Chapter 13
Sustainability Stone Arc part 3
"Here." Moegi shoves food pills at Sarada, while Namida's taking a quick shower.
Her chakra depleted, Sarada eats them quickly. When all six Genin are relatively clean and their chakra replenished, Moegi and Hanabi lead them to a watchtower guarding the Hidden Rain Village. They can just spot the tall dark towers in the distance where the village must be.
There, instead of meeting Ame shinobi, they are met with a group of Iwa shinobi with rocks on their headbands.
"Oh right, I forgot we're here to help Iwa shinobi." Sarada blinks, readjusting her glasses – they keep slipping down her nose because of the rain.
"They're carrying something." Shikadai's sharp eyes draw the rest of the Genin to the parcel that's being handed over by Ame shinobi at the watchtower to the Iwa group.
"Shikadai." For the first time, Moegi-Sensei's voice is serious and flat.
Shikadai's eyes narrow. Clearly he's not happy being told not to try and analyze anything here, but he doesn't argue with the silent order.
"Hey!" an Iwa shinobi with two giant shuriken on his back, likely on patrol, flashes behind them. "Identify!"
"328 escort backup. Konoha." Hanabi calls calmly, unsurprised by the shinobi's appearance.
After their training session, Sarada seriously doubts anyone's ever snuck up on Hanabi Hyuga.
Note to self: never mess with Bortuo's aunt in any way.
"Show me your papers!" the shinobi demands.
Hanabi-sensei deliberately takes out the golden scroll from her pocket.
"There are no papers for this one, so if we passed can you stop fussing and let us through?" Moegi-Sensei calls easily, but her stance is battle-ready.
The shinobi takes a moment, and then nods sharply. "Just on time, we're ten from departure." After yelling that, he flashes away once more.
"Good, we missed the boring part." Moegi-Sensei shrugs, causing Hanabi-sensei to chuckle. "I'll greet the Squad Leader on our behalf. You should stay out of sight until then."
Both Jonin exchange nods and Moegi flashes from sight.
There's a beat of waiting as the rain drops loudly on the tree branches taking the brunt force of the cloudy skies.
Shikadai raises his hand up. "I'm going to the bathroom."
Hanabi-Sensei nods slightly, eyes focusing on nothing and everything.
Shikadai walks away from sight, and Sarada narrows her eyes on Inojin's quick glance at his Teammate's direction.
"I've got to go too, Hanabi-sensei." Sarada calls casually, internally smirking when Inojin's painting hand twitches – his secret tell.
Hanabi-sensei glances at her. "You as well, Sarada-chan?"
Sarada shrugs, looking sheepish. "All this rain, you know?"
Hanabi sighs. "Go, but quickly. We're moving soon."
"Yes!" she makes sure to appear to be headed in a different direction from Shikadai, only to quickly make her way to him as soon as she's far enough out of sight.
Static sounds reach her ears above the pitter-patter of the rain.
"Damn." Shikadai's voice mutters, too preoccupied with the device in his hands to notice Sarada until she's right in front of him, folding her arms over her chest disapprovingly.
"Seriously?" she asks, wondering how Shikadai even graduated the academy sometimes.
Shikadai jumps, green eyes jumping up to her black ones and widening.
"Pervert."
Sarada blushes. "I am not! I knew you were up to something! I just can't believe you're ditching an SSS-rank mission to play that game!"
Shikadai's expression clears in understanding and he looks annoyed. "How'd you know?"
"Inojin's face." Sarada doesn't explain further – she doesn't need to. Inojin's clear expression can hide a lot, but Sarada knows him well and knows all his tells by now. Perceptive as Shikadai is, Sarada's sure he knows them too.
"But also I know you, and as soon as your sensei is out of view you made a move. Then saying it's to the bathroom you made sure Hanabi-sensei wouldn't check up on you and see what you're doing with her Byakugan… It wasn't difficult to figure out."
Shikadai waves the game the boys in her year at the academy used to play all the time and grumbles "Fine. And I'm not playing, I'm using it to communicate with Denki back at home."
"How?" Sarada glances at the game curiously.
"He tired to explain it…" Shikadai rubs the back of his head, annoyed.
Sarada smirks. "Too complicated for you?"
