Because I have work in 30 minutes, I'll be answering these weeks reviews tomorrow! Just make sure to come back :D Have fun!

Chapter 35: Research

Sarada's hands were calm. With all the professionality she could muster, she took care of Shizumasa's body. Bolt and Ako had cleaned his skin with towels and hot water. Sarada had then disinfected a sharp knife and started opening the infected wounds. Ako (as their teacher) was always carrying around a small bag with emergency necessities: band aids, wrappings, ointment, disinfection paste… Sarada cleaned the cuts of yellow puss and would put the paste on them. Bolt would patch them up with band aids or wrappings afterwards, depending on the size of the wound.

Shizumasa didn't say anything. Throughout the whole procedure all he did was groan or moan on occasion. But he never uttered a whole word. Only when Sarada tried to clean out the wounds his eyes had left behind, he would hiss a silent "stop it" at her.

"I'll just clean the outside then." The girl wasn't unhappy to not have to stick her finger into his skull. She was no full-fledged medical ninja. She didn't know and couldn't really say how to treat such a wound right. It was her holiday now, but damn did she wish her mother was there.

Mirai had fallen asleep in the big arm chair. Ako provided a blanket. Her younger college had had been fighting bravely before. The excitement had probably gotten her very tired.

When Sarada was done, Bolt wrapped Shizumasa into a fresh bathing yukata the hotel had provided.

"He'll need to take a shower later," he grabbed another blanket from the bed and put it over the now sleeping teenager. The boy also grabbed a cushion, puffed it up and carefully put it beneath Shizumasa's head. Sarada was astounded about how caring he could be. Not challenging or mocking at all. Just genuinely concerned for the wellbeing of his friend.

"He can do that when he wakes up." Ako stretched her muscles and picked the boy up, "sorry Bolt. You tucked him in very nicely but we should let him sleep on the bed. Do you mind?"

Bolt pouted again, but he didn't complain. Instead he followed Ako with the cushion and put it down right before she laid the body down. The teacher carefully put the blanked back in its spot before getting a bottle with water from the mini bar. She placed it right next to Shizumasa on the sideboard. When he woke up, he would be thirsty, she figured.

A quick glance at the clock told her that it was already three in the morning. Far too late for her understanding.

"Kids… Don't fight over it, but we gotta sleep and we only have two beds left. So-"

"I'll sleep on the couch," Sarada picked up her pajamas, "I'll just brush my teeth."

"Then I'll take whatever is left," Bolt shrugged, "I think Miss Mirai should sleep in the other bed. And I will just-"

"It feels great to see you so reasonable," Ako almost teared up upon her student's selfless proclamations, "but if that's the case Sarada will sleep in the last remaining bed, Mirai next to Shizumasa, Bolt you got the couch and I will take the arm chair. It looks pretty neat. Now chop chop," she yawned, "it's already late."

And it was done as Ako said.

The rest of the night was calm. No one disturbed them. None of them woke up. All of them had weird dreams though. Bolt would later tell a tale of how he was fighting a giant bee, Sarada got crushed by a book stack. Mirai dreamt of being thrown into a void, being all alone and Ako saw how she tried to protect her students, friends and family, but failed.

Morning came, but they didn't get up. Only Bolt once slurped through the hotel room to close the curtains. It was around noon when Sarada woke up to some swearing of the worst kind. She blinked to see straight. Shizumasa was sitting on the edge of the bed, his yukata drenched with water from the bottle. Mirai was already helping him. She simply dried the bottle on her shirt and handed it to Shizumasa. He lifted it up with shaking hands and almost drenched his whole face, but managed to finally drink. If Sarada hadn't known better, she would have guessed that he had a fever or a harsh form of the common cold. Then again she remembered the how they had found him the night before. It was a miracle he could sit straight. Slowly she worked her way out of the bed. Sarada Uchiha was definitely not a morning person.

"How are you," Sarada whispered to Shizumasa. The teenager jumped at her voice.

"Sarada? How are you here," his voice was raspy, as if he hadn't used it in a long time.

"You are here with me, Bolt, Ako and the one who gave you the bottle is Mirai. Mirai Sarutobi. You do remember her?"

He nodded. Mirai carefully put her arm around him. Shizumasa's body stiffened, as if ready to defend himself.

"I won't hurt you…"

"Sorry…" he relaxed just a tiny bit.

Sarada eyed him warily. Whatever had happened to him in these two weeks must have been a nightmare. All his wounds and bruises. Him jumping at the slightest touch. This wasn't the Shizumasa she knew, but a shadow of his former self.

