Chapter 34: Consequences

"I told you to not climb that wall!"

"And I was already hoping you had become mute…"

Sarada and Bolt were sitting next to each other at a wooden table. The room they were in was small and they had crammed an extra folding chair on one side of it to have the kids sit next to each other. Across from them was another chair in front of a glass wall. They couldn't see through it, but Sarada bet there was another room behind it.

Neither of them had said a word for the last fifteen minutes. Sarada had crossed her arms in front of her chest and stared at the glass wall as if she was going to melt it. Bolt on the other hand, had placed his chin on the table and started sighing. Until Sarada couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Oh shut up! You and I both know that this was one of your worst ideas ever!"

"Not the worst?" Bolt turned his head and actually looked at her surprised.

"If I'd start thinking, I'd probably remember three or four other things that you really messed up."

Why? Why is it always me who gets in trouble with HIM?

Sarada buried her face in her hands.

Dear gods! What have I done to receive such divine punishment?! Can't you just send me an ogre or a troll or a dragon or really something to just kill me? I'd gladly fight anything you throw at me - but him? Come on! That's foul play! Just why? Why? WHY?

"GOD DAMNIT!" Sarada angrily hit the table with her palms. It cracked a little.

"Holly! Sarada keep your shit together," Bolt jerked up, eyeing her warily. Maybe he was next after the table?

But instead the door opened.

"If you could please refrain from damaging other people's property."

A tall man in a Konoha jonin uniform entered the room. He wore a white banda with the fire country's symbol around his hips. He was one of the twelve guardian shinobi, the shugonin jūnishi. Judging from his greyish hair, he seemed to be one of the senior members. His skin was strongly tanned and looked somewhat like leather. He had probably spend his life mostly outside somewhere in the sun fighting, judging from the many small scars Sarada counted. He couldn't have been much older than her parents. But what did she know?

"Excuse me sir," Sarada apologized, "my temper sometimes gets the best of me."

"Calm yourself then." He sat down across from them, "you realize why you are here?"

The girl immediately turned her head to stare at Bolt, "yeah, why don't you rephrase why we are here, Bolt?"

He just narrowed his eyes, "because I climbed a wall I wasn't supposed to climb?"

"Go on."

"…and because when I had climbed it I called for a 'white haired wimp'?"

"…and?"

"And because I tried to break into the royal palace..?"

"That sums it up," the adult said. He observed the kids.

"So, why am I here," Sarada asked, "I didn't do anything wrong."

"When he saw the guards coming, you remember I guess, he tried to flee and you ran with him. It was only natural of us to take you into custody too."

Sarada nodded, "right… it must have been suspicious. Thanks for the quick reminder…" She pouted.

The man sighed.

"I have reached your superior. She should be here soon," he studied the kids' faces, "so tell me why you would act that improper? Neither of you seems like an unreasonable kid to me. You are Konoha shinobi, aren't you?"

"Yeah, you see," Bolt started before Sarada could open her mouth, "we just won the chunin exams and we were much exited. But our third team member ditched the exam before it's end and we still are kind of worried 'cause we have no clue what happened to him."

"I suppose you mean the 'white haired wimp'," the man raised his eyebrows, "but why would you search for him at the royal palace. This isn't the place where you find shinobi runaways usually. If I was you, I would try the prison, a bar or even a morgue."

"Why would we search for him at a morgue?" Sarada was confused.

"A wimp who leaves his comrades and duties behind by running away should just kill himself in my opinion."

The kids looked at each other. This man was weird.

"His name is Shizumasa," Sarada carefully explained, "and he is the third prince of the fire country. I don't think he would kill himself but rather have a good explanation."

"So you were his team members. Well, let's end this conversation here. You are getting off this time with a warning: Don't do anything like this again or you will have to deal with the consequences," the man shrugged and got up again.

Bolt jumped to his feed, "and what about Shizumasa? When can we meet him?"

"Just fill out an application for an official audience. Maybe you'll be lucky in six months."

The shinobi waved and simply left the room.

"I can't wait that long," Bolt was stunned, "if we don't see him now, how is he going to tell us why he ran away? That idiot won't even remember!"