"Up yours, Uchiha. Anyways, I think the signal's too weak." He shows her the broken image on the screen of a frozen Denki.
"I remember Boruto used to run around the courtyard pulling an antenna out of this thing and yelling about a boss, looking stupid." Sarada says, remembering how some of the tech at Orochimaru's lab had strange looking antennas like that too – when she went searching for her dad with Seventh and Cho-Cho. Although, Sarada knows better than to mention underground labs by strange individuals casually, even to her friend.
Shikadai snaps his fingers. "Of course!" he pulls out an antenna from the side all the way up and Denki's image comes to life.
"- just pull it out it should help the connection -!"
"Yeah I just did, can you hear us Denki?" Shikadai asks, moving the game upwards and Sarada assumes Denki can see her as well.
Denki nods. "Yep. So what's going on? I said to use this for emergencies!"
"I need you to look for things Amegakure might be hiding that are extremely valuable or might need guarding."
Sarada stares at him.
"It's probably not a person but they could be pretending its some small package to hide the real mark."
Denki raises his eyebrow. "I can't promise you anything like that will come up in a search, Shikadai. I mean, Rain country only recently started keeping records and if it's really valuable they wouldn't catalog it – they'll probably hide its existence from the other villages if they can."
"Yeah well, this they didn't – or anyways, now the Allied forces know about it for sure." Shikadai concludes.
"Alright… I'll check."
"Thanks." Shikadai shits off the game device and meets Sarada's stoic glare.
"We should hurry before it's weird."
"It's already weird. What are you doing?"
"I just want to know, alright? I didn't sign up to be a blind soldier – they shouldn't ask that of us."
"We're ninja." Sarada reminds him slowly. "We follow orders."
"Look I'll still complete the mission obviously! But aren't you curious?" he baits, knowing that as strict as Sarada appears she's got curiosity to spare.
Sarada shrugs. "Better hurry, you've been to the bathroom for a long time." She reminds him.
Shikadai blenches. "Right." And returns to the group.
Sarada leans against a tree trunk for a minute before taking a rounder route to reach their group so it appears they've returned from different directions.
Moegi turns at the rustle Sarada's coat makes pushing against the bushes. "Now that we're all here, let's head out! Keep your heads down and your ears open for any new command from myself or Hanabi-san!"
The eight Konoha shinobi join a large group of tense Iwa shinobi, some of which nod at the two Leaf Jonin in acknowledgment and that's about all the greeting they get before a very mustached man takes charge of the crowd and directs them.
"Unit 328 will now turn to mobile transport stage!" he calls grandly, voice shooting through the air above the rain. "Main forces at center and Sensory team take the rear! I want teams 2 and 3 each on west and east patrols and lookouts within the forest!" as he talks bulks of shinobi flash away to their positions. "Up front my team and barrier team! And between rear and west I want team 1 and backup – if any line of outer defense falls you'll compensate! Let's go!"
The area clears quickly as they follow Moegi and Hanabi, standing right between the west patrols and the rear sensory team. A little ahead of them they watch the main forces (along with whatever it is they're supposed to be guarding) and the front teams must be somewhere ahead.
"Hello, it looks like we'll be working alongside each other." A tall Iwa shinobi with a brown flak jacket a bit different then the Leaf standard one introduces himself. "Hero, I'm in charge of team 1."
"Moegi and Hanabi, heads of the double backup unit." Moegi responds briskly.
Double backup unit sure sounds better then – these six 12 year old Genin we managed to spare.
Sarada wonders if the political jargon comes with experience or if they teach it to shinobi once they reach a certain rank.
Everyone of Team 1 are either chunin or higher, which makes it awkward for the genin to approach or strike conversation with them.
They walk for a while when the center teams stop.
"Why are they stopping?" Namida asks, worried frown on her face.
Hanabi-sensei sighs. "Whatever you may learn about this mission will be from what you'll witness, and not from being pre-told. See?" she gestures at the two shinobi from the patrol teams approaching over.
"They're making sure patrol reports are clear." Shikadai realizes, watching as the center forces resumed their march. "Every… what, it's been a quarter of an hour? So every fifteen minutes?" He glances at his sensei.
