An: Hello readers an update for every one. Check the notes down below for more info, for now, enjoy the chapter!
Note of counterparts mentioned:
Yuna - Yuugao
Shin - Shino Aburame
Robert - Jiraiya
Maru - Orochimaru
Samantha Glass - Tsunade
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Kakashi hummed as he began stretching, miffed at the realization that he woke up late, the party last night was wild- to put it bluntly- the food fight did not end after 3 hours, during that time he took all the time to observe the gameplay of the two sides, Naruto's team on the right and Sasuke's on the left, the former taking the unpredictable path (who new pie landmines were much more hazardous than throwing it?) the latter took a more creative attack (Kakashi found it really baffling how volleyball tactics works in dodge pie). Needless to say, the two sides had taken advantage of each others' weakness, with Sasuke's team jumping around throwing pies and Naruto's team sliding the pies on the floor hoping that some of their enemies might land on it.
It had ended on a good note, which was that the chefs ran out of food scraps to make the pie casing, it was good to know that food they have been throwing about was recycled.
How efficient. Kakashi idled as he took a wide stance on the ground and let his feet slowly slide, seconds later the door to his room opened just in time for Tamashi to see him in a splitting position… again. The woman tilted her head an amused glint in her eyes.
"You have quite the timing, mom," Kakashi commented as he took the time to stretch out his legs, he found the interaction a bit awkward but it's his mom.
"Mou Kashi, the first time I was early" Tamashi replied leaning at the door opening and glanced at her watch. "and I considered your morning routines this time before entering."
"Aa, I overslept," he replied stretching sideways as he grabbed his left foot holding on to it for half a minute.
"For 15 minutes?" his mother replied an eyebrow raised.
'An hour and fifteen to be exact' he inwardly mused as he repeated the action on his right.
"That is way too late," Kakashi replied with a smile, enjoying the banter.
"Says the boy who was three hours late on his first day of school," Tamashi responded. Kakashi raised his arms in a sign of defeat, but the action swiftly turned into a gymnastic move as he bent his body backward and into a handstand. With a steady exhale Kakashi lowered his legs and stood up. "But honestly, you should sleep more Kashi, lack of sleep might stunt your growth."
"Mom," he sighed, almost a whine. "I'll be beanstalk when I turn fifteen."
His mother only rose a brow. "We'll see about that in six years then." she giggled.
"Anyway, Gai-kun is here." Tamashi added in an afterthought, "Should I tell him to wait?" their conversation was cut off by a loud exclaim.
"Hah! I won!" Gai's voice echoed over the entrance and Kakashi looked at his mother in question.
"Rematch." his father's voice soon demanded.
"What are they doing?" he asked curiously.
"Arm wrestling." Tamashi simply answered with a smile.
Kakashi crossed his arms behind his head as he and Gai walked towards the familiar route towards the amusement park.
"I checked yesterday and the game was already installed!" the older boy announced with a wide grin. "Oh, and it already had a record and guess who got the first place?"
"Yuna?" he asked idly.
"Nope."
Kakashi blinked and smiled -still hidden by a surgical mask of course.
"Maa, that's...quite surprising." he mused and his brow unconsciously ticked when the boy pulled a thumbs up, fortunately, Gai didn't flash a smile.
They reached the amusement park and it was loaded. Kids, teens and even adults were crowding in each ride, the booths were brimming with challengers and Kakashi had half a mind to escape the mob, as he likes to put it, there were screams of joy and boisterous laughter in every direction he looked, and his paranoia might have gotten the best of him when his hand slowly inched towards the invisible seal in his arm.
There was a lot to take in as his mind went overdrive at the what-ifs.
"Come on, Kakashi," Gai asked in excitement as he ran up towards the area where his favorite booth was installed. The boy was pushing and weaving through the people with slight difficulty.
Kakashi, on the other hand, was using his evasion skills idly, stepping away from the hordes of kids and ducking below an arm of a teen that was throwing plastic shurikens. He gave a wave at the old man behind the stand. It didn't take long for him to reach Gai who was jumping up from behind a crowd, the boy was unable to see what was happening beyond the crowd and Kakashi rose a brow.
"It's full, maybe for another time Gai," he reasoned as he saw a glimpse of the teens and some young adults lining up before the punching game, which had taken a new name. 'StrikeFist.'
It was an unimaginative title, Kakashi mused.
"No." the boy stubbornly replied and despite taking the highest score in the game, Gai was unable to push through the thick crowd.
"Out of the way brats," a voice seethed behind them and Kakashi looked up to see chins.
Chins to be precise, Kakashi remembered the teen on the first day he joined the Taijutsu club, if anyone like a recall. The teen had gotten fatter and heavier and he got goons too.
