Chapter 38: Exposed

The moment Sakura awoke, she quickly made up an excuse to get away from the others. She then proceeded to run deep into the woods to get out of earshot and duck into some bushes. As soon as she was safely hidden from sight and out of earshot, Sakura whipped out her communicator. She had to tell Ino! First Rita pulls an evil Power Ranger from somewhere and now this. With panicked desperation and despair warring in her heart, Sakura pressed one of the buttons on her communicator.

0o0o0

Kiba was in the middle of class. For some reason, ever since he'd started class back up after failing his genin exam, he hadn't been able to get away with anything. If he snuck out of class, Iruka would notice. If he painted eyes on his eyelids and tried to catch some sleep, Iruka would catch on. If he said he needed to use the bathroom and left to do something else, Iruka would capture him seconds after he started to move away from the bathroom. Even when he did things in other rooms, Iruka would somehow know. It was like Iruka had somehow gained the ability to see through walls. As a result, Kiba was now on rather thin ice. So for once, Kiba was actually pretending to pay attention and take notes, even though he had already heard this lecture before.

Abruptly, a series of beeps emitted from his communicator, followed immediately by the sound of Sakura yelling something incomprehensible. "INONEGI'SANEVILSPACEWITCH!"

Kiba dropped his pencil and looked down at his communicator in horror. He then looked back up to find Iruka standing in front of him.

"Oh wow," said Iruka with fake cheer. "Is that a wrist-mounted two-way communicator? I've always wondered what it would be like to have one of those. And now I'll know!" Iruka held out his hand.

Kiba groaned in frustration and pressed the response button on the side of his communicator.

0o0o0

A moment passed before Sakura got a response. "Thanks for that, Sakura," said Kiba's voice, heavy with sarcasm. "Thank you very much."

"You can have it back tomorrow after class," said Iruka in the background, and the line went silent.

Oops, thought Sakura. Let me try that again. Taking a calming breath, Sakura pressed the correct button on her communicator this time, then waited for a response instead of just shouting into her communicator again. She didn't have to wait long.

0o0o0

Ino groaned in frustration. She was so bored! When that pair of ninja wannabes had tried to assassinate her team's client by ambushing them from a puddle, she'd been excited about the prospect of being on an actual mission that wasn't just cheap labor for citizens of Konoha. But ever since Kurenai had genjutsu'd Zabuza into drowning himself upon their arrival, the mission had been a total bore.

Supposedly, Gato, the local psychopath who had taken over the town, had an army of mercenaries at his beck and call. But if he did, he certainly wasn't using them to kill Tazuna. Unfortunately, because he supposedly had them, someone needed to be watching Tazuna and his workers at all times. And unfortunately, because she'd made the mistake of teleporting in front of Shikamaru, she was now covering his shifts for the sake of providing him incentive to keep his mouth shut. And to top it all off, she'd left her copy of Icha Icha Paradise back at Konoha. So when her communicator beeped, it came almost as a relief.

"I read you, forehead," said Ino. "What's up?"

"Ino! Negi's an evil space witch!"

Ino giggled, which quickly spread into full out laughter. It was just so random.

"Ino, I'm serious! That staff he always carries! It's actually a magic wand!"

"Sure, sure," said Ino, obviously unconvinced. "Negi's an evil space witch on par with Rita and clearly I must abandon all romantic interest in him." Ino snickered again. "Thanks forehead, I needed that. This stupid bridge mission is so monotonous that I thought I was going to lose my mind."

"Ino, I swear this isn't an attempt to convince you not to pursue Negi anymore for the sake of making it easier for me to seduce him."

"That's what you said the time you told me he was allergic to blonds."

"Well I'm not lying this time!" Sakura said, realizing how unconvincing she sounded just after she said it.

"That's what you said when you told me he was having an illicit affair with the ramen guy. Sorry, but you need to try harder than that." Ino shivered. Is it just me, or is it suddenly getting a lot colder?

"You've got to believe me! I saw it with my own eyes! Negi ran forward way faster than could possibly be natural, raised his magic wand, spoke an incantation, blew apart a jounin-level ninjutsu like it was nothing, and stripped Naruto and Ryouga naked!"

"Okay, I think I need some context here, because that sounds amazing."

"Dammit Ino, this is serious! Look, just think for a moment. Rita showed up a year ago, right?"

"About 10 months, give or take," Ino corrected. Where the heck's this fog coming from?

"And Negi only showed up 6 months and 3 days ago," said Sakura.

"Yeah," Ino replied. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion as the visibility around her began rapidly dropping.

"So it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Rita had something to do with Negi's arrival."

"I guess not," acknowledged Ino.

"Meanwhile, Negi, the supposed son of the famous mercenary Nagi the Thousand Master, shows up out of nowhere one day. Nobody's heard of him before, he goes from not knowing how to mold chakra to graduating the academy in six months flat, he coincidentally ends up on the same team as one of the power rangers, and the last place he was recorded as living at was burned to the ground 6 years ago."

"Uh-huh," said Ino, not really listening anymore. Looks like Gato had someone else in reserve after all. Better get closer to dumbass before he gets killed. "Sakura, I need to go."

"I'm serious, Ino! I think Negi's a plant from Rita!"

"Okay, we'll talk about it later. Bye." Ino promptly ended the transmission by turning off her communicator. Kurenai, Chouji, and Shikamaru still aren't back yet. And the next shift is supposed to be Shikamaru's, so I'm probably not getting backup. Should I morph? Ino seriously considered it for a moment. The fog was thick enough that she could probably get away with it, but the Power Rangers showing up out of nowhere this far from where they normally operated to save the day would raise questions. One Power Ranger showing up during Ino's shift while Ino disappeared, only to reappear after said ranger left would be basically screaming her secret identity to the world. Or at the very least to Shikamaru. Assuming he hadn't already figured it out. Eh, I'll stick to just using the Power Axe. If it turns out Gato hired another missing nin like Zabuza I'll reconsider, but if it's just another incompetent like the puddle brothers, I should be more than capable of handling this as is.

0o0o0

"Ino, wait! Ino! Ino, are you listening? Ino!" With a growl of frustration, Sakura lowered her communicator, only to immediately raise it again. Reaching for the button, Sakura suddenly froze.

Sakura took a moment to scan her surroundings, ensuring that she was alone. Unfortunately, she missed a very alarmed ermine scampering off after hearing far too much of her conversation with Ino for her liking. Taking a deep breath, Sakura pressed another button on her communicator.