Moegi-sensei shrugs in a who-knows way. "Guess you'll find out in fifteen minutes, Shikadai."
Inojin frowns, annoyed. "What's the point of keeping it from us if we'll find out anyways?"
"That way if we're captured by the enemy we won't be able to tell them anything except that which has already passed." Sumire says gravely, purple eyes narrowed. "We know 15 min after we headed out the center forces stopped, but we wouldn't be able to confirm they'll stop again fifteen minutes from now until we see that they do – and so on."
"Mm." Hanabi-sensei agrees approvingly at her student.
"Great," Shikadai looks sourly at Sumire. Sarada wonders if he's jealous she figured it out first. "So we're operating on the assumption that we would get captured on this mission by an enemy." His voice tight with sarcasm.
"That is great." Sarada agrees without the sarcasm.
To her left, Wasabi and Inojin stare at her like she's lost it.
"Hey, beats cat missions." Sarada tells them honestly.
"Too much rain got through her ears to her brain." Wasabi tells Inojin sagely, who nods solemnly.
It's twenty minutes later that the center forces pause once more.
They must be making the reporting times random on purpose so they'll be unpredictable.
The west patrol kunoichi comes over to report. The east shinobi does not.
There is an air of unease through the large road, rain seeping through their cloths and to their bones in a chilling way.
Sarada can hear the echo of the mission leader's voice shouting something up ahead.
"What… do we do?" Wasabi asks, eyes sharply taking in everything.
"We're backup. If needed, we backup." Moegi-sensei says tightly, expression serious and clear. "Hanabi-san?"
The veins around Hanabi-sensei's eyes tighten and bulge, and she looks around with her Byakugan.
"Figures…" she observes. "Sensory team is unsure if they're enemy or the patrol ninja."
"They're making any moves?"
"Nothing clear." Hanabi says calmly.
BOOM!
The air pocket from the huge explosion hits over them, throwing the rain on their faces painfully and almost knocking them off their feet.
"…Okay, now it's clear." Hanabi-sensei concludes with so much dignity it must be a Hyuga clan trait.
"We'll take east side!" Hero yells over the noise from the others. "You stay here in case they go after any other unit!" he calls before Team 1 flashes over to the explosion quickly.
"Copy!" Moegi-sensei yells, pulling a kunai from her tool bag. "Everyone, be ready for anything!"
"Yes!" the genin reply, all trying to prepare for the unknown.
KABOOM!
Bits of trees caught in the explosion fly in the air ahead of them, as the bombing causes the earth to shake beneath Sarada's feet.
"What the hell is going on?!" Wasabi hisses, sinking nails to the ground and crouching like a cat, ready to jump on anything coming their way.
'I am Jirgu, of the sensory team.'
Sarada jumps at the voice in her head.
'To avoid confusion and chaos I will now give everyone a clear picture of the situation so no mistakes are made. East side and the front forces are attacked. Team 1 is on their way to east team, front forces are easily standing on their own and don't need assistance. Team backup, we need you to go to east side as well, where we sense the majority of the enemy's power. Center forces – please move forward. Our objective is to help you make it to the destination. Good luck everyone.'
"Let's go!" Moegi calls, and everyone heads to where Hero's team disappeared to.
While the center forces walk through the main roads, the east patrols are located in the tangled mess of trees and bushes and moss and grass, all dripped in the never-ending rain, no doubt making sure no enemy hides there.
And turns out they are hiding there.
"What now?" Shikadai asks, looking at the shadows around them – too many places an enemy could hide and observe them from in here, and they can't spot any ally.
"Left!" Hanabi-sensei calls without pausing in her run, eyes seeing far beyond the nearest trees blocking everyone else's sights.
Everyone follows her, as she makes her way through the forest expertly, like she could map it all out without trouble.
She probably can.
"Can the Byakugan user please fuck off?" asks a sweet voice, ringing across them all like a song.
"Why don't you ask her face to face?" Moegi-sensei baits, trying to determine where the noise is coming from.
"Because I wasn't born yesterday?" the woman replies, voice like silk.
I know it.
I KNOW IT.
"Now, little petals." The voice orders, and Sarada can feel in her bones that something bad is coming. The whole forest shines with flower petals. Then the petals spread and break off, turning into dancing gems, half sticking to each other. In seconds, it's like sparkling spiders have been living in this forest for hundreds of years and have made it their home.