Kakashi hummed and humored the teen, stepping aside. Gai, on the other hand, has all of his attention before the intruding crowd.
"Hey, brat." Chins sneered.
"What!?" Gai snapped glaring at the offender.
Kakashi chuckled when the fat teen flinch. Hah, the 'Green Beast' did have a shorter fuse in this world.
"Out of the way." the teen demanded and pushed Gai aside and forced through the crowd with ease, using his larger figure to his advantage. Chins' goons soon followed and the crowd relented, giving the trio a wider opening. Some of the gathered people saw trouble coming in and silently dispersed.
Gai was about voice out his protest at the manhandling, but before he got a syllable out of his mouth, Kakashi pulled the boy's arm and quickly walked behind the trio.
"Why did you do that?" Gai asked in confusion, the older boy's eyes, it seemed that they joined the teens in the demanding entrance.
"We got in, didn't we?" he answered with an eye-smile.
Gai blinked. "Oh."
Kakashi looked at the crowd and could feel growing apprehension, the reason was simple. Chins was bullying the teens lining up before the game. Challenging them and well...being a bully. A lot of the customers decided to walk out, leaving only eight people to observe the chaos. The two goons seemed to relish the 'fear' that they were creating and Kakashi shrugged.
It was insulting at best and a bit of temper rising in, however, there were two adults in the remaining eight, their presence was enough to dissuade any physical violence that might happen.
"Maa, the lines are cleared. Why don't we try it out?" he said while looking at the game.
Aside from the new name, the additional installment to the booth was indeed eye-catching. There were new lighting by the corners and the list of scores was now in a hologram instead of the flat screen. The punching bag was new, all in all, the upgrades were a welcoming sight.
Gai glance at the ruckus by the side. "You go first." the boy challenged with a grin as he pointed at the number on the number one in the list.
"Four-hundred and sixty." he hummed, the score was two pounds higher than his last record. He slowly walked towards the game, a pair of quarters already in hand.
"Hey, boss." one of the goons, and from now he's going to be called Goon1, said loudly. "One of the brats is going for it."
Kakashi rolled his eyes and continued his walk. He felt a spike of anxiousness from the onlookers and he saw some of the teens lining up earlier -the remaining ones anyway- were clenching their fists in his peripheral. How noble, it seemed that there were limits for how far bullying goes.
"Huh? Oi brat!"
He sighed and turned around to look at chins blandly. "Yes?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Chins asked.
Kakashi rose a brow. "Isn't it obvious?" he retorted with a cock of his head.
"You're going to play?" Chins chuckled and it increased into guffaws, as cliche dictates, the goons followed. "You two," he pointed at him and Gai. "Are you going to play this? You're wimps!"
"So?"
"Don't waste your energy for something you can't win." Chins said with superiority. "It's a lost cause for brats like you to even hope to get the first place."
Gai scoffed at the side and Chins' attention was directed at him. "What's so funny, eh?"
"You're saying that you could get the first place." Gai heatedly said. "Then show us...jerk."
Kakashi hid a chuckle at the whispered insult, props to Gai's counterpart, the boy's temper was amusing to watch.
"Why don't we make this more interesting." a new voice joined in and Kakashi rose a brow at the newcomer.
"Who-" Chins' retort suddenly died out when he saw who it was.
Yuna.
The girl was haughtily crossing her arms and paired with a roguish grin. Yuna looked intimidating and Kakashi saw the image of Yuugao behind the girl. Their characters might be opposite, but in terms of ferocity when it comes to fighting, the two were the same.
"How about a bet?"
"Alright!" Kiba shouted as he stood straight before the group. Behind him, a hologram of a map was displayed, showing various plot points of the land where their prospect might hide. There were five of them, three goons, him and Shin. It was a small group but they were the cheapest on the hiring list. "This will be our first contact on Prospect B, due to the untimely death of our cat bio-mech." A small blurry image popped up, it was the magnified image of the wolf at the top view, the screen then shows an approximate dimension of the canine bio-mech and a size comparison between it, a human and a regular wolf.
Kiba took his FlatPad and with a few slides, he continues. "I sent you the basics that Shin managed to scrounge up from NSO, and please note the wolf's animosity level." he gave them a few minutes to read the information before he continued.
"Now, the plotted area," Kiba started as the image zoomed in to the section of the woods where Shin managed to gather some clips of a pair of white fur lying around a nearly destroyed clearing, the image was so blurry and Shin was unable to get a closer and clearer image lest he risk another busted drone. It took them another five hours of rotating their drones to finally confirm that they finally found the den.
