Blue

Chapter VI

Death was not a stranger to a shinobi. Everyone grew up with the possibility of dying the next minute. Each and every one of Konoha's people knew this by heart. But even with this knowledge, none of them took death lightly. A death of a shinobi was treated with respect and always felt like a knife had gone through their chests. The death of a child, on the other hand, was a double edged uneven blade that embedded deep and twisted in Konoha's heart.

But they were all survivors. They moved on. The dead would never be forgotten but the living would always move on. People were back on the streets. Children once again played and laughed. Students studied as usual. Konoha was alive.

Jiraiya closed the door behind him and walked to stand before the Hokage's table. He saw Naruto leave the room but was ignored in the hallway. "How's the boy?"

"He's doing fine." Tsunade sighed. In truth, Naruto had been very formal with her. Something that was uncharacteristic of Naruto because the young man had always called her 'old hag' or just plain 'Tsunade'. Often, she would him that some of the children looked up to Naruto and asked him if he wanted those children to be as rude as he was. Only then did he greet her with an honorary title, but that was just when other people were around.

Although Naruto had glared at her for being subtly insulted, he had understood. Her relationship with Naruto wasn't an ideal grandmother to grandson, mainly because she wasn't related to him at all and that she didn't exactly look her age. Nonetheless, their relationship was beyond that of Hokage and subordinate. She had been worried about him in the past week. So were Jiraiya, and the rest of Naruto's former teachers and close friends.

"Is he going to train a new team?" Jiraiya had wanted to have a talk with Naruto but every time he dropped by, Naruto wasn't around. He could always find Naruto if he really wanted to but if Naruto didn't want to be found, Jiraiya wouldn't find him.

"No. But he said he'd be taking missions again…" Tsunade rubbed her temples.

"It wasn't your fault that this had happened, Tsunade."

"It is. I'm the Hokage and every single one of Konoha's people is my responsibility…" she sighed again. "I really don't know what happened. Naruto's team was more than capable of a class A mission. I'd give them a class S mission if only the S missions weren't almost always about assassinations. I don't know what could've gone wrong."

"Give it a break. He's a strong kid."

"It's not him that I'm worried about." She stood up and went to the window, overlooking the whole village. "Proud as I am with this village…some people are really narrow-minded. Naruto's friends wouldn't blame him…but as for the rest…"

"…" Jiraiya understood. People had already brushed aside their old thinking which concerned the Kyubi inside Naruto but what had happened could fuel a fading fire.

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Sasuke dodged the katana that was aimed at his throat, using the wall as leverage as he jumped higher. Concentrating his chakra in his palms, he started running to the direction of the enemy. He changed course in a blink of eye upon realizing that one of his teammates, who was battling another, had two murdering puppets a few seconds away.

His chidori went through the bodies of two porcelain-made puppets, saving his teammate; only to get caught by the strings of the puppeteer. He gripped two strings and breathed out fire, watching as the flames used the strings to track the owner.

The string got cut off but Sasuke already knew where the enemy hid. His sharingan had seen through the illusion of the enemies but when he reached the branch, he was too late. The puppeteer exploded into flames, melting the flesh in such a slow manner that the shinobi still managed to scream his pains out.

When the shinobi dropped to his knees, the blackened face stared at Sasuke in a silent scream of plea. Sasuke raised his eyes, staring straight an Anbu mask of the Hidden Leaf.

Two teams, one mission. Often, in a kind of arrangement that needed two teams, there was the top team pairing up with the newest recruits to keep the balance; unless it was a really hard assignment that the best teams would pair up.

Sasuke knew his team was the best there was, so in this mission, his team was the better one but this wasn't the kind of assignment that would need two top ranking teams. He didn't even see that other Anbu approach his target. And it was such a brutal way to kill a person. He had seen worse, did worse, and normally, there was no pity at all. They were trained like that, to have no mercy. But this one…enjoyed it.

It wasn't long before another Anbu tapped the shoulder of this one and before Sasuke knew it, the other team already left the area. Mission accomplished.

Two things had caught Sasuke's eyes, blond hair and the necklace. There were quite a number of Anbu recruits who were blonds but he had only seen that necklace a few times.

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That last mission disturbed Sasuke. He wasn't sure and he wanted to confirm if his guess was right. He still had a day before he was to check for any new mission. He might as well try tonight.

Sasuke found Naruto eating ramen in the usual place. It really had been a long time since they last saw each other. Naruto still wore an orange get up without the jacket, at least. He remembered hating that color so much because it was so painful to the eyes especially when the sun was too bright.

"Oi, Naruto."

Naruto turned, noodles hanging out of his mouth. Swallowing quickly, he grinned, "Oi Sasuke! Been a while, eh!"

"Yea. How are you?" Sasuke asked, taking the stool next to Naruto. He received a stupefied look.

"I was being nice, idiot."

"Oh, for a moment there, I almost believed that." Naruto snorted. "I'm fine."

Before Naruto could shove another roll of noodles in his mouth, Sasuke had dragged him out of the ramen house and to somewhere out of hearing range. "Did you join the Anbu?"

Naruto's eyes grew cold, his face expressionless.

"Why?"

Flatly, Naruto replied. "Why? Can't take competition?"

Sasuke grabbed Naruto's shoulder when he turned to walk away. The fist that had hit Naruto's face wasn't blocked.

Naruto accepted the blow without flinching. He licked the blood that dripped from the side of his lips and kept walking away.

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