"What the hell?!" Inojin gasps, staring all around them.
"Can you still see me sweetheart?" the silky voice demands.
Hanabi-sensei's face, for the first time since Sarada's known her, is contorted in anger. Hanabi doesn't answer.
"Good." The unknown woman says.
I KNOW her.
"Let's probe a little in your abilities, Allied Forces, shall we?" she calls, before a small, triangle and metallic looking thing, flies away next to Sarada.
A butterfly?
Sarada turns to look at it and freezes. It's hers. She used it when she fought, all those months ago.
Delta.
"Watch out!" Moegi-sensei's scream tore Sarada's eyes away from the flying piece of technology.
A second later three cloaked figures flash over them, landing softly before them.
The strange thing is, that even over the hoods all three have six flowers hovering around their heads like a halo.
"Water Release!" Moegi-sensei yells, hands flying with the speed of her signs, and everyone starts fighting while Sarada's head is still preoccupied with her discovery.
How is Delta alive, I've seen Seventh kill her.
A kick cuts through Sarada's shoulder painfully and she reels back.
"Sarada focus!" Moegi yells.
"I am focused…" Sarada grumbles under her breath, avoiding one of the enemies that decided to zoom in on her for some reason. "Just not on this."
Is it Kawaki? Is he here? Is that why Delta's here? Is she after him again? Is he the 'package' we're transporting to a secret location? Shikadai did say the real target might be a person –
Ziiiiiip!
When a lightning jutsu so blazing blue misses her nose by pure luck, Sarada takes it as her dad somehow admonishing her from wherever he is and shuts her brain off and focuses.
Sarada activates her Sharingan and avoids all the attacks headed her way, learning carefully how her enemy operates.
"I knew I liked you!" the man rejoices. "Your eyes are mine, Uchiha!"
Hanabi-sensei's kunai flies right through one of the six flowers on the man's head and it breaks.
"Break the flowers!" Moegi-sensei orders, throwing and bending her kunais with precision.
Throwing three shuriken at the enemy swiftly – whoosh swirl whoosh! – Sarada jumps when he sends lighting orbs at her.
"Nue!" Sumire yells, making her special summoning jutsu, and the large beast shows up – almost the size of old Akamaru now. "The chakra webs, Nue!"
Nue growls and jumps around franticly, where he goes the strange glittering webs get absorbed into him, and it's almost like he's growing bigger.
It's chakra – it's blocking Hanabi-sensei's Byakugan. Sarada realizes.
"These two are annoying!" one of the three – a short woman with a pouty voice – calls at the two jonin. "Bye bye!" she does a complicated hang sign Sarada barely has time to register as earth style, before an earth release barrier separates Moegi, Hanabi, and anyone who is standing between them, from those left.
Sarada, Sumire, and Wasabi watch in dismay as they're left with two of the enemies.
"Better!" the woman calls. "Now let's – OWWW!" she screeches, as Nua sinks it's long teeth onto her waist. "You filthy-!"
"Ninja Art: Cat Cloak!" Wasabi's hood glows green and she grows cat-like ears. "Hold her still Nue!" Wasabi jumps with sharpened instincts and slams her claws through three of the flowers of the woman triumphantly.
The man kicks her away before she can break the last one the woman has left, and Sarada knows Moegi-sensei was right to tell them to go after the strange flowers.
"Wasabi!" Sumire calls, eyes turning cold at the man tearing Nue off his comrade.
Nue runs off before lying flat out on the barrier wall, absorbing it into itself.
"Get off that you strange beast!" the woman screams, her side bleeding freely.
The man – either a major bastard or a professional kicker – twirls in the air towards Sumire and Sarada, trying to go for close hand to hand combat where they'll be at a disadvantage.
Sarada leaps back, using the wires she still has around the three shuriken she threw before to surprise the man and make him slow down in his advances.
"Sarada – Blackberries!" Sumire yells, eyes steady on the enemy.
Blackberries.
"Let's do it!" Sarada yells, feeling her own power growing, her fists forming, her eyes glowing red as reality grows sharper – easier to pinpoint.