"This is the location of Prospect B, Tito, and Vic, you two are assigned to burn this in section 19, this is two clicks away from their den, enough distance to give you time to escape if worse come to worst," he added as Shin placed a bottle of bluish liquid on the table.
"The chemicals contained in that liquid, if burned, will render anyone's sense of smell to nothing. A side effect that will be beneficial to our plan for this afternoon," Shin added as he adjusted his glasses, "Also your fires must produce enough smoke to reach out three sections so use the wind direction wisely."
The two goons nodded and Kiba turned to the last one, Joey. "And lastly you're in charge of drone retrieval, Shin and I will distract Prospect B during their hunt and any drones that went down, you will retrieve it. Time of attack is estimated at 1300, preps will be at 11." the man gave a quick nod. Kiba grinned and clapped.
"Also make room for any on the spot changes in the plans as this is just a layout, a guideline to be exact," Shin added.
Kiba grumbled annoyed at the interruption. "So any questions?"
The goons looked at one another and Tito raised a hand as if he was in a classroom. "So…uhh, can we use the chemical before doing the plan?"
Kiba tilted his head in confusion. "Why?"
"Cuz, so we can't be smelled?"
Shin slapped a hand on his forehead.
"Yo, Yuna." he greeted with an idle wave.
"You-you know her?" Chins stuttered while pointing at the female.
"If I don't, why did I greet her then?" he asked with a roll of his eyes.
"Brat," Yuna mumbled and looked at Gai with a smirk. "Sidekick."
The girl had taken up Tenrou's nickname to the older boy. Gai didn't mind it but the name might be starting to irk him when Kakashi saw Gai's eyebrow tick.
"Sidekick?" Goon 1 whisper went ignored.
"So, how about it?" Yuna asked.
"The bet?" Gai huffed and crossed his arms.
"Uhuh." the girl nodded.
"What are the stakes?" Kakashi asked, curious.
Yuna hummed as she mused. "The loser will give up all of the money they have right now."
Kakashi and Gai shared a look, he knew that Gai only brought coins whenever they visit the amusement park and Kakashi had only got fifty bucks and a few coins in his being right now. A small loss in their case...that is, if they would lose.
Chins, on the other hand, looked at Yuna incredulously, there was hesitation in his eyes and Kakashi noted that Yuna caught it too.
"And the winner?" the teen asked.
"Gets the money... and bragging rights," Yuna added. "It's fair and simple."
Chins looked at them and back at Yuna in contemplation, ever so slowly his ego began to inflate. "Fine with me."
"And you two?" Yuna grinned.
"Maa, we don't mind," Kakashi answered for the both of them.
"So, who's going first?" Gai asked, his bad mood was slowly easing to a good one.
"I am." Chins announced and stepped up towards the punching bag. "You better prepare your money, brats, 'cause you're going to lose it."
Kakashi gave the teen a bemused glance, he stepped back when he noticed that Chins was about to bump him.
"Oh, I forgot," Yuna interrupted when the fat teen was about to put his coins inside the machine. "I'll give fifty bucks whoever gets the first place."
Chins grinned greedily. "That Gai is no match for my fist," he said with confidence and dropped his coins inside.
The teen took a boxing stance and Kakashi saw Gai rolling his eyes. He agreed with the silent comment, the stance was sloppy at best. Chins paused and just stood before the bag.
"...Well? Hit it!" Yuna snapped.
Chins flinched but he followed the demand, letting out a roar as he extended his fist. There was a loud sound the second the teen's fist connected with the bag. Kakashi admits that despite the sloppy stance earlier, the punch had enough force to make the punching bag sway.
The background music blared and they watched as the score began to appear. The numbers were growing by the seconds, passing the one-hundredth mark and then the two-hundredths, three hundredth mark, when it passed, the four hundredth mark Gai was looking at him and Kakashi only rose a brow.
The numbers suddenly slowed until it reached four hundred and...thirty.
"No match, eh?" Yuna deadpanned.
"That Gai guy must be strong." Chins reasoned, typing out his name to tag with his score.
"He is." Yuna nodded and grinned at Gai. "You're up next... Gai."
Kakashi counted the seconds of silence as the Chins and his goons let the notion sink in. It was near the one minute mark before Chins reacted.
"You...You're Gai!?" the fat teen exclaimed incredulously. "This must be a joke! You're just a kid!"
Said kid glared at Chin's. "A kid that has his name in the first place," Gai muttered. "If you don't believe it, fine." he shrugged and walked towards the punching bags, which had stopped swaying.
After dropping his coins, Gai took up a stance before the bag and in seconds he composed himself. "Watch."
Kakashi watched, as Gai breathed in and with a sudden bout of speed the resounding echo of the bag being punched roared in his ears. The punch was fast and has much force in it that the bag had hit the back of the booth.
