her mind, her cell phone chimed, and buzzed across the table. She glanced at it to see a text from Trinity.
'Hey, ready to go?' it said.Kari's phone buttons clicked as she responded. Then she stood up and headed out the door but not before grabbing her small pack filled with her necessities and ninja gear.
She was going to meet them at the entrance, or in this case, exit to the village.
OOO
'Yeah, Meeting by the entrance right?' Kari had sent back; Trinity was re-reading it.
"You're re-reading it why…?" Someone asked. Gaara of course, she was in his office and about to head to the entrance (or exit) herself.
"Oh… It's just a habit." She shrugged. Trinity was looking through her phone deciding whether she was going to leave or not, it wasn't going to take long to get there.
"Is Kankuro meeting us there or … coming here?" Trinity asked him. He seemed to think for a second and opened his mouth to reply.
"I think he said-" He started, until…
"I'm here!" Kankuro had slung open the door and spoke loudly, and over Gaara. He was ready to go on this mission, well… until he saw Gaara's face.
There was a pause of silence in the room as Kankuro glanced a bit nervously at Gaara who was staring at him with a slight glare.
"Well, he's here." Gaara finally broke the silence with sarcasm; Trinity laughed nervously.
"Thanks" Kankuro muttered. Trinity spoke not a second after that to break the brother's beginning battle.
"Yes. Um anyway, we better get going." She said while running over a list of everything she had and needed in her head.
"Okay." Kankuro agreed as they both headed to the door after a quick nod from Gaara which was saying, 'Good luck, now go.'
"Why was Gaara looking at me like that?" was the first thing Kankuro asked as they headed down the street and to the entrance. It was a steady pace, because they weren't in too much of a hurry.
"Oh you just cut him off." Trinity answered, smiling slightly at Kankuro's expression. She thought of him as a good friend and thought he could be so funny. Trinity had known him since she was a kid, along with Gaara & Temari.
"Ah… I see." Kankuro answered calmly although in his eyes Trinity could see he was slightly concerned.
"He'll get over it." She mused. Then they swiftly walked through the village to their destination. As they began to clear the distance between them and the entrance Trinity noticed the man they were supposed to protect and Kari standing there waiting. Kari seemed to already have talked with the guy and now was staring off into the distance, while the guy looked around nervously. Trinity had supposed that he had done something wrong or illegal but that wasn't there mission.
"Ah, Nishimaru-san?" she questioned him, with his last name, although she knew it was him.
"You must be the other 2 ninja protecting me?" Nishimaru questioned, nodding politely to Trinity.
"Yes we are. Is everyone ready to go?" Trinity asked, everyone responded with a yes, so they left.
Heading toward the desert was quite tiresome for Nishimaru, he had already gone through it once and he wasn't a ninja so his tolerance level wasn't very high. After stopping for what seemed a hundred times they got out of the desert. Entering the Bird Country, Nishimaru immediately sat down on the ground.
"Grassland! Thank … gosh…." He was being a bit delusional.
"Are we going to stop again?" Kari stated, clearly annoyed since he was making this mission twice as long as it should have been.
"I agree with her. This is ridiculous." Kankuro grumbled, Nishimaru stared up evilly at them. Kari and Kankuro were unfazed.
"I'm sure he is only doing this because it necessary…" Trinity coaxed them, keeping her friendly smile.
"It is." Nishimaru mumbled as he drank the water he had brought with him.
Suddenly Kari looked up; glancing around where they were standing. Trinity was a bit puzzled at this; she couldn't feel anything out of the ordinary.
"Kari, what's wrong?" Trinity asked and as Kari looked back at her Trinity grew more confused; Kari was frowning slightly.
"Nothing exactly, I just feel like… something bad is going to happen." She spoke slowly but stared at Nishimaru. Because of him, something bad was going to happen and whatever it was that was after him that wasn't just a the ordinary ninja.
"Kari, you're being ridiculous." Kankuro commented, and then added.
"Besides, we are ninjas and generally bad things happen to us."
Trinity looked at all three of them, Kankuro was right but… she couldn't help forget what Kari had said, she felt it too, plus Kankuro was pretty dense.
They finally continued on their way and not much was said after that until they were almost to the earth Country. They were walking along a path, and noticed a group of people carrying building equipment.
Trinity noticed how they were moving a lot slower than her group, even though they had a normal villager with them. They obviously weren't ninjas. They even had a kid with them; he had that probably begged to tag along. Trinity's eyes laid upon the young boy as things around them started to change. Trinity jerked her head around, all her senses on. There was someone... no two people that were coming up behind them. Their swift movement categorized them as ninjas and judging by their speed, good ones. Kari and Kankuro had seemed to notice it too.