"Water Release!" Sumire yells at the same moment Sarada's fists slam onto the ground and the earth shakes and everyone stumbles –
Everyone except Sumire who hops in the air a second before the energy wave hits and aims her water guns with precision at the five flowers that crown the head of the enemy.
She breaks three. One swooshes right next to the fourth, but the enemy ninja shifts his feet despite the ground shaking beneath his feet and avoids the hit stealthily.
"Guess it's too much to ask for the enemy to be completely useless." Sarada says easily, annoyed.
"You shitty kids!" he screeches, eyes bulging, now left with only two flowers.
"I think he heard you." Sumire grins.
"Mmh." Sarada shrugs, looking unimpressed in a way she knows would make her father proud.
"Earth -!"
"No you don't! Meow!" in their anger they let Wasabi surprise the woman from behind, tail smacking the remaining flowers and breaking them. Wasabi settles back on two feet as the woman falls like her strings were just cut off. "When did you two get so good at teamwork?" Wasabi asks, annoyed.
"Stop pouting; this isn't over, Wasabi-chan!" Sumire calls, facing the man who is already forming hand seals with one hand and getting a sword out with another.
"I'll get that stone! And I'll rip those eyes right out of your -!"
Suddenly he's drowning in a mess of endless wave after wave of water.
"Moegi-sensei!" Sumire calls, relieved, at the source of the impressive powerful water release.
"Thank you, Nue." Hanabi-sensei says solemnly to the animal companion who weakened the barrier enough for the jonin to easily break it.
"You three alright?!" Shikadai asks, rushing over. Namida's eyes are glued to her teammates, likely looking for any injuries.
Somewhere behind them Sarada spots a lifeless figure on the ground – probably the third enemy unlucky enough to be trapped on the side of the barrier with the jonin.
"They weren't much, I think." Wasabi starts. "I mean, we stood up to them almost neck to neck with just three genin and Nue."
Nue whimpers, hurt.
Wasabi flusters. "Waahh sorry sorry you're incredible Nue – I didn't mean it like that I swear!"
Nue still turns around, giving Wasabi her backside.
"Sarada." Moegi's tone freezes everybody, and somewhere beneath their feet, it probably freezes hell too. "Remind me when we get back to the village to instill in you how foolish it is to just activate your Sharingan in front of an enemy."
Sarada blinks at her, unsure why she's being reprimanded. "Whatever works to win, right?" she asks, hesitatingly.
"No." Moegi says tightly. "It's suicide to reveal something this valuable to an enemy you can't be sure you're stronger than. Maybe your father, who can protect his eyes, can show his Sharingan to anyone he pleases. But you're still young, and you're just a genin. Those eyes are a target. What would you have done if you didn't have backup today, or the fight had gone sour? Your eyes would've been ripped out of your face."
All the genin look sick, pale, and wince at the graphic description. Even Sumire flinches.
Everyone except Sarada, who's frozen.
"…I take it that happened a lot?" she asks, shaking. Anger or fear, she's not sure.
Moegi's eyes shift, considering her next words before admitting. "A long time ago, it was a constant concern for certain shinobi."
Who were Uchiha.
"They were as soughed after as the Hyugas." Hanabi-sensei says calmly, giving Sarada a solidarity look.
"…But it's just me and Dad now. It's much less common." Sarada tries to shake off Moegi's argument and her own feelings of being hunted like some animal.
Moegi closes her eyes and looks genuinely sad when she tells Sarada "When there's less of something unique and powerful, it only becomes more valuable to people like that. You have something very rare, Sarada. Using your Sharingan against unknown enemies is frankly a risk to your person and anyone who's with you."
Sarada's stomach feels like it is dropped in an ice bath. She looks at Sumire and Wasabi.
Did I put them in danger?
"We're okay, Sarada-chan." Sumire tells her confidently.
Sarada doesn't believe her. After all, on one side of the barrier were two jonin yet the enemy split so two of them were on this side – because they wanted Sarada's eyes. She did put them at risk.
Sarada looks at Moegi-sensei pleadingly. I didn't know. She nods, promising silently.
Moegi, thankfully, doesn't dwell on it. "Come on, I sent Inojin to the sensory team. Someone will come by to pick up the three bodies. Maybe we'll get lucky and learn something about who they're associated with."
