Fade to Black Chapter 11: Now We Wait, a naruto fanfic

What's up my beautiful and lovely readers! Surprised I updated so early? Well don't be, cuz now that I'm paying more attention to this fanfiction, you'll get more frequent updates! Especially since I'm excited for this arc and I really don't know why! Other than that, there's no much happening so let's just get on with the show!

What happened last time!? (Not much, that's for fucking sure)

1.) Team 1 met Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari!

2.) They took Kaiza's kidnapping pretty hard! (No surprise there)

3.) Tomū finally found his resolve!

Now, time for a backstory chapter!

In other words, GET TO READING!

"Hello, what's good bitch?"~Character talking

'Damn, she got a fine ass!'~Character thinking

"I'll blow you to smithereens!"~Bijuu/Boss talking

'Wow, he really is an idiot...'~Bijuu/Boss thinking

(PS-I would also appreciate any type of fanart dedicated to this story XD If someone has made or found any artwork, please PM me and I will link it up on my page for everyone to see! Thank you for your time!)

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, just my OC.

Chapter 11: Now We Wait...

Katsu just hummed to himself as he tapped his fingers along the wooden table.

He was bored. Enough said.

Anko had been gone for 5 minutes. And in those five minutes, nothing had happened. Which was one of the only things that could frustrate the Hyūga so easily. There was practically nothing for him to do in this damn house. Tazuna had left to contact some workers in the village. Tsunami was busy cooking in the kitchen along with Akiko. Tomū was still doing who-knows-what in the bathroom upstairs.

Weren't there any board games lying around? No, of course there weren't.

He had half a mind to simply walk out the building a take a stroll around the village. But luckily he didn't.

Even if Anko hadn't said it out loud, it was pretty obvious that she'd tell them not to leave the house for any reason unless it was an emergency.

And to ignore her orders for something as petty as boredom? Katsu snorted. That's a ticket to an ass-kicking he wanted no part of.

After all, Anko didn't have much subtlety when it comes to correcting those who don't listen to her. Especially when it involved her favorited specially-made kunai.

Having thrown the idea of checking out the sights from his brain, he was back to square one; left with nothing to do.

The Hyūga groaned as his finger prodded the hole Anko made in the table. If nothing happened in the next two minutes, the teen was sure he'd start breaking something. Or at least looking around the house. Hell, if he was going to look around the house, he'd probably use his Byakugan to help. If anything, he was this damn close to acting on his impulses and start peeping through Tsunami's clothes. 'Tick, tock... tick tock... tick motherfucking tock...' He thought, following the rhythm of the clock's systematic counting of time.

His irritation steadily grew with each passing tick.

And just before he exploded, Akiko came walking into the room with a towel wiping down her hands.

'Oh thank Kami!' The Hyūga thought in exasperation. He was quick to speak out. "Please tell me you have something planned to keep us busy until sensei gets back."

Akiko just looked at him in the eye as she pulled out a chair and sat down. "No, nothing planned. I was helping Tsunami-san cook dinner, but she told me to relax for a while. Said I'm supposed to heal after a fight." She huffed and leaned back. Katsu let out another groan and lowered his head onto the table. Akiko's face scrunched up in annoyance as she crossed her arms. "I know you're bored and all, but that's like the 9th time I heard you moaning and groaning like a zombie in here. Stop before I slap the shit out of you."

"That'd be better than this nothing-filled hell..."

"Jeez." The kunoichi pinched the bridge of her nose. At times like this, Katsu would literally do anything if it meant something to do. No matter how annoying it was. And this was that time.

Having much experience in such a scenario, Akiko decided to ignore her teammate's whining and simply leave him to himself.

Which also meant leaving her with nothing to do.

And with nothing to do, it brought on her habit of thinking in her head to kill time.