Though they seemed to come fast when Trinity first felt their chakra, when she and the others looked around they saw them gradually walking up to the village. Looking at them they looked familiar to Trinity, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Glancing over she saw Kankuro seemed to shrug it off, while Kari looked as puzzled as well. Then suddenly an alarmed look crossed Kari's face, but before Trinity could even open her mouth there was a crash as the hillside above them gave way abruptly. Trinity wasn't sure if Kari had been startled because she knew the ninjas or she saw what had happened. Somehow she still made it over to the group of civilians to save the kid from being smashed. No sooner had the rock fallen before it crumbled to the earth on impact only a few feet from where Kari and the child were now standing. The other civilians looked at the rubble a moment in utter disbelief before running over to the two of them.
"Oh!" Trinity gasped as she tried to suppress her shock of not noticing it since the strange cloaked ninjas had thrown her off, but she was sure that the rock had not fallen on its own, even the remains still simmered with chakra. She rushed over Kari and the civilians to make sure everyone was okay while Kankuro protected Nishimaru who was surprisingly silent.
"Very well done." Someone spoke with a smirk; the two unknown ninja had caught up, both of them male. The citizens dropped everything as the two drew closer; sensing the danger and heading back towards their village…. Quickly.
"Did you almost crush that kid?" Kari growled at the blonde haired boy…well, man that had spoken; he looked to be in his early 20's.
"Yeah, I wanted to see how you all would react to it." He shrugged casually; his sapphire eyes glancing over at the ninja with him. He was a bigger ninja who had an odd shape to him and was hidden well under his loose-fitting clothes.
"You could have hurt somebody." Trinity joined the conversation; obviously a bit annoyed with the blonde's attitude. This guy was obviously either stupid or bad news.
"Well you see, were here on-…" The blonde started but stopped because of how his partner stared directly at Kari.
"Do you know her …?" He asked, confused and a bit curious.
"I do, that's Orochimaru's daughter." The other spoke for the first time, in a deep grumbled voice.
"What?!" Kankuro exclaimed. Trinity was equally as stunned but a bit more quiet about it.
"I…I… you defiantly have the wrong person." Kari defended confidently.
"Heh. I don't forget people. Nor am I stupid enough to get people's identity wrong." He responded with no humor. It would have taken a moron to believe Kari over him.
"I see you haven't changed…" Kari mumbled, rolling her eyes.
"Interesting." The blonde one chimed in, clearly amused.
"Well it's nice to meet you, I'm Orochimaru's replacement." He added with his own spice of attitude and fake friendliness as he flashed a devious smile.
"Pleasure." Kari responded sarcastically.
"Deidara, were not here for that nonsense. We need to get it." The other ninja seemed to be getting impatient.
"Aw, come on. Now they know my name." Deidara pouted jokingly. But the other ninja seemed interested in someone again, this time not Kari. His eyes locked on Trinity.
"Hmmm? This chakra… aren't you the one that can release the seal?... What was it… Ro…. ?" Trinity eyes widened in fear and astonishment; that was from her private life.
"No! Uh….we'll be going… leaving you to your trip… and stuff to do…" She stumbled over her words stepping closer to Nishimaru and Kankuro.
Deidara and the other shinobi were silent for a second as if they were really considering leaving. Unfortunately this wasn't the case.
"Why? When what we are looking for lies in the possession of one of you…" Deidara smirked glancing at Nishimaru who was hiding behind Kankuro. Everyone looked at him.
"Heh…" Nishimaru was shaking and glancing around nervously.
"I… um, well…" he stuttered as he stayed trapped under the gaze of the other ninja.
"You stole a scroll of ours that has secret jutsu on it." Deidara stated dryly, his voice serious now.
"And you're going to give it back."
Nishimaru looked scared but didn't budge.
"Alright…" Deidara sighed and walked closer to Kari as his first victim, probably because she was the smallest and looked the most vulnerable. Kari took a step back, preparing herself to fight. Deidara smiled when he stopped in front of her, though this time in a more playful way. He raised his hand slowly and let his fingertips graze across her cheek slowly, barely even touching her. He looked into her eyes like he could see right through them and spoke sensually to her.
"Since your protecting him, you can just get him to give us the scroll and we'll be on our way okay?" towards the end of his sentence he gently pulled her face closer to his. His partner rolled his eyes at the scene.
"I um…" Kari blushed, starting to fall for it.
"No!" She shook her head stepping back, giving him a sour look.
Trinity knew that Kari would have agreed with her, this ninja was quite attractive. Probably the reason she had blushed even after she broke the genjutsu he had silently put on her. Kari was lucky to have caught it in time and for it to be weak enough for her to break so easily. Trying to use his looks with a little 'magic' wasn't going to get him what he wanted though.
"Well, I'm sorry we don't have more time to spend with you but we must be off." Deidara smirked with victory.
Kankuro's eyes widened when he realized what had happened. He thought he felt chakra near him…. But it had gone away.