Sarada knows who.
"There's still whoever that woman was – a potential threat to the mission."
Delta – there's likely nobody here who could even make her break a sweat.
"We need to keep moving."
There are muttered 'Yes.' And the seven of them make their way back.
Sarada drags her feet, and probably because of the heavy atmosphere nobody questions her for it. Thankfully, Hanabi-sensei stays behind to wait for her.
Sarada takes their moment alone to turn to the jonin and say "It's Kara."
Hanabi-sensei's eyes widen a fraction in surprise. Maybe Sarada was supposed to confess her depressed emotions or something.
"I wasn't sure if I should let the others know." With how confidential everything about this mission is, Sarada needs to know she won't put her friends at risk again unintentionally. Knowing things can be dangerous. Shikadai may be curious, but she'll only tell him if Hanabi-sensei allows it.
"How do you know?" Hanabi-sensei asks, collected yet still urgent.
"The woman is called Delta – I recognized her voice. Lord Seventh killed her when Kara invaded the village. I don't know how it's possible. She's in their inner circle."
Hanabi-sensei looks deep in concentration. "I see. We should join the others for now, it's good you told me. We'll figure out how much to tell the others, for now, please keep it to yourself."
Sarada nods, accepting the orders given almost mechanically, and both kunoichi hurry to catch up with the group.
They join the group, and Inojin casts a look meant to ask if she's okay. Sarada nods, hoping it looks believable, and they continue their way through Rain country. This time the atmosphere is much tenser.
For several hours nothing happens at all, forcing Sarada's head to run off on her with one painful thought after the other.
I want to be the Hokage so I can help. So I can protect my friends and be acknowledged. So my clan can finally be acknowledged.
Sarada closes her eyes. She has something 'rare' others would kill for.
I try harder and harder – but I only bring danger, not safety. It's surprising nobody came after my eyes before now – set out to hunt me down. If I were the Hokage, the village will be in danger, not safer or stronger, as the worst kind of people will seek out to posses the Sharingan. My dream, meticulously picked out to make everything better, will only ever make everything worse.
I should give it up, and I should stay away from my friends. Maybe it'll be morally right to just live like Papa – travelling and not dragging anybody down.
I'll be all alone, just like I was when I was a child. Before team 7. Before the academy and my friends.
Sarada opens her eyes, shutting her brain off with all her willpower. Now isn't the time.
Hopefully, the time is never.
Then someone stumbles at the center forces and another Iwa shinobi yells "Careful! You'll activate it!"
"Ha. Guess that package wasn't a decoy." Shikadai says thoughtfully at the panicked shinobi.
"That man better be fired." Moegi-sensei grits her teeth.
Sarada watches the scene with all of her attention, simply to have somewhere to put it that isn't her own stupid thoughts.
That's the only reason she notices the small triangle settle on the man's leg.
It doesn't even register that on instinct, Inojin holds her elbow to keep her from falling as she jumps forward trying everything at once, knowing nothing will help fast enough. But she has to try – to reach –
Not knowing if it'll help or hinder, but at least reach in time, Sarada gets the idea and puts as much chakra as she can into her fist and slams it on the ground.
"Sarada – what's going -?!"
"SHANNARO!" the wreckage reaches the center forces and complete chaos ensues; three pairs of Iwa shinobi appear before her, one grabs her other elbow, and Moegi and Hanabi are suddenly there too, blocking their way to her. Shinobi stumble or jump into a fighting formation at the attack, where the main forces are cluttered. The shinobi who stumbled jumps, and the triangle gets shaken off from his leg.
Sarada has a heartbeat to breath, relieved.
Then the triangle glows.
"She's a Leaf genin, get your hands off her." Moegi-sensei's voice says coldly to her left.
"She attacked us-!"
Sarada ignores all the people around her, twists out of both the hands holding her elbows, pushes herself through the legs of the grown Iwa ninja in her way until she's on his other side and screams with all her lungs down at the center teams.
"GET AWAY! BOMB!"
Ka-BOOM!
The air pocket throws blasted wind on all of them, pulling Sarada's short hair backwards and causing her glasses to nearly fall off.