Chins and his goons' eyes were nearly popping out of their sockets at the show of power.
"The fuck happened?" a voice whispered from the small audience.
No one replied as most of the eyes were looking at the growing numbers in the hologram display. Seconds later, a strained noise escaped Chins' throat as Gai's score passed him, then the curse of disbelief was whispered as Gai's score landed on five hundred and ten pounds.
"A new record!" an electronic voice announced over the hidden speakers, it was soon followed by blaring music mixed with the booms of fireworks.
"Hah!" Gai exclaimed, feeling accomplished at his score as he typed his name. The boy had forgone bragging his new high score at Chin's and had instead given Kakashi a challenging look.
He replied with a raised brow, seemingly unimpressed- though inwardly he was. That was a big leap, he admitted.
"You better prepare Poncho," Yuna commented with a mad grin. "Your wallet is going to be empty."
Kakashi snorted at the name, Poncho!?
"Big deal." Chins seethed, fist clenched tightly by his sides. "Like that pipsqueak would reach my score."
"Doesn't Gai's score prove enough?" Yuna retorted raising a brow.
"Yeah!" Gai piped in defending himself.
"How can I believe that he's going to beat my score?" Chins retorted. "Just look at how tiny he is!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes at the insult as he dropped the needed coins.
"Size doesn't matter when it comes to these two," Yuna muttered, scowling at the unintended insult. She knew what kind of damage those two can do.
"That doesn't make any sense!" Chins replied, his face was getting redder as the seconds passed by. "Size does matter when it comes to punching."
"Then how would you explain Gai's punch?" the girl questioned.
"He-he cheated!"
"What!?" Gai exclaimed flabbergasted, a huge tick mark on the side of his head, temper rising any second.
"Yeah, that must be-"
*Bang!*
"...It."
Another silence drowned them as all heads suddenly turned towards him. Kakashi ignored the abrupt gazes that looked at him, he was busy eyeing the chain that attached the punching bag on the booth ceiling. He might have gone a bit overboard in his punch as he saw the small gap in one of the links. Kakashi sighed silently at the minor damage.
"Maa, all of you were busy bantering." he started and pointed a thumb at the booth. "So I took the liberty of finishing the bet," he added with an eye-smile. Just in time for the sound of the machine announcing a new high score.
Shin looked at his screen, eyeing the positions of the goons. Just as planned, Tito and Vic were in position as well as Joey in their reinforced truck outside of the forested area. If the plan goes well, Prospect B will be in their hands by nightfall. He glanced at Kiba who was lounging by the chair at the other side of the table, hand tinkering at the remotes of their drone. While he admits that his cousin has a foul mouth, his brain has a creative mind when it comes to traps, he sometimes wished that Kiba has some interest in chess, that ancient game could help him more when it comes to…well brainpower. But it seems that 'on the fly plans' were more of Kiba's style.
"What're you looking at!?" Kiba snapped at him, Shin blinked and looked at his cousin with annoyance.
"I was just thinking that maybe we should have a plan B." he answered.
"This is plan B, you idiot," Kiba replied with a snapped.
"A plan C then." Shin shot back nonchalantly, already used to Kiba's temper. He knew when the man would bark and when he'll bite, now, this was all bark.
"Tsk, whatever, I'll think of it just encase," Kiba muttered and thew the control at him. Shin hurriedly caught the device scowling at his cousin all the while. "But back to work, what's the status?"
"Shithead."
"Asshole."
Shin gave the finger and pluck out his headset from its perch, he tapped a key on his laptop. "Team A, what's your status?"
"We got five fires ongoing, with the given coordinates," Tito answered clearly. "We'll be adding more live plants after clearing out the next three bonfires."
"Good!" Kiba shouted over the mic. "Keep that up, report to us when you're finished!"
"Roger."
Already knowing what's the next step, Shin sighed as he grabbed the controls of the drones, five to be exact, and connected them to his laptop. Having created a program that can control multiple drones with an interactive hologram, had maximized his scouting abilities. It took him nearly a decade to get it right and the payoff was worth it, well for the first five years, it plummeted down when he helped Kiba pay off some of his debts by giving free scouting services. Needless to say, he kept more of his future programs hidden from sight.
A glow of white light flashed as the program loaded. Kiba walked up at the other side of the hologram and went back to his laptop, tapping fast as he loaded up the commands for the drone. His program has only one purpose, scouting, which means that it will fly in a coordinated route. However if some of the actions were taken, like evasive maneuvers then they'll need two persons to coordinate the movement. One of the camera angles and the other on the more intricate aspect, such as the movement and speed of the drone. Kiba was assigned to the former while he's on the latter.