Sarada got up and put a hand on Bolt's shoulder, "don't worry. We will find a way." She looked at him with confidence in her eyes. The boy grinned. When Sarada was in a 100%, there would be no doubt that they would get done anything they wanted to.

"When do we start?"

"Tonight. We should head back first and-"

"-and what? Don't tell me you are planning on pulling Ako into one of your shenanigans," a female voice coming from the door asked. There stood a slender young woman of maybe 1,65 meter height. She had short unkempt dark hair and also wore the classical Konoha uniform with a banda around her hips. Her eyes had a playful look to them as she greeted the teenagers. Her name was Mirai Sarutobi.

The young woman had quite the reputation in the village: Mirai's mother was Kurenai Yui, Bolt's mother's old teacher. That's how he recognized her in the first place. But everybody said that while she had her mother's hair and eyes, her other features were a lot like her father's: Asuma Sarutobi. He was the son of the third Hokage and Konohamaru's uncle. He had been one of the best shinobi who had emerged the village. After a fight with his father, he had presumably left the village and taken on the duty as one of the twelve guardian shinobi in service of the Daimyo. Mirai had taken on the same duty just two years ago in honor of him.

She had always been good friends with Ako, who was some years older, and with Hanare Hatake, who was her age.

With Mirai as a familiar face the kids didn't feel too bad anymore. She was smiling and telling them some stuff about her job while leading them out of the guard's headquarters. The teens were already lightening up a bit when they got out of the building. Their smiles got swiped away quickly though, when they saw Ako waiting outside.

Usually Ako's mood was bright. She would joke around, hug her students (especially Bolt) a lot and be the center of all good mojo. Not today. She wore a leather jacket over a crop top that said "pop culture reference" and ripped black jeans with black block heel bootees. Her hair was open (usually a sign of great happiness), but her face was telling a whole different story: her lips pressed together, eyes narrowed, nose wrinkled. She did not look pleased.

"Oh hey Senpai," Mirai started, but she didn't get through.

"WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW FEELS TO GET A CALL FROM THE ROYAL GUARD REGARDING YOUR STUDENTS? USE YOUR IMAGINATION AND FOR ONCE! FOR FUCKING ONCE THINK ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTIONS! And now get over there," Ako pointed at a street sign, "and stay! You are not allowed to talk! NOW!"

The last time Bolt had seen their teacher like this had been, when she had found out that the D rank mission they were on was just a ruse to infiltrate the village with killer clowns. She had single handedly beat up 30 members of a travelling circus and held them at bay until her students were back with help. Back then her student's life had been on the line.

Sarada couldn't imagine what kind of thoughts she must have had, hearing that her students were in the custody of the royal guard and the guardian shinobi. Neither of the teens opened their mouth to utter a word of resistance.

"Wow, you are having a bad day, aren't you?" Mirai frowned a little. Ako on the other hand was trying to calm down.

"I was just… you know. How would your mother feel if she had gotten the call I just got," she brushed some strands of hair behind her ears, holding up her phone, "will there be any consequences..?"

Mirai shook her head, "not that I know of. Don't worry. By the way: Got time tonight? It's my free night and we haven't seen each other in almost… how long..? A little more than one year?"

"Yeah… These rascals are in detention tonight. So I guess I can have a drink or two with you," the teacher sighed, rubbing her face. Why did she get the most problematic group again? Oh right. She loved a challenge. Damn self-confidence.

"Good, let's meet at nine at the Takayama station. And," Mirai came closer to whisper into her senpai's ear (even though she had to get on her toes to do so), "wear something more comfortable. You know."

Ako raised her eyebrows, but didn't reply anything. Instead she just nodded, sighed and went to pick up her students beneath the street sign.

The ride back was a sad one. Ako was angry at Sarada and Bolt. She didn't say a word to them, scorning them with silence. Receiving that call from the royal guards had given her quite a shock. With those two anything could have happened. She watched in silence as both kids seemed to feel bad. They didn't talk or even dared to look at her.

Back at the hotel they got strict orders from their teacher: No TV, no games, no fighting. They would have to stay in and Ako would leave with them the next day, returning to Konoha. She didn't know how to 'punish' them any better than with cutting their holiday short. Ako hated being strict on them. But at some point they had to learn that they couldn't do just anything without consequences.