There are yells and shouts to get help, but it doesn't appear like anyone's hurt too badly.
It's the triangle – that's the bomb. The first two times as well. Knowing Delta could do so much more damage, without so much warning beforehand, Sarada arrives to only one conclusion.
They're playing with us.
Sarada twirls backwards, sidestepping the tense Iwa shinobi glaring at her.
"I don't think they're serious, Moegi-sensei! I think we're being baited."
Moegi-sensei doesn't shift her gaze from the Iwa shinobi but nods. "Girls, go to the Sensory team, tell them this attack is a distraction and to send word to the Allied Forces HQ, now!"
Shikadai's eyes narrow at his teacher, his green eyes sharp.
Sumire, Namida, and Wasabi nod, glancing at the shinobi still trying to reprimand Sarada coldly before running off.
"She shouldn't have acted on her own –" one of them says to Moegi-sensei.
"There wasn't any time." Inojin tells him blankly, like he's being stupid on purpose.
"I'm going to have to ask you gentlemen to back off from our genin, or else we'll be left with no choice but to cause you pain." Hanabi-sensei says, terrifyingly polite.
The Iwa shinobi looks her in the eye and nods. "Right back at 'chya, Hyuga."
'Update from the Sensory team.' Rings in Sarada's head, and she knows the others all hear Jirgu's soft voice too.
'The earthquake was an attack initiated by one of the Leaf Backup shinobi, meant to draw attention to the explosion in time. The explosions are caused by a small triangle thing, that is likely technological in nature – if you encounter it proceed with caution and warn everyone around you. The enemies don't seem serious in attempting to steal the device, which is why we'll carefully proceed forward with the mission given. HQ has been notified.'
Sarada listens; impressed to realize one of the girls spotted the triangle in all the mess and figured out it's the cause of the damage.
The two Leaf jonin and the Iwa shinobi stare at each other cautiously.
Then a shinobi stumbles their way. It's the shinobi who stumbled and panicked earlier. It doesn't appear he's holding the package any longer, so maybe he really was fired.
"Hello, umm. That triangle thing Jirgu-san mentioned, some people said they saw it on my leg, before it went off. I just, I guess I wanted to say thank you." He smiles shyly. "You really saved me. I mean, at the very least I could've lost my leg. At worse…" he shrugs, a blue and white square earring on one ear jingles as he does. "Part of the job and all, but I'd rather avoid it anyways." He jokes, offering his hand.
Sarada shrugs, feeling uncomfortable. "It's fine."
"What's your name?"
She takes the hand offered. The shinobi is a chunin, maybe, which is impressive because he's maybe a few years older than them.
"…Sarada." Uchiha. Sarada wants to say it loud and proud, but she won't endanger her friends anymore today.
"I'm Akira." He shakes her hand firmly. "And I owe you my life, Sarada-chan." He smiles in thanks.
"Akira, you're not supposed to leave your post." One of the Iwa shinobi sighs, looking tired suddenly, and at the same time less likely to try and arrest Sarada.
"Yes sir!" Akira says, his light brown eyes wide and innocent.
Sarada's lip twitches upwards at the obvious sarcasm.
The shinobi turns and leaves quickly, back to the center forces, and silence ensues.
"Wow, so awkward." Shikadai says, cranking his neck strangely to ease his shoulders.
The Iwa shinobi frown but one turns to Sarada and nods. "We're sorry for the aggression, as shinobi our reaction is understandable. Thank you for the help."
Sarada has a feeling that she just saved the right guy's life.
BOOOOM!
Behind them all, where the Sensory Team is located, the biggest explosion yet goes off.
Hanabi-sensei's head snaps back sharply, and she calls "Girls!" before vanishing from sight in a move so fast Sarada couldn't track.
"We're going too!" Moegi-sensei yells, and Sarada, Inojin, and Shikadai follow her at full speed.
Hey so started a new job – they really don't pay me enough (sad sigh) which means I can't promise to upload a ch every week anymore – as you saw this one took – three weeks? Anyways, I'll try, but maybe it'll be every two weeks?
Plz leave comments or I'll cry later (I'm lying – I'm kinda not -_-)
Have a funky day!
P.S- next chapter is from Shikadai's POV!