Although Shin wished that the drones were not made of scraps, one wrong move and the gadget will drop like a stone.
"Batteries are at 100%, no problems on the rotors and…" Shin glance at the holograms. "Visual at 100%"
"Pfft, more like 65, this shit is blurry" Kiba commented and Shin ignored him with a long-suffering sigh.
"Taking off in 3…2…1."
Kakashi idly took a sip of his flavored tea as he listened at the banter of Yuna and Gai, while the two were not schoolmates, they had once lived in the lower sector and shared some of their stories how they manage to transfer in the higher one. Yuna's father was employed with one of the auto dealerships as their head IT department. The pay was good and they bought an apartment just in time for Yuna to enroll in middle school. Gai on the other hand had turned out to be a result of his parents divorcing (Kakashi recalled Might Dai in the lower district), while the topic was a bit heavy Gai told them that while his parents were busy finalizing the contract his aunt (Li's mother) took it upon herself to house Gai for the moment- 'to protect him from being traumatized' Gai quoted.
Either way, that topic was long finished and Kakashi silently exhaled as he leaned back in his seat, watching as the two argue on what tactic was the best when it comes to a one on one fight. Yuna being an avid brawler said that being on the offense was better as that tactic would quickly tire out the opponent. Gai, on the other hand, had chosen a defensive stance, pointing that that reactive was better than proactive.
In which Kakashi inwardly agrees, nodding silently as Gai continues to defend his choice. Taking a glance at his watch, he saw that it was nearing lunchtime. Clearing his throat, he made an eye smile at the two.
"Maa, I should better get going, I have somewhere to be this afternoon," he announced, taking out the winnings he got earlier from Chins, he hid a chuckle as he remembered how Yuna harassed the boy to give up his money because that was the bet. He placed all of the money on the table.
"What the heck kid?" Yuna asked baffled at the amount. "That's way too much for these." She added gesturing at the meal they had. It was roughly 75 bucks-considering the amount that they ate it was cheap, but all of Chins' money was almost three hundred bucks along with a handful of coins.
"Aa, you two could split the rest," he replied waving a shooing motion at money. "Treat yourself to something, a movie or whatnot."
"B-but you won that fair and square." Gai countered with a stutter.
"Yeah, and besides that doesn't seem fair to you," Yuna argued with a frown.
Biting back a sigh at the two knuckleheads, Kakashi gave up. "Alright, how about we split it?" he stared at the duo with a raised brow.
The two shared a glance and with a shrug, Yuna conceded and soon after Gai followed. After separating the money for the food, Kakashi took all of the coins and pocketed it, he gave the two a pointed look daring them to complain. Gai was halfway opening his mouth before Kakashi beat him to it.
"All I said is that we split it, I never said that it should be equal," he spoke giving the two his eye smile, clearly enjoying the annoyed looks of his friends.
"Tsk, you and your fancy wordings," Yuna grumbled, in a show of defeat she gathered the money on their side of the table. "So, sidekick, how we're going to split it?"
"Erm…equally?" Gai answered uneasily, Kakashi knew that this was the first time Gai got that large amount of money and it shows how he fumbles with his hands.
"Fine by me," Yuna answered, quickly counting the money, they got an odd dollar out and Yuna flicked it at him. "Don't complain."
"Maa, maa." Kakashi sighed as he pocketed the paper. The three of them left the restaurant and after a few stops, they went on their way, Yuna visiting some friends and Gai back on the dojo.
Kakashi frown at his pockets as he enters the lift, he shifted his position as he grabbed the coins and quietly transfers them into his other pocket. 'Should've thought that much better' he mused as he adjusted the waistline of his pants, with no belt on his attire, the coins, and his phone, weighed his pants causing it to slide down whenever he walks. It was such a hassle as ended up adjusting his pants every few blocks, not to mention the amount of noise the coins make. Kakashi cringed with each sound, it felt like he was a genin every second.
Luckily, he only needs to adjust once when the lift entered the train station. It took a few minutes for the train to arrive and Kakashi took the time to message the parents of his plan to visit Maru. Tamashi eagerly responded with a book request and funny enough his father did too. After replying, Kakashi closed the messaging app and opened a browser, with the school year being over he decided that he could divulge some of his interest.
Mind you it was not something perverted.
Elana crouched by the branches, claws digging silently into the soft bark below her eyes staring at the herd of deer just a few feet away from the treeline. She chuffed, the sound low enough that Arashi can hear it with his heightened senses, her pup was position at the other end of the clearing ready to chase down their meal to her position. Sure enough, a howl echoed in the mid-morning air, the herbivores quickly looked up in alert at the direction of the sound, and just seconds after, Arashi ran out of the treeline with frenzied glee. Like a shepherd, he directed the deer to her position, with a single bound and a swipe of her tail, they caught their meal for the day.