Eventually her mind began to wander back to... Akiko felt her fingers press down on her elbows as the horrible memory came back. The rushing of water, the inability to move, the pressure it put on her body, the lack of air... It didn't take long for her to realize just how close she was to dying. Grateful as she was to Katsu for saving her before it came to that point, it still left a bad taste in her mouth. All she did was stand around with a kunai and cast a useless genjutsu.

Where were the results of the academy's education?

The tips she got from her family?

The training she received from Anko?

While her teammates had been risking their lives to simply take down a single woman, all it took was a single jutsu to incapacitate her.

... the gurgled screams she let loose as she tried to break free, to find air...

A hand touched Akiko's neck, making her flinch. It was her own hand that startled her. She let out a long breath as she tried to calm herself down.

"Hey Katsu?" She called quietly.

"What is it?"

"Do you... do you think I'm weak?"

Meanwhile...

After flushing the contents he left in the toilet, Tomū rubbed his forehead as he stepped out of the bathroom. "That took longer than I expected." Although it wasn't the trouble of simply 'going', moving with all those bruises are a pain in the ass to deal with. "Maybe Aki-chan got better at Healing Ninjutsu... hopefully." He mumbled to himself as he made his way down the hallway.

However, as he walked he unconsciously found himself looking at the pictures strung up on the walls.

Picture of Inari as a baby.

Picture of Tazuna kneeling down with a group of men wearing hardhats. Workers.

Picture of Tsunami blushing at a bouquet of roses handed to her by Kaiza.

The teen grimaced when he saw the jolly smile on their client's face. The client that got kidnapped and was quite possibly dead under Gato's command. 'Damn this guilt!' Tomū mentally growled, feeling the stress of their mission returning nearly double that of before.

The sound of sobbing caught his ears and made him pause mid-step, just a few feet from the staircase.

'Wait, is that...?' Tomū thought as he stepped up to the nearest door, taking notice of the sobs getting louder. Pausing for a moment, he lifted his hand and lightly rapped his knuckles against the wood. "Inari?" The sobs almost immediately stopped when the name slipped out of Tomū's mouth. "You okay in there, bud?" He heard shuffling on the other side of the door before it creaked open, revealing a single bloodshot eye of the small boy.

"Of *Sniffle* Of course not..." He muttered.

"Hey now, there's no need to get worked up." Tomū reassured with a smile. "We'll get Kaiza back, no problem. Okay?"

"How can you be so sure?"

"Mind if I come in first? Kind of weird standing by myself in the hallway." With the smallest of nods, Inari took a step back and pulled the door with him. "Nice room you got here." The swordsman whistled as he looked around. It was almost like his. Except not as messy. Although there was a desk placed near the window, the top covered in papers with pictures drawn on them. "You draw?"

Inari sniffled again as he hopped up onto his bed. "Only when I'm bored..."

"I see." The teen nodded as he pulled out a small chair and sat down at the desk. "Now, about your question... how can I be so sure?" Tomū received a nod in return and the teen inhaled through his teeth. "Well, I can't say for sure. But," He added quickly with waving hands when he saw the tears build back up in Inari's eyes. "But... my team and I won't stop until we bring Kaiza back safe and sound."

"But how? Gato has way too many bandits working for him."

"We're ninja, Inari. And ninja will always beat bandits, hands down." Too bad the same can't be said about the hired ex-Kiri nin and masked swordsman. Tomū shook the negative thought out of his head and lightly slammed a fist down into his hand. "Numbers don't matter unless we try and gosh darn it, we're gonna try!"

"We've been trying for a long time. Tazuna-Jiji always tried to look for people to help fight back, but every time, Gato would come back with a bigger army." Inari's voice seemed to lower in volumes with each word. The boy's head looked down at his lap, his sheets gripped tightly in his fingers as his hands balled into fists. "Eventually we just gave up." He whispered. "Everyone except Kaiza."

"Kaiza did leave an impression that he'd stop at nothing for a better future."

"It's just who he is." The edges of the boy's mouth curled up into the tiniest of smiles.