"How are you feeling," Sarada asked carefully. She didn't want to upset him, "do you hurt?"

At first he didn't react. Then he slightly turned his head towards the direction her voice had come from.

"I'm fine. Some of the cuts hurt. But otherwise I'm fine."

"Good… do you want to take a shower?"

Shizumasa nodded.

"Mirai… would you please help him?"

"It's ok," the teenager got up from the bed quickly, only to sway around. If he still had his eyes, his vision would have been darkened since his blood circulation wasn't at its peak yet, "just tell me the general direction of the bathroom…"

In the end Mirai did escort him to the bathroom. She helped him orientate in the small plastic bath and closed the door behind her, "do you think he needs the light or can I just put it out? To preserve energy I mean?"

"If you do that the air conditioning will also stop and he'll notice that," someone groaned from across the room. Ako had woken up.

"Oh… how about breakfast then?"

"Mind getting some with Sarada? There is a convenience store just down the street. I'd love some onigiri. With tuna please."

"I want a sandwich with eggs," Bolt rolled over on the couch, "and please tell me why my back is stiff like a p-"

Ako shoved the boys head into his pillow to muffle the obscene comment.

It took Sarada and Mirai half an hour to get everything. They would buy fresh band-aids, three two liter bottles with water, enough sandwiches to feed three Bolt's, cup ramen, onigiri in different flavors and even some nikku man which had just been freshly made.

Sarada was pondering the whole time. It was just crazy. Their teammate vanishes for two whole weeks without a trace, only to reappear out of nowhere, looking like he had been in hell. Who would do such a thing? Who would rip out the eyes of a 16 year old boy? She could understand if someone was after her eyes. After all, she was an Uchiha and there was always someone willing to pay enough money to get their hands on rare talents. She remembered when Bolt's family had found out that his sister possessed the byakugan, their mother's family trademark eye technique. It was common to place anyone who wasn't a member from the main branch of the family under the control of a seal on their forehead, to make sure nobody got their hands on these eyes. The current branch leader, Bolt's aunt Hanabi, had made an exception for her big sister who was an excellent fighter and the wife of the hokage. The chance that anybody got their hands on her eyes was absolute zero. Her daughter was a whole other story: especially the elders insisted on having the seal on Himawari Uzumaki. They feared that the girl may be killed and her eyes taken. But the thing they mostly feared was a Hyuuga decedent who wasn't under the control of the main family. It wasn't until Himawari lost it and beat up all these old geezers. And she hadn't been much older than eight, making the old guys realize that it was hopeless.

But why Shizumasa? Why the prince of the fire country? He wasn't even the crown prince. Speaking of him…

Sarada looked at her companion, "Mirai-san do you know about the crown prince's whereabouts? Is he alright?"

"Uh yes, he is. Why are you asking?"

"I was just thinking. Why attack the third prince and not the crown prince?"

Mirai grinned, "Maybe we'll find out. Ako and I stored an asset in the laundry room of your hotel. We'll get him after breakfast to question him."

Breakfast was a rather dull affair though.

While Shizumasa had gone back to sleep after the shower (Sarada highly supported this since her mother had taught her that a person feeling not well, especially needed rest) and the rest of the group crowded around the small table to eat in silence (to not wake the prince up). When the dishes were done, Ako left to extend their stay at the hotel for two more nights. Mirai on the other hand went to get the asset from the laundry chamber. The "asset" was a dirty man in his thirties, dressed in rags with bloody scars all over his tattooed skin. Sarada assumed Ako had gone dark phoenix on his ass. He was unconscious, only slowly waking up. It gave the adults enough time to fill the kids in what had happened the night before.

"Well," Ako began, "where to start? I jumped from rooftop to rooftop and met you downtown, right?"

Mirai nodded, "yepp. And after we convinced Ayame from the ramen restaurant that we were not sent by her father to get her home by force..."

"That was close! I thought she was gonna skin us with her knifes," Ako leaned against a wall. She was panting.

"I didn't see that coming. I really didn't see that coming…"

Mirai sighed and slid down the wall Ako leaned against.

"So… you said you had an idea where Shizumasa might be?" Ako sat down next to the other woman.

"I found a clue to where to look first," Mirai reached into her pocket and pulled out two pieces of paper. Ako took the first one. It was a copy of a contract. The teacher skimmed over it.

"…why would the crown prince sign an assassination contract?"

