Chapter FOURTEEN
In the end, they somehow managed to put together their information. Since it was getting late, they agreed to work on the script at school tomorrow. Sakura turned towards her groupmates, who had finished putting on their sandals. "Sorry, but I really don't going outside at night." She handed Hinata's bag to her. "It's like walking in jelly." She shivered. "And I don't really like being pierced, though it doesn't hurt. It just feels weird."
Night time was when the more vengeful ghosts liked to wander and some had been mentally damaged beyond repair during one of the wars.
"It-It's fine, Sa-Sakura-san." Hinata said. "It's not that la-late."
"And we're within the village walls." Sasuke said.
Sakura hums. "Just in case, I'll send someone with you." Before anyone would react, she looked over her shoulder and gestured towards the spirits lingering by the corridor.
"Do you guys mind?"
Rin, who had been dragged into a game of hide and seek and had just managed to slip away, was the first smile. "Of course not."
"Hn." Sakura took that as agreement from Madara and turned to Hashirama, who pouted.
Madara decided to accompany Sasuke to the Uchiha compound. Rin agreed to take Hinata and Hashirama, after a little coaxing on who exactly was giving him a chance to share 'Tobi-dear's' secrets to the world agreed to accompany Shikamaru.
'It's not like you're going to loose anything.' Yagura said dismissively.
Madara nodded. 'This will allow me to look over the Uchiha compound.' He said.
'I've never been into the Hyuuga compound.' Rin said, equally agreeable.
Hashirama groaned. 'I shall bare this, for the sake of the Tobi project and cute little Sakura-chan.' He then looked at Yagura. 'Why doesn't he have to do anything?'
'Because Sakura enjoys my company over yours.' Yagura replied, channeling his newly discovered inner Madara.
Hashirama pouted and turned to Sakura. 'Sakura-chan, is this true?'
Sakura shuffled back uneasily. "Well, I-"
'Stop pressuring her.' Yagura said. 'If something were to happen, while we can't touch with the living world, I'm sure it'll give the children a chance to escape if you pierce them through.' He smacked Sasuke and while his hand went through his head, Sasuke ran a hand through his hair, frowning.
'So they feel something.' Hashirama hummed, intrigued. 'Very well. I'll accept this job.'
'Good boy.'
Sakura turned away from the bickering spirits and smiled. "There, all settled." She paused, remembering something. "Don't worry, they can't bite." She grinned. "If something does happen, though, I'm sure they'll be useful."
No one looked comfortable with the thought that a spirit of a dead person was following them home but none of them complained either.
Sakura tapped her arm thoughtfully. "Madara-san is taking you home, Sasuke-san." She said. Sasuke's eyes flew up to hers and she grinned wider. "So really, nothing to worry about." She pointed at Shikamaru. "You get Shodai-sama." Shikamaru began coughing violently. "And you, Hinata-san, get Rin." She smiled. "She's probably the most normal or everyone I-" Out of instinct, she ducked to avoid the kunai Yagura threw at her. "Know."
With a cheery smile, she sent them on their merry way.
Once he had returned, Kaito dragged of a confused Hashirama and Sakura remembered that her cousin's allocated figure had been the first Hokage. Feeling slightly bad for stealing him off when he probably needed the man more than she did, she instituted Hashirama to answer all of Kaito's questions before she retired to her room.
She had Rin and Rokuro around with note pads with her script on it but it wouldn't hurt to go through it a few times.
The next day, Sakura walked into the classroom, surrounded by her clanmates as usual. They got the whole day, apart from break and lunch, to finalize on their presentations. Sakura took most of their script with strides while Rin wrote down what she was to say on a spiritual piece of paper.
Their group ran through the full presentation a few times and by the end of the day, they were pleased with the outcome.
With promises to go through the script a few more times at home, they split.
The next day, Sakura was greeted with a rush of excitement as the groups ran around to make last second preparations. This would be their first ever presentation in front of the whole class and everyone was pretty excited about it.
Iruke moved to sit at the back so that he could see everything before he began calling people up one by one.
The first one to go up was the group doing Hashirama. The First Hokage was ecstatic at the thought and he did a few flips before he settled himself on the table beside Sakura. The grouped mostly went over things known by the wide population, things like Hashirama's rise to clan heir at a young age and his close relationship with his brother. Hashirama made a face at that.
They also covered Hashirama's rare Kekkei Genkai, the Mokuton and his prowess in battle. Kaito even went into a few accounts of Hashirama's fights, sourcing it back to the First himself. However, Hashirama was not impressed. "I was so much more cooler than that." He complained. "I can grow trees." He grinned. "Every room in the compound had a small potted version of my plant. I like mushroom soup. I also like bonsai and wood sculpting. My dream is to beat up Madara-"
The Uchiha whacked him, hard.
From across the room, Kaito shot the man a blank stare and tilted his head, thinking. "Should I?" He mouthed.
'You so should!' Rokuro exclaimed. 'Tell the world that this dude is not as cool as people say.' He quickly positioned himself behind Rin, who scowled at the Hokage who had been about to give the boy a flick on the forehead.
'Hitting children?' Yagura drawled. 'Not very Kage-like.'
'Yes, and I'm sure you'll know all about being Kage-like.' Izuna muttered. 'Though I have to agree.'
Yagura let out a mock gasp and placed a hand on his chest. 'In case you've forgotten, that is-was me but not me. I'm dead but not dead.'
His words instantly destroyed the cheery atmosphere.
'Are you sure you don't want to look into it?' Izuna asked.
"We are to simply observe" Sakura said, almost as though she was simply repeating a phrase that had been engraved into her so long ago that she didn't even think as the words flowed. "We are the bridge that connects the dead to the living. We receive information and store it for times of need. That is our job."
Hashirama sighed and dropped his gaze. 'Look at all this serious talk' He murmured. 'I completely missed Kaito-kun concluding his presentation.
True enough, when Sakura looked up, it was to see the group who had been assigned Madara walking up to the front of the class.
Hashirama grinned. 'Let's see what kind of dirt they managed to pick up on you, Mada-chan.'
WARNING: WOZ RUSHED.
Darque: Sorry about the slight delay. I was caught up with other stuff.
Raven: Darque's getting back into her bad habits of playing games all day.
Darque: Not bad.
Raven: Uh...right. Anyways, and she finally managed to pull her head out of the gutter and write this.
Darque: My head is never in the gutter.
Raven: Right, I forgot. Darque finally managed to pull her head out of the core of the Earth and write this.
Darque: Oh! That sounds cool! What's a core?
Raven:...
Darque: Huh. Google define, here I come~
Raven: Is there anything further down than the core? Cause that's where her brain usually is. Maybe somewhere in America. She shoved her head so deep into the ground that she popped out on the other side.
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