Ignoring the remaining herbivores, Elana gave a loud bark signaling Arashi to stop the chase. After a few minutes, the area was clear of deer and it took a few minutes of waiting until Arashi arrived with a blot of blood on his muzzle.
Elana growled annoyed that her pup still has that preference to dig up some gophers as a pre-meal snack. She huffed in mild annoyance, she swiped her tail opening the innards of the deer. With much gusto they ate their fill, leaving out the meat for an evening snack, with another swipe of her blade, Elana cut the carcass in half. Each of them took half and they began to their trek back to their den.
The forest was filled with a cacophony of sounds, from the bird along with the mating calls of one of the herbivores in their area, Elana would've had to check the birthing month in the future just to get some idea if it would unbalance the ecosystem. She took her job seriously, regulating the population of her turf, there are some carnivores in her area, including her old pack-the one that abandoned her after breaking the status quo. Needless to say despite their differences Elana manage to work out a system with the recent alpha, after all she had given them a free reign of the Cat's territory under the notion that if they manage to repopulate the area and manage the ecosystem well, they would have a free reign of the land so long as the alpha would defer to her when the need arises.
It took her a better part of the year to harass some of the animals towards the barren territory of the Cat, but they managed, the wildlife there were steadily flourishing with the wolves controlling their population.
As for their day to day life, it was a bore. Silver has yet to visit and it was almost half a month since the human wandered their lands. The boy had grown, she mused not as fast as her kind but the growth was steady, Elana could see that Silver would one day grow up to be an alpha, not in her pack not yet, but with the humans.
A snap of a branch pushed her out of her musings, spreading her claws she landed on a branch and glance back at her pup at the sound. Arashi gave a small chuff looking above with his ears twitching spontaneously. Elana followed suite, easily clearing out the forest noise, it was subtle but the familiar sound quickly made her drop the deer carcass. Two leaps later, she was bursting at the top of the trees, she extended her blade as she scanned the skies, a few meters above she saw hovering dots a familiar sight that made her blood boil. However, before she could give orders to her son her eyes caught the sight of a small trail of smoke near their den. It was not alarming to have a forest fire, and Silver usually was the one controlling its direction whenever it happened, but the human was not there.
Conflicted at whether what objective she should prioritize. Elana quickly decided. She barked at her son down below to check out the origins of the smoke and howl for any updates, meanwhile she tasked herself to put down the rest of those damned drones.
"Ahh, shit." Kiba cursed as he watched as the two canines split up. "That was not in the plan."
"Should've thought of Plan C, yeah?" Shin replied watching the mismatched canine on his screen. "Now what?"
"Contact Vic and tell them to prepare- holy shit!" Kiba panicked, his hand tapping the holograms, Shin did not need to be warned as he turned back to his laptop and saw that one of the drones went down. Fingers typing at a very fast pace, Shin replayed the clip a few seconds ago as he adjusted the height of their drones. All the while sending a message for the duo back in the forest.
"You seeing this?" Shin asked with an inch of disbelief on his voice. He watched as the bio-mech's tail snapped down on the tree branch below and somehow with a dexterity of a hand manage to flip it in the air and slapped it like a projectile towards the drones with the flat of its blade, with one of their gadgets down the canine's aim was spot on.
Shin knew it was intelligent but this was the type of intelligence that was feared, to be able to calculate the distance, angle, speed and force of- hitting the branch mid-air like some type of ball game- was absurd, scarily so.
"Better get to running," Kiba muttered as he zoomed in at one of the drones revealing that the canine had already hidden under the treetops.
Elana was happy at her hit, that was the first time she ever applied that move on her hunt. She had once seen Silver doing that with the pointy metal things, although with no hands to do the throwing, she decided that hitting a branch with the flat of her blade would do just as well. And the result was better than she imagined, maybe she can get some of her own projectiles if Silver gets to visit in the future.
She landed on the ground with a muted thump, as she began to hunt for the flying metal that she felled. It was just a few meters ahead based on their distance earlier and with a small grunt, she went back on the treetops and ripped the thing apart leaving nothing intact. She peeked out over the small openings on the leaves and saw one of them fly past by. With a grin, Elana snapped a branch with her blade and grabbed it by with her maws. Silver might be on to something when he spoke about the benefits of an ambush in combat.
~Shift
Arashi panted as he entered their clearing the smoke was yet to reach their home but based on the height of the smoke it must be a large fire. Shifting into a stance he howled at his mother. While he waited for a response he took through the treetop careful not to enter the smoke, Silver had once reprimanded him for being dense when he rushed through a forest fire once, and he did get the traumatized, not by the experience no, but with the afternoon-long sermon that he got from his mother and Silver. Needless to say, he was careful not to go headfirst into an unknown situation.
