Okay, this update is (hopefully) fast, so bear with me. Zippidy-doo-da, zippidy-ay... My, oh my, what a horrible/boring/annoying day. Blah blah blah... Okay, I'll actually start now.
Shang - Yes, there wasn't much action, but over this mission and once the Chuunin Exam starts there'll be quite a bit. And it'll be fun for me typing the Chuunin Exam since it's not going to be in Konoha, so I have to get my creative side going.
And, yes, I'd love to be in the C2! That'd be awesome.
Begun: 7:07PM 11/09/05
Finished: 11:30AM 11/12/05
It was three days later when they found themselves back in the missions office to get their eighth mission, which Ino had said would be a C-ranked one. So Torai, Lian, and Seishou each stood there with an indifferent, scowling, or excited face respectively.
While all of the people who generally decided the missions sat there, Ino explained what the mission would most likely be like for her students. "Okay, you three. Since this is a C-ranked mission we will probably be taking somebody back to their home village. There is a very small chance that there will be any major fights but you all remember the defense formations I taught you, right?"
"Hai." All three of them replied, they'd quickly learned if they didn't reply they'd be yelled at.
"Okay, are all of you ready? Do you have all your gear and such?"
"Hai."
"Hokage-sama, we're ready for the mission." Ino said, finally turning towards the table.
Naruto nodded and looked at the yellow-colored scroll (if you remember correctly, the D-rank scroll was green, C-rank was yellow, and the A- and B-ranked was red.) "The first mission on this list is leading the Wind country's leader's daughter back to the country's main ninja village, which is obviously Sunagakure. You know, you might meet up with my old friend there, he's now the Kazekage. Last I heard he had at least one kid who would probably be your guys' age."
"Okay, where's the client?" Torai said, he was sort of standing in the back with his arms crossed, as if he was too good for the mission or something. Ah, the greatness of the arrogance of the Uchiha.
They heard the room's side door slide open, a very preppy-sounding girls voice coming from the direction. "You expect me to be guided to Sunagakure by some kids who are practically four years younger than me? And I bet that little white-eyed freak is younger than the other two! How can you do this, I'm a princess for Kami-sama's sake!"
"Komadori-hime, please calm down. They'll have a Junin with them at all times, you don't have to worry, you'll be completely safe." Naruto said, with his eyes in the horse shoe shape and a sweat drop on the back of his head, both of his hands up in the air beside his head like he'd been caught for doing something.
"I don't give a damn if they had a squad of ANBU with them, I'm not walking around with a group of inexperienced brats!" By that time the Hyuuga and Uchiha of the group were trying to not let their pride take over and attack the girl, while Seishou was ready to explode for being called a brat.
"Look, Komadori-hime... It's either us or one Chuunin, since practically everybody else is out on a mission already." Lian said, you could easily see her eyebrow twitching as she spoke.
The blonde-haired girl nodded, and glared at them with her light green eyes (which reminded Naruto of a certain red-head) before saying. "Okay, you better not mess up though, my father could call war on this country if he wanted to, so I'd keep your complaining traps shut." She lifted up her large pack and shoved it into Torai's arms. "You're carrying that."
So the group of five made it to the village gates where they got into position. "Okay, we're going to do formation number 3, Lian, you're in front keeping watch for anything, Torai and Seishou, you're at the sides, and I'll be in the rear. Komadori-hime, you'll be in the middle for protection."
"Hai, hai..." She waved her hand at them while they got into position, though it didn't really look like it since the three Genin were trying to keep as much distance between them and the princess as possible.
And so they set off, without much for problems for the first two hours or so, except for when Seishou started throwing pebbles she found on the ground at the back of Lian's head only to have her catch them because of the Byakugan and then they started trading insults until Torai and Komadori told them to shut up.
"Can we stop to rest now...? My feet are killing me." Komadori complained, whining like she was younger than Lian.
"Of course they are, you're the one who decided to wear high-heels on a long walk." Lian said, sending a glare through the back of her head at Komadori.
Komadori frowned and said, "Well, excuse me, little miss tomboy. It's not my fault I have a fashion sense and you're in a complete lack of one."
At that Lian turned around looking royally ticked off. "Okay, look. The half-way point is just about thirty minutes ahead. If you can shut the hell up for those mere thirty minutes you'll have made my day. So keep your overlarge mouth shut and give our ears a rest!" She was just blinked at by the other four in the group as she turned around and continued walking along.
The thirty minutes passed without any talking from anybody, while Lian still looked huffed up in the lead of the group. "Okay, we're here."
"Everybody start setting up camp." Ino said, taking her pack off of her shoulders and setting it on the ground, grabbing a rolled up tent and the other supplies to set up the tent out of her backpack.
Seishou had an exasperated look on her face while Lian and Torai just followed orders like they were supposed to and were setting up two different tents. But you wouldn't expect any of Naruto's offspring to follow the rules all the time, would you? "Ino-sensei! Why are we setting up camp so early! If we kept going we'd reach Sunagakure before the sun even fully set!"
"We're supposed to keep the client happy, bakamono." Lian said, having already finished setting up the tent during Seishou's mini-rant, so had Torai.
"Shut up, akachan!"
Lian was about to retort when Ino cut in. "Both of you don't fight. We're only stopping early because Komadori-hime is getting tired and to keep her satisfied we have to do almost everything she wants." Ino finished setting up the largest tent of the three they'd set up.
"Thank you for setting up my tent Ino-san. I'll be resting now." Komadori said, a satisfied smirk on her face because she knew the information that they had to do practically anything she wanted was ticking the young Uzumaki off and was already getting on the other two's nerves.
Ino just sighed and shook her head as soon as Komadori had entered the tent. "Okay, you guys can get some rest for the next four hours or so before we begin the night watches. Your guys' tent is the second largest one and I'll be in the smallest one."
"W-w-w-what! I-I'm n-n-not sleeping i-in the s-s-s-same t-tent a-a-as T-t-to... Um... a g-guy." Seishou stammered, unconsciously poking her index fingers together and blushing, looking down at her feet which seemed to have suddenly become interesting.
She was receiving weird looks from both Torai and Lian, though Ino was just smiling. "You're going to have to get used to it, Seishou. Once you become a Chuunin you might go on group missions where you have to be the only girl in the whole group." She's exactly like Hinata when it comes to being with the guy she likes. Hopefully she won't start fainting around him like Hinata used to, that sure would be troublesome. ... Jeez, I'm even starting to talk like Shikamaru, why the heck did I marry him!
"R-r-really?" Seishou stammered before shaking a little bit and getting her composure back. "Eh, whatever! Like I give a damn." She stormed off into the tent, only to scream as soon as Torai