"I don't know when I'll be back," Ako had bent down to close her shoes, "stay here and don't do anything stupid. Otherwise I will have to report to the Hokage. And trust me: I don't want to do that…"

"Have a nice evening," Sarada carefully said, looking up from her current book ("A history of the fire country").

"You too," Ako sighed. Bolt nodded. He had been sulking in the corner ever since they got back. "There is money for pizza on the table. See you."

Ako closed the door behind herself and climbed on top of the hotel. She had remembered Mirai asking for more comfortable clothes. Therefore she had donned her work-out outfit (yoga pants and an anti-sweat top). In front of her was Keishi City. The place was already great by day, but at night thousands of little lights were opening windows into the life of the city's residents. Around the center skyscrapers had been erected with spotlights getting lost in the dark night sky. Only in the very middle of the town was a dark spot – the area around the sacred tree and its shrines were forbidden to have light at night. The priests said it was to give the spirits time to rest.

The teacher put up her hair into a ponytail and jumped onto the next roof.

"Downtown it is," she grinned.

Donk.

Donk.

Donk.

Donk.

"Could you please stop this?" Sarada didn't know why or where, but Bolt had found a tennis ball and was casually throwing it at the ceiling.

"Sarada, it's boring. Let's do something!"

"The last time we 'did' something, we ended up in an interrogation room. But if you have an idea that won't get us into any trouble, I'm in."

"We could play cards!"

"You were always the best at cards. I don't need to try to know that I would lose."

"I could teach you?" Bolt got up from his comfortable spot on the couch to sit across from Sarada at the table. He grabbed a piece of cold pizza. "You could learn from the master of card games how to play and maybe you will one day stand a chance against me?"

The girl observed him closely over the edge of the book, her eyebrows curled. He once again had that determined look in his eyes, as if he was challenging her. In comparison to last time though, it was a lot more playful.

"Yeah… and if I win you'll be angry at me for having learned something. Rather not…"

Bolt pouted, "You don't have a better idea right? So why not?"

"I actually like reading my book. Maybe you should try it too sometimes. It can be very educational," Sarada shifted her eyes back down. She had just found an interesting part concerning the origins of the daimyo's clan and their hazel wort crest.

"Oh why have I to be locked in here with the most boring person in the world? If we had just found Shizumasa…"

Bolt sighed, wiggled his foot up and down. It made Sarada nervous. He needed attention now, she got that.

"So…" Sarada put the book down, "what do you think Shizumasa is up to right now?"

"Maybe he is sleeping in a king-sized bed?"

"Maybe he just had a bath in a huge bathtub with bubbles everywhere?"

"What if he was just in a fine restaurant with a beautiful princess from somewhere far away?"

"What if they were in the path together?!"

Bolt stared at Sarada, "did you just imply something nasty?" She put her hands in front of her mouth.

"No no I didn't!"

Bolt started laughing at her red face, "this is awesome! And I thought you were going to stay like this forever hahahaha!"

Bolt almost fell of his chair with laughter and after some seconds even Sarada started to giggle. Their fun had a quick end though, when somebody knocked at the door.

"The neighbors…?" Bolt got up, stretched and went to open the door.

Sarada closed her book, "don't open. Ako has a key and you don't know who is on the other side!" She got up and tried to stop him, but too late. Bolt had opened the door and…

"What the-"something had fallen through the open door atop of the blonde. It was bigger than him, soft and smelled like an ugly mixture of blood, beer, shit and elderberries.

Sarada had run to the kitchenette and grabbed a large meat knife, but when she saw who entered after the smelly body had fallen onto Bolt, she quickly put it back into the drawer.

Mirai Sarutobi entered, her breath heavy, her body full of dirt. She held her left arm and let herself fall onto the couch. Ako entered right after her. The teacher's hair had fallen from the ponytail and was tousled around her shoulders. And she had lost her top somewhere on the way.

Bolt rolled the thing away from him and got up, "what the hell happened to you? And what is this?"

"Shhh," Ako looked around, closed the door and locked it. She then checked all the windows. When she was sure that nobody could peek in without using ninjutsu, she turned around. "You don't recognize him? Well, I can't blame you."

Sarada slowly approached the lump of flesh. It really smelt bad.

"…this is a human?"

