Epilogue: Home

The seas were as salty as Tenten had remembered them. Along the port, her RIC colleagues had gathered below to see her off. With one last wave of goodbye, she watched their small figures blend with the stone behind them. Neji being among them.

Although the sun hid behind the greying clouds, her heart was warm and she was happy. A deep content sigh escaped her lips as her eyes wandered away from the port towards the looming Castle of Konohagakure where she'd have to speak to the King a few weeks from now.

She reflected the last words given to her from this spot. They were Isaiah's words insisting that she had the heart of soldier. She would fight, she knew but for whom? That she didn't know. Perhaps she'd try to convince the King to reinstate her as Hinata's maidservant.

However, those thoughts stopped when she saw a puff of black smoke rise from the horizon up. Its thick globs of cloud infiltrated the sky. The dense darkness of its colour reflected the growing fear in Tenten's own heart but her eyes remained tied down to the growing fire.

Her eyes trailed down to see that its source was from the western cliffside.

Her heart sunk as she realized that the Haruno Mansion sat on top of that cliff. Instinctively she whipped around to find Elder Yulie right behind her, also focused on the swirling build up of dazzling red and orange.

"You don't think it's?" Tenten couldn't even finish her sentence. Terror clawed at her throat and silenced her from speaking. Thoughts of the one who had killed the Uchiha clan ran through her mind.

"I don't know." Elder Yulie confessed before his eyes wandered to the rest of the crewman, who wailed in anguish. No doubt their families served with the Haruno Clan and if they had none, surly they mourned for the kind family that had taken them in.

Tenten reached for the dagger by her side and kept her eyes close to Elder Yulie. "My mission will be to safely escort you back to the castle." She stated. "I'll be sure to inform King Kakashi and Jiraya of the matter." The Uchiha clan had died on the sea and she was not willing to allow that to happen to this crew either.

Her desire, passion and professionalism stretched beyond her want to hold her title of the Royal Inner Circle. Perhaps she had no escape to the responsibilities tied to her heart. To be a RIC had already been deeply rooted and engrained her. She had to admit, however, it felt good to know where her calling lay.

It was with her country and with the people in Konohagakure.

The boat began to waddle from the growing rise of the sea. The rocking awakened the men from their trance of horror to fight off the waves and steady the boat. However, Tenten felt that something was deeply wrong. It was not nature's intent to cause the shift in seas but someone of great power.

"He's over there!" Elder Yulie had informed her. He had pointed a few meters away from the ocean to see a single man in a black cloak with red clouds patterned along its surface. He stood confidently on the top of the waters. "He has Chakra!" His byakugan proved it to be so.

Without further thought, Tenten quickly ripped a piece of a scroll from her satchel, wrapped it around an arrow before retrieving it's bow. At first she pointed it at the man from afar but counted her paces and redirected the arrow high in the air before releasing it through the sky.

The man from afar teased her when he pulled his waves away from their boat and summoned a swirling pillar of water to stop the arrow accurately pointed his way.

But Tenten knew better.

Her hands weaved in and out of each other in intricate pattern. The arrow responded in a speed unknown to man and it easily impaled through the water. After a few more chains of hand signals, the arrow disappeared behind a veil of white clouds.

Her enemy appeared dazzled and confused but snapped out of it once a massive crowd of arrows emerged from the puff of smoke. It rained down and barrelled through the futile wall of water the man had summoned to protect him. So he opted to run until an arrow snagged him on the thigh.

In a desperate attempt, Tenten could see that the man had pulled a human sized sword that hung from his back and hid behind it from the arrows. Once the arrows finished their blow, he retreated into the ocean, leaving a small pool of swirling red blood from where he last stood.

It seemed that she had managed to scare him away. He most likely hadn't expected her to know Chakra.

"Could it have been a rogue Chakra Guardian?" Tenten asked Elder Yulie once the commotion had settled.

"No." He said, pulling back his byakugan. "I have a feeling he's connected to the stolen Chakra Orbs that the Eastern Forest protected." She looked back at the last place she had seen him. The intrude was far enough that she couldn't make out a face but she could still recall how odd coloured his skin was: pale blue.

With a heavy sigh she knew she'd have to return immediately to Konoha once she finished warning King Kakashi and his council. Talking to King Hiashi was something she had hoped to do weeks away from now.

This meant she'd have to somehow get a letter to Juoano explaining the situation. She glanced at Elder Yulie. Perhaps his connection with the Eastern Forest would serve her well on this.

However, before she could continue the conversation, the mass of sailors gathered around Tenten to thank her. "Thank the gods that a RIC warrior was with us!" Despite their cheers and well intended compliments, Tenten's mind was locked on what had happened.

With what she had witnessed, she knew that the burning of the Haruno Estate was tied to that man's appearance. If that was the case, there was more than one man doing the damage.

There could be a whole group of them, a whole army who knew the Art of Chakra.

She gulped at the thought.

Could it be that the orbs have already fallen into the wrong hands?

If that were so, their history already marked down the implications.

A war would be approaching.

For that, she feared.

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Tenten's audience with the king continues in Take Me but like… far after the first 3 or 4 chapters.

See you in Book 2! It takes place a month after Sai had dropped Hisana off safely back to Konoha.