"That guy… the other one… he's… a puppeteer and …" Kankuro stumbled through his explanation a little; still coming to terms with it himself.
"Yeah that was just a distraction." Deidara almost laughed as they went on their way; leaving as quickly and soundlessly as they had come.
"Damn it!" Nishimaru grumbled.
OOO
Time had passed by now, they had dropped off Nishimaru at Iwa and were on their way home. It was late so they decided to stop and sleep. Laying there Trinity remembered what the Deidara guy had said. She shot up.
"The Akatsuki…" She murmured, thinking everyone was asleep.
"Did you just realize who they were?" A voice spoke curiously through the dark. Kari of course, Kankuro was out like a light.
"Yes… I feel like an idiot for not realizing earlier." Trinity shook her head.
"Hm… so what was Sasori talking about?" Kari asked.
"The other guy's named Sasori?... and what do you mean?" Trinity wasn't sure what she was referring to.
"Yeah. And he said something about… releasing a seal? He knows you from somewhere." Kari responded; carefully wording her sentence.
"Um… well, you see… he probably just got me confused with someone… and wait! He said you were Orochimaru's daughter. What's up with that?" Trinity changed the subject.
"Yeah, I'm not proud of it. I don't really consider myself related to him anyway." Kari mumbled.
"But you lied. You said… you had adopted parents… and that…" Trinity was confused to why she had lied.
"Look, it's no big deal. I don't really want to talk about it… Goodnight." Trinity could hear Kari roll over, thus ending their little conversation.
"But you know Gaara is going to ask you… because even if I don't tell him, Kankuro will." Trinity sighed.
Trinity stayed awake for a bit longer and noticed Kari's breathing relaxing, as she fell asleep. She knew she needed to tell Gaara about what happened, but was still unsure about something
'I know so much about Kari… is it really fair for me to keep things about me a secret too?' She thought to herself. Trinity let the thought slip into the back of her mind as she fell asleep too.
OOO
The trip back to the Sand village wasn't short but wasn't too long, it mainly was boring. No one really had much to say. After 3-4 days they made it back and split up as they walked into the village. Kari & Kankuro headed home to unpack and shower while Trinity headed to the office to do the report. Trinity walked in to Gaara's office being… messy. Trinity sighed and glanced at Gaara who was stacking pencils.
"What are you doing?" She questioned him. They all fell down.
"Damn, I was about to break a record."He grumbled as he pushed them all into a drawer. He looked up at her; returning to his normal persona.
"Hey Trin… um I guess you just got back." He stated calmly.
"Yeah… jeez, you need another personal secretary while I'm gone." Trinity said, still concerned with the condition of the office. She reluctantly sat down.
"Uhh, yeah. So how was the mission…?" He asked in an attempt to get her off the topic.
"Well… it went really nice until…" Trinity paused.
"...Until?" Gaara questioned slowly.
"We were almost there and two akatsuki members almost crushed this kid which Kari saved, and one of them knew both me and Kari, they wanted a scroll from the guy we were protecting and they got it. It had secret jutsu in it. They were named Deidara and Sasori…" Trinity finished, unsure whether to say the Kari comment.
"Damn. At least you guys are okay. So did they just leave after they got the scroll?..." He was really curious on what was in the scroll.
"Yeah." She responded.
"Sasori… I know him…. Or have heard of him. I should look it up." Gaara contemplated out loud, when he looked back at Trinity he knew she left out something.
"Is there anything else…?" He asked suspiciously, reading her expressions like they were an open book to him.
"One thing… but… I just, I need to tell you. It's important, but I don't want to..." Trinity sighed.
"It's Kari." She finished.
"Again? What about her?" Gaara knew he wasn't going to like this, but he couldn't prepare himself for what she was really going to say.
"She's really, Orochimaru's daughter." She said, looking at him. There was a pause after that, it felt like years could have gone by. You would think Gaara was just mad but first he had to get over the shock. Kari had specifically said her parents had died and she had adoptive parents.
"Fuck." He growled, stood up and was gone.
OOO
Her skin was still warm from her soothing bath, her muscles were eased and her hair was damp. She had changed into clothes that were so comfortable that she had begun to drift off lying on the couch. It was then, when everything in her body instantly changed into a completely opposite mode. The aura coming upon her wasn't a happy one, and she knew exactly who it was.
"So soon?" She mumbled, rolling her eyes and biting her lips in frustration, and then she prepared for what was going to be a long lecture or yelling session.
Yes! I leave you on a cliffhanger.
Mwhahahaha!
I am evil.
But yes, this story seems to being along very well now, I hope you all are enjoying it.
Me and my editor work hard on writing it and editing it.
I'm soooo sorry for the long wait, I get lazy, I promise you won't have to wait as long for chapter 11.
I have written a few pages to it already so I hope to have it done in the next couple weeks.
Thanks all!
-Torie