"And an actually living one," Ako turned the body over, carefully picked it up and brought it to the couch. She nudged at Mirai to scoop over and placed the body on the soft fabric.

"Sarada, come over here and see what you can do for him. Bolt," Ako turned to the blonde, "get us a bowl with warm water, a towel and fresh clothes. There should have been a bathing yukata in the closet."

The girl stepped closer some more, "what… no… who is this?" She carefully examined the body with her eyes. It was a boy of maybe sixteen to eighteen years. He wore dirty rugs that maybe once had been white. Somebody had cut out the family crest on the chest part. The body was laced with small cuts, some of them infected, others had reopened after the body had been moved. The face was worse tough. It might have been beautiful once, but now there were deep cuts and cigarette holes all over it. Sarada only slightly touched one of the bruises, but the boy let out a loud moan anyways. He had no hair and his head showed signs of razor burn. Somebody had knotted a dirty piece of cloth over his eyes. It was stiff from probably previously being wet with blood or something similar.

When Sarada took it away, she jumped back. Where the eyes had been, only two deep red crusted holes stared at her.

"Who is this," she looked at her teacher, horror in her eyes. Bolt came close, to give the girl a little comfort.

Mirai eyed Ako and shook her head. The teacher's eyes darkened.

"This is Shizumasa… or at least what's left of him."

End of Chapter 34

Welcome back!

I know, I'm late again. But at least you get your updates, right? Most of my favorite storys didn't get any updates in over a year... And I really had to celebrate: I finally got the grade on my bachelor thesis and I freaking aced it! I couldn't be much happier at the moment...

Bolt is, has always been and will always be a rapscallion. His jokes change over time in size, intensity and overall nature, but the fact that he composes them won't. I don't pitty Sarada for being stuck with him all the time XD Back to the topic... this chapter introduces a temporary character: Mirai Sarutobi. If you remember, I already brought her up in the second exam when Sarada and Shizumasa talked. She is his teacher and just as worried about him as his team mates and Ako are.
And then we have that last part in which Shizumasa is finally discovered again. It wasn't an easy decision on what had happened to him, but I didn't want to do (as we say in Germany) "half baked things". His story has never been a happy one. A friend of mine asked if the thing with the eyes wasn't too harsh, but I think it fits in well with the overall Naruto theme of people (*caugh* Uchiha *caugh*) exchanging eyes like their underwear...

Anyways: What did you think? Were you shocked? Did you expect something like this to happen? Are you excited or afraid for the upcoming chapters?
Please leave a review or send me a PM with your thoughts. I do appreciate them :D

And for anybody who hasn't heard about it: There is a new Naruto related project coming up around the 18th/19th of December! Strap on your forehead protector and grab a kunai - we are going on an adventure!

Thank you for reading Finding Papa!

Hope to see you soon,

Your Usagi

Review Answers

Thank you all for reading this story and for leaving your thoughts! You keep me going!

Dark princess: Just my opinion, but I guess as soon as he sees her without glasses for real it could hit him like a warhammer XD Like "wtf who is that person" :D Thank you for reading the story! Hope to see you next week! Your Usagi

SoundlessWorld: Trust me - driving a car is fun! And I do get your point about that whole study thing... Yes, my first language is German. But while German once may have been the language of poets and poetry (Goethe, Schiller,...) it now is primarily used for describing things in detail. English is a much better language for expressing emotions. Well.. Japanese is good too XD Thank you for the review! Take care!

Rdk3: I actually doubt that anyone but the ANBU is able to use stealth at all :D Thank you so much for the praise! I worked really hard on that ending. It was the first ark and I didn't want it to end on a bitter note... The end of this ark right now might be bitter. I am trying to give the story a much darker, more mature twist. Since this is the first story I am really going through with (my word document is now at page 170), I don't know if I am capable of doing so. But I'll give my best as always. I'm sorry for the lazzy updates lately. The mixture of not knowing if I actually passed my thesis or not, not having a job and having moved back in with my parents really drained my brain. It sometimes feels empty. But then again it imagines crazy Skyrim storys that it compells me to act out -.- thanks brain. The next update is scheduled for Thursday - and I don't plan on delaying it! Thank you very very much, your reviews always make me smile and the effect lasts the whole day :D Take care and see you soon, your Usagi