"You seem awfully sure of that. How long have you known Kaiza?"

"Not very long, but long enough." Inari answered honestly. "If there's anybody who'll save us, it'll be Kaiza. Just like he did with me."

"He saved you?" Tomū leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, his attention peaking. "When was this?"

"A few months ago, I was always getting bullied by kids older than me, so I never really had friends. But one day I found a dog. I named him Pochi. We became best friend." Inari snickered at the memory of the puppy yipping happily in his arms, remembering how much he'd always laugh whenever the dog licked his face. But then he took a small breath before turning his head, his eyes looking out through the window.

Tomū could see the sadness pooling up in the boy's eyes. He frowned. "I'm guessing those bullies came back?"

"Yeah. They did." Inari said in a whisper. "They took Pochi from me, calling me names and mocking me. But then they threw Pochi in the sea."

"You jumped in to save him."

Inari went to nod, but he stopped and instead shook his head. "Not exactly. I wanted to, but one of the bullies pushed me in. I tried to swim out with Pochi, but the waves were too strong for the both of us. I thought we were going to drown that day, but Kaiza showed up and pulled us out at the last second. That was the first day we met and ever since then, we were best friends."

"Gotta give the man props for risking his life like that." Tomū clapped his hands. He felt newfound respect for the man swell up in his chest. "But what happened to the bullies? Surely they got in trouble after that."

"Kaiza told me he spoke with their parents about it. The bullies got stuck with chores for 6 months." The child began to laugh. "And they got spanked in public too."

"Yeesh, sounds like something my mom would do." As much as it sounded like a joke, the teen swordsman knew for a fact that it was, without a doubt, something Yuri would do should he commit an act of utter stupidity. He let out a few nervous chuckles, hoping that day would never happen again. "Still, Kaiza sure sounds like an amazing guy."

"He's the best friend I could ever have!" The smile on Inari's face stretched as far as it could, the boy's legs kicking as one would when they're happy.

"You know what?" Tomū stood up from the chair and held out his hand, balled up into a fist. The child blinked a couple of times before he looked back up to see Tomū grinning down at him. "I'll do everything in my power to reunite the two of you. I'll slice apart anything Gato throws at us and rescue Kaiza. You got that?" With a thumbs up using the other hand, he saw Inari's eyes light up. Tomū's grin got larger when he felt a smaller hand bump fists with his.

'I'll get him back... I promise.' Tomū thought before a call was heard from downstairs.

"Tomū, get your scrawny ass down here! We got training to do!"

"Anko-san, please! Language!" Tsunami's voice followed soon after.

The swordsman sweatdropped at his sensei's apparent need to act brash when in another person's home. Inari, however, found it amusing and giggled. "Your sensei sounds like a funny lady."

"Eh, she's tier 1 level crazy right now. And trust me, you do not want to see tier 5."

"Gaki, hurry up!" Anko called again.

"Hold on!" He shouted back with a tick-mark on his forehead. While Inari laughed even harder, the teen sighed and crossed his arms with a mumbled "Always rushing me cause her fat-butt can't walk up a couple of stairs."

*Thunk!*

The boys stopped when they heard "Anko-san, are you serious!? The ceiling!?" from Tsunami. They both looked down, only for the color to drain from their faces when they saw that half of Anko's favorite kunai had pierced the floor and carpet.

Right between Tomū's legs.

"Don't think I can't hear you! You're lucky I didn't put more power into it!" Both boys heard the purple haired woman shout back.

"Tier 5?" Inari gulped.

The swordsman was shaking in his boots. He let out a whimpered, "Tier 1 and a half."

Another chapter has been uploading and filling the empty holes in your hearts! Once again, I find myself thanking those who read this story and I do promise you that action will happen soon! You'll just need to wait and be patient! Thing's will start getting interesting soon! Just stay tuned!

Until next time peeps!

Peace!

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