He trudged along the edge of the smoke and careful to hide behind the leaves as he circled towards the origin of the smoke. There were fires alright, but he could not help but growl at the sight of a human vehicle parked at the edge of the tree. He took a sniff but he found nothing, no scent maybe they left the area? Annoyed at the trespass, he slowly made his way into the small clearing, careful to inhale small quantities of the smoke as possible and keep his snout new the ground. Ears on alert as he moved around, after making sure that he was alone in the area, the visibility was awful but he manages well with just his ears and nose.
Walking through the the mess of pulled plant life, Arashi counted the number of bonfires, there were 8 though he was thankful that they were controlled and limited to this area only, with a huff he positioned himself by the side of one of the fires and began digging the soft earth, clearly aiming the dirt towards the fire extinguishing it.
He took out three more, the smoke were now slowly dissipating in the air, now it was closely resembling a weak mist. He was about to start on the next one before he heard a click.
Vic froze as he saw the large canine's ears perking up, they got the message from Shin earlier and they were about to bail out when they felt a huge mass pass by them, the smoke shifted between him and Tito nearly fainted when they had seen the white outline of a very…very… large wolf. Way larger than what he expected, its head was nearly the height of his chest, and despite a literal brush with death they managed to quietly sneak back to their vehicle and hid behind it.
And for the past minutes of watching the canine extinguish the fires, Vic took the initiative to aim a tranquilizer on the animal, there were still smoke on their side of the clearing and he was pretty sure they were hidden well enough, they had after all transferred their hiding place under the vehicle, which Tito convince him to do. Vic had taken pity at the traumatized man and gave him the phone to get some orders from their boss. The small order had given some semblance of balance back to Tito.
A sudden movement from his colleague made him jerk, hitting the tranquilizer on the chassis of their car. He froze, Tito froze and the canine froze, it's ears twitching.
'Oh god.' Tito mouthed unable to form a sound as the wolf made a turnabout and walked directly towards their hiding place. They watched as the powerful paws trudged up towards them, Vic steadied his breathing as he silently aims the tranq, however, Tito took the chance to show him the message from their boss.
-Tranq it-
That order was good enough, revitalized at the task, he aimed back at the paws but was dumbfounded when he saw that it was gone.
Suddenly a large bang echoed from above, their vehicle groaned in protest at the sudden weight, immediately Vic grabbed Tito by the collar and placed a hand on his mouth, preventing the scream from bursting out from his colleague's mouth, as the chassis of their vehicle threatened to flatten them. Silently he glared at Tito and mouth one word at him.
'Quiet'
They listened as the wolf move about on the vehicle and Vic could hear it sniffing. The canine kept on doing it, that it was nearly a pattern, move and sniff followed by a whine that Vic could only describe as being confused. This repeated for a few more agonizing minutes that Vic was sure the Tito would have an aneurysm.
The vehicle slowly groaned one last time before the weight on top of it disappeared, Vic nearly sighed in relief but it was cut off when the wolf landed before them. And began repeating the pattern earlier. He tensed as the wolf's snout neared their position and Vic was sure that their cover was already blown, and the canine was just torturing them. It smelled them earlier and was just acting all confused so it can ambush them.
Vic was nearly reaching his limits as the seconds tick by and he watched as the wolf lowered its body, ready to take a peek at the bottom of the vehicle. Vic's fingers shook by the trigger and Tito was looking like a ghost with how the blood was quickly draining from his face.
However before the canine lowered its massive a head a howl echoed in the air, causing its head to snap back. Vic didn't know if it was because he took the opening or it was because he was surprised by the sound, but one thing he knew, was that the wolf knew that they were there.
A loud reverberating bark echoed in the clearing, giving Vic and Tito with goosebumps as they scrambled back out from under the vehicle, the wolf was clearly mad as they heard the metal being bitten off at the other end of the car. They made a mad dash towards the trees, Tito letting out a wail of panic as they heard the wolf giving chase.
"I don't wanna die!" Tito screeched as ran past him like a crazed lunatic.
It would've been funny it that was not true, silently praying that his legs won't give out, Vic ran as best as he could, dodging vines and the undergrowth. It felt like hours but they had miraculously reached the edge of the forest, Tito taking the lead ran a few more meters before finally fainting. Breathing heavily Vic clicked his tongue.
"Idiot," he muttered as he stared back the shadows within the forest making sure that there was not an inch of that wolf's fur within his sight. Gulping as much air as he needed, Vic walked towards Tito grimacing at the wet patch in the man's pants he grabbed the -thankfully- dried phone and called their boss.