"Beats me," Mirai rubbed her head, "I found it last week in a bucket meant for the incinerator. I kept it with me just in case. After all the crown prince had signed it. What would have happened if someone less trustworthy than me from the incinerator operators would have found it and given it to the press? A disaster."

"So why are you showing me this? What was the purpose of meeting here if it was just about some top-secret assassination? Why involve me," Ako's eyes narrowed. She figured she wouldn't like what was coming up next.

"Look at the picture. The second paper I gave you. It's a screenshot from one of our surveillance cameras on the underground entrance of the palace."

"You have an underground entrance? Interesting," Ako turned the picture around to have a better look at it. It was dark and kind of blurry. But she was able to piece together three silhouettes. There were two men she didn't know flanking a person with shining white hair-

"When did the camera pick this up? And why would Shizumasa enter his own palace through the back door?"

"Can I tell you a secret?"

Ako raised an eyebrow, "…yes?"

"No one knew he even came home. And I, his trainer and bodyguard, I wasn't even told that he quit the chunin exams."

"Oh shit…"

Ako didn't know what to say. At first she had thought that Shizumasa had gotten tired of fighting. Or that he simply didn't want to go through with the exam. Maybe his brother had given him permission to enter the guards already and he didn't need to finish the exam. None of this was a reason to quit the exam in Ako's eyes, but she would have understood. This development though, got her worried. She checked the date of the assassination contract. It was one day before Shizumasa had vanished. Shit.

"Do you think he is alright?"

Mirai pulled up her legs and rested her chin on them. "I don't know. The contract doesn't say anything. But I checked the camera footage and Shizumasa doesn't appear anymore. It's like he entered and vanished. There is a huge underground tunnel system beneath the palace in case the royal family has to escape quickly. He might be hiding there. But why would he be hiding away? Why wouldn't he ask me for help? He knows how much I care about his wellbeing… And I don't have the clearance to go down into the tunnels to look for him…"

"Let's go and pay these assassins a visit," Ako jumped up. Her expression had changed from worried to determined. She was going to find out what happened to her short term student.

The two women sneaked away from downtown and made their way towards the more ugly parts of Keishi City. Northern of the city center were the parts of town that slept at day and were light up in bright red and pink at night. Women in revealing yukata, skirts or net bodysuits were waving towards men who were – of course coincidentally – passing by. Mirai spotted a tiny fat man at one street corner. He wore a leather jacket, showing off his whole body tattoo beneath it.

Ako slammed him against the wall when he didn't want to answer her question. Her usually playful eyes had turned into a dangerous shade of anger and intimidation. When the man at first had told her to lose some of her clothing and he might consider answering her for special services in return, he was now shivering at the aura the shinobi jounin was emitting.

"Where do I find the people working under this sign," she asked once more, showing him the stamp above the assassination contract.

"J-just down the road to the left," he stuttered, "their headquarters are in the back of the n-n-nightcrawlers c-c-club! Please don't hurt me!"

"Oh I won't hurt you," Ako slightly backed up, putting him back on his feet.

"Thank god you b-" but her fist cut off his rude response, sending him into his own personal lulu-lala land.

Mirai raised an eyebrow, "do you think it was necessary to hurt him like this? I mean he gave us the information…"

"He has a cellphone," Ako turned to the right into a dark street, "I guess he knows at least someone there and I didn't want to give him the possibility to warn them."

They stopped in front of a broken neon sign. "So this is the Nightcrawler Club? Then this," Mirai stepped to the right and entered a small passage between two houses, "is the back of the club."

At the end of the passage was a wall with a door. It was metal and had the same sign on it as the contract. The women gave each other a nod, then they kicked down the door.

"Well hello bitches," Ako grinned and punched the first guy running towards her in the face.

Chapter 35 End

Hello there!

We are getting a new manga called "BORUTO" by Kishimoto-sensei's assistant. I'm not sure if I should cry or laugh or júst be happy or whatever. It just really feels like back then with Gaiden like this story isn't needed anymore. With all the books and stuff I already feel like they take away a lot of freedom from the readers to imagine things themselves (like Sasuke Shinden, Gaiden, the whole Hiden series,...). I love these! But well.. I like imagining my own things :/

Also: The new Star Wars movie is out! I watched it, I loved it! Go watch it guys :D

This chapter is half normal story, half flashback. Shizumasa may seem... ok, but he is not. He defenitelly is not ok at all! But you'll get more of it later on ;)

How did you like the chapter? I hope you enjoyed it! Next week is christmas - I hope I can upload a chapter.

See you then!

Your Usagi