A/N: Thank you for the favs, follows and reviews. Happy reading x
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto. This story is purely a work of fanfiction.
Nina- is my original character (I do own her)
Chapter 13
The call of a therapeutic soak in a spa was too great to pass up for his aversion to people. Nina had found her way through the muddle of people to find the actual spa was far from crowded. Slipping into the warm and fragranced water, she felt her body's tension loosening and her mind calming.
Nina paused taking in the brilliant shades of red and orange hues as the sun set into the distant mountains. There were a couple of ladies huddled close by who were rambling about the several stray dogs that had been seen in the forestry nearby. Nina would have passed it off until one lady chimed in about how they'd sighted a monstrous beast of a dog. Bull. She thought about staying put for a bit longer but, if civilians had seen them and there were any rebels or ninja lurking within the area, then it may have alert them to their presence.
It was foolish on his behalf and on her way back to the room, Nina ran over the possible reasons for why Kakashi would have to send his ninken out. A training exercise? Like their human counterparts, their skills needed to be conditioned was one possibility. A new threat. Maybe. But the most likely reason that he'd sent them out was on account of Nina's concern she'd voiced earlier. Kakashi had rejected the idea of anything threatening, convincing Nina it was to be expected that they came across chakra signatures, this close to the border. So, why?
Oh that idiot!
Nina was 31; hardly the helpless teenager who held a narrow and jaded view of the world. Additionally, the two men who'd made the request were no longer in the living.
If there was one thing that really got under Nina's skin, was obligatory acts of service. Her… erm… the Third Hokage, had only ever given her the time of day based on obligation and duty. Nina double backed and pulled up under a tree. She tossed her bundle of clothes and toiletries to the base of the tree, crossed her arms and stamped her foot hard enough that it sunk a fair way down, needing her to wiggle her foot around, before it came free. For the love of the Fourth.
Sitting on her backside, with her chin resting in the palm of one hand propped up on a bended elbow, resting on one knee and the other plucking mindlessly at the blades of grass, Nina churned over the situation. She at least ought to be thankful for the chivalrous display. She'd felt it was important to inform him of the ill-boding presence and he had obviously gave it some further thought and acted on it. Still… Nina couldn't shake her skepticism and making it worse was she didn't know how she would or rather should deal with it.
Humanness sucked. Comparatively, being a shinobi, medic-nin and assassin was a walk in the park. Everything was clear, precise, calculated and uncomplicated by emotions. Well… mostly.
Nina laid her head against the trunk, closed her eyes, lazing her arms over her bent up knees and brooded.
When the shadows resulted from the moon and not the sun, Nina decided to return to their room. There was a soft glow from under the door. He was probably reading.
Opening the door Nina discovered Kakashi was already asleep. He was sprawled out in the centre of the bed, unfettered of his mask and hitai-ate and one arm draped over his face. Undoubtedly, he had been running minimal sleep over the last few weeks too. A pang of guilt tugged on her heart; without question she'd been a primary cause of his suffering. Nina fetched and unrolled her bedroll onto the floor at the foot of the bed. Flicking off the bedside lamp she tiptoed back to her bed for the night.
"That was a complete waste of my time, Shikaku."
"I have to disagree, Milady."
"You honestly think he would readily come clean?" Tsunade raised one eyebrow, looking up from the mission request she was reading as Shikaku dumped another sizeable stack on the corner of her desk.
"If you doubted he would, shouldn't you have sent him to Ibiki?"
"Hmpf." She turned her head away. Damn his intellect. "Any luck with your investigation?"
"It's still underway Milady. However, Kabuto has been on leave."
She slammed her palm down onto the desk. "Leave? I didn't approve that."
"No. The Elders did."
"What?! Those interfering old geezers." Flicking her bangs from her eyes, Tsunade took a seat at her desk again. "Never mind. How long?"
"He's been on leave for the last three days, though his whereabouts are unknown."
Dammit. One of their lead suspects was unaccounted for.
"Road block?"
"Jiraiya. Wait, where's Naruto?"
"Mount Myoboku. Training."
"Good. The Elders, in all their infinite wisdom, approved leave for Kabuto. And he is of course missing."
"That is concerning. Maybe coincidence?"
"Too much so. He mysteriously disappears a few days after we apprehend the guy at the restaurant."
"Stop stressing. You'll start showing your real age."
Okay, so not that smartest thing he could have said. "Sorry. Sorry."
"Argh. Furthermore, I'm short staffed as it is. I can't afford to send any more bodies out. Shikaku."
"Ma'am?"
She chewed maliciously on her thumbnail.
"I know what you're thinking. I suggest you wait a bit longer before doing that."
"It'd only be one of them."
Shikaku again was in between the half conversations of Jiraiya and Tsunade. Luckily, it wasn't as cryptic as it had been and he was able to make an easy assumption about whom they were talking about. Kakashi and Nina.
"You expect her to stay?"
"She doesn't have a choice, Jiraiya. It was pure luck that she walked away with a forced hiatus."
Jiraiya didn't like where this was going but, be things as they were, there wasn't another option.
"If I hold off, I risk more deaths. Currently, Naruto is safe in Mount Myoboku. Sasuke is under the watch of a fulltime guard. Bringing back Kakashi to supervise Sasuke will free up the bodies I've needed to assign to the Uchiha's guard. Nina will be fine and she can fulfill the terms of her punishment."
"Tomorrow."
"Jiraiya-"
"I've taken the liberty of sending my toads in to determine any information they can on Orochimaru. No offence Shikaku."
"None taken." Jiraiya was their prime candidate for infiltration and collection of intel.
"They should be back tomorrow." He pushed two piles of paperwork to the side, giving him clear view of Tsunade. "If they don't have anything conclusive, then, you can bring Hatake back. Deal?"
"Tch. Fine. Deal. Shikaku call back the team, we'll rely on whatever details we can obtain from Jiraiya's toads. We need the man power back in here in the village."
"Understood. I'll go make arrangements. Oh and the Kazekage has approved Temari's extension."
"Thank you."
Shikaku took his leave.
"I take it Sasuke didn't say anything?"
"Not a thing. Why do you ask?"
"Oh no reason really. There was an incident while training today. More of a miscommunication apparently."
"Is that all?"
Jiraiya scratched his head, noting Tsunade's concentration heavily invested in the mountain of paperwork in front of them. "Yes. I've got to go check on Naruto. I'll see you later."
"Uh huh."
At lunch, the little knuckleheaded ninja had continued his displeasure in having their training session cut short. He was also mouthing off about that business with the disappearing shadow clone. Naruto claimed that Sasuke had pointed out a forgotten shadow clone that didn't exist, however, Sasuke denied it and stated that Naruto had misheard him and it was nothing.
Jiraiya pulled the plug from the sake bottle and took a swig, placing it on the narrow balustrading he was perched on overlooking a lake.
Naruto also said that Sasuke had been distracted after their training session yesterday and injured Sakura. Yet again Sasuke had claimed it was nothing.
Jiraiya scratched his head and took another drink.
It could be nothing. But Naruto Uzumaki was like himself. A fool, and an honest one at that. Lying wasn't in his nature.
What were they missing or was he reading into an innocent scuffle between rivals?
Essentially a shadow clone was a chakra signature. Detectable to a shinobi just as easily as if it were the real thing. He lounged back, crossing his ankles over each other, and hands cushioning the back of his head against the wooden pillar. Neither Naruto nor he had sensed anything. Meaning it was one of two things – nothing or something. The something being the more ominous of the two possibilities.
Having despatched Naruto to Mount Myoboku for further training in genjutsu and breaking it, Jiraiya had been freed up to do some investigations of his own. He'd tracked down one of Orochimaru's prized pupils. Anko.
It stood to reason that if only Sasuke could sense the mysterious chakra that it may have actually belonged to Orochimaru. If that was the case, any others who'd been in close quarters with him should also be able to pick up the same thing. This left very few candidates. Many of his former teammate's experiments hadn't survived.
Talks with Anko turned up empty although it didn't escape the sage's attention, the several times Anko had massaged the spot on her shoulder where Orochimaru's cursed mark stained her skin. Perhaps, it was reflex given the topic of discussion.
Kabuto's whereabouts were to be established. Regardless, it was pointless asking him.
"Huh?"
"Jiraiya-boy. You're needed back at Mount Myoboku. Naruto is… well, we could do with some help."
Giving the sake bottle a gentle swirl, there was a good third left. He'd leave that for her. After all, this was a favourite spot of hers.
"Jiraiya-boy…"
"Alright, alright. Let's go."
"Do you know how reckless sending out your ninken was?"
"I do, and it's precisely why I called them back as soon as I realised my mistake."
"Not soon enough. The whole place was talking about it."
Well… that was a bit of an exaggeration. Never mind.
With one hand in a pocket and the other holding his book, Kakashi kept his even pace at a distance and voice low- in complete opposition to Nina. She was struggling to keep a lid on her … anything.
"You told me it was nothing to worry about and then go and do that?" "What if someone is out there? What if that person I sensed in the restaurant is a serious threat?"
"If that happens then we will just deal with it."
"We wouldn't have to if you hadn't done it in the first place."
Heh. Nina was reprimanding him. True he'd made a poor judgement call, but it wasn't one that he thought would earn him the aggression Nina was spitting at him. The last time he'd been on the receiving end of her temper, he'd been caught out on the whole bet thing. This wasn't like that at all.
Without looking Kakashi could hear the scuffs of her feet on the ground, and the knocking when she kicked a rock and it skipped along the path ahead of them.
A few minutes passed and Nina had become a little more even-tempered, she steeled herself to ask the question that she'd been languishing over since late yesterday afternoon. "Why did you send them?" She slanted her head, only briefly did their eyes meet, before his returned to his book and hers to the rock she was kicking.
"To be sure."
"Not out of duty or because of a promise?"
A promise? Kakashi slapped the book together and deposited it into his pack. Musing at her chosen words; or rather word.
"Asuma and …" Nina stumbled on the name. Swinging her leg back and releasing, sent a rock she'd been dallying with, towards a tree on the side of the path. Boring a hole into it. "Anyway, they both died. As did the promise or whatever it was they requested of you regarding my wellbeing."
Whilst he was both aware and respectful of her detestation to obligatory acts, it was an honest mistake. An unexpected lapse of logic on his behalf, stemming from another, more distant, unkept promise.
Clearing his throat of the lump that had begun to form, Kakashi attempted to redirect his thoughts.
"I think we should rest for the night at the inn and head to the orphanage tomorrow."
Nina had been waiting for a reaction. "Uh, okay." Just not that reaction. Picking up on an unusual unsteadiness in his voice, Nina decided it best for her to say no more.
The last two hours of their journey was had in complete silence, only breaking when Kakashi's nose picked up an all too familiar scent. Rain.