"Boss?" he called out shakily, still breathing heavily. "Yeah, we got a shot at the canine."
"Good, I'll get Joey to drive by your location."
"O-okay," relieved at the news, he lied down near Tito and promptly fainted.
Snippet 2: Triangle
Samantha has no patience for this, none at all. She could handle kids, teenagers heck even some entitled parents of her students. But this?
Zero Tolerance.
Her eyes darted at Maru whose lips were pursed in what Samantha could only guess as frustration. Of course, anyone would be frustrated if Robert was in the vicinity, more so when said man was flaunting that he got a date with her twice in a month. Samantha had told him a dozen times that this was not a date, they were just going to meet-up because Naruto would be interning under his department in the FireLeaf Robotics, nothing else.
They had bumped into Maru who was just turning around the corner, arms filled with supplies, and a head filled with thoughts. Samantha managed to say a greeting before Robert flaunted his, well his achievement (which was childish at best, like a kid showing off a test score). Samantha knew Robert well enough that all he said were just glibs, but she also knew the Maru has no idea that Robert was just running his mouth.
"Robert." hiding her seethe behind a smile. "Could you shut up for a minute?"
"Why?" the white-haired man asked, brows raised in affront at her tone.
"Because if you keep this up I'm canceling the meet-up," she added gripping the man's bicep with enough force that Robert winced.
"Fine...fine I'll shut up." he groaned, Samantha raised a brow when an awkward silence grew between the three of them. "I..ah, sorry."
Maru gave a nod, silent and Samantha wished the redhead would speak. "Is...is he usually that shallow?"
Samantha blinked and laughed at the man's question, beside her Robert frowned. "Like a puddle," she answered shaking her head as Robert pouted.
"Alright, I deserve that," Robert grumbled as he scratched his nose.
"So what are you shopping for Maru?" Samantha asked when she got a closer look at the red head's purchase. There's a lot of spare parts as well as some cans of paint peeking out of the reusable bag.
"Oh, just some spares that were needed for the repair back in the shop," Maru replied lifting the bag. "Also have you seen Kakashi?"
"Sakumo's kid?" Robert asked eyebrows raising.
Maru nodded and Samantha let her eyes roam at the busy street looking for a path of silver hair.
"We haven't seen him," she answered and slowly worry began to gnaw on her mind. "Is he lost?"
"Oh, no, no," Maru hurriedly replied. "He's-"
"Yo." a voice greeted...from above?
Three heads looked up and they saw Kakashi peeking over the open veranda of the snack house beside them.
"What're you doing up there Kakashi?" Maru asked a slight tinge of exasperation in his voice.
"Just enjoying the show." the kid replied eyes curving up in a smile.
"What show?" Samantha questioned as she crossed her arms.
"Maa, you know..." Kakashi spoke gesturing at them with a wave of his hand. "This love triangle you three have."
"Kakashi..." she warned, but she could feel the heat growing on her cheeks.
"Sooo, who's winning so far?" the kid asked unperturbed by her warning.
"Kakashi..."
"I got two dates!" Robert gleefully answered and Samantha snapped, she stepped on the man's foot with the heel of her shoes. Robert yowled and Maru winced taking a step back.
"Get down here you brat!"
Replies, Thank you for the reviews *\o/*
Oguh: I'm scrapping that plot since it was just so messy and nothing made sense to me anymore. Although, I might reuse those ideas in future if there's a possibility of it being beneficial to the story.
entity9silvergen: Truthfully, I am not aware that there were other Shin in the Naruto-verse, so I'm just going to clarify that Shino Aburame would be the only Shin appearing in the story. If not, I'm going to give a head's up.
guest#1:
I have no plans of adding more canines in the pack.
There are no ninken counterparts, sadly.
Yes, I'm planning to borrow some bijuu for future characters.
As for the summons...as much as fun as that sounds, I already planned that this AU won't be having pets. But if something comes up like a gift or something along that line, I might add them in the snippet (I think Naruto already has a toad purse in 'In a New World')
Ai Huiyuan:
Kakashi already knows Elana is intelligent :) and yes he already taught them codes in the passing.
There's actually a lot to cover with Sakumo's relationship with Kakashi (tho nothing as out of the world as your suggestions, haha) maybe a funny snippet in the future.
Thank you for the review :)
AN: Still open for snippet suggestion! Also the 'ber months is coming in which means wedding season is closing in! I might be busy in the next months or so. Updates might be affected.
A question:
5k+ words for story and 1 snippet
or
-5k words for story and 2 snippets
?
Until next time peeps. \(-v-)
Reviews are appreciated since they are the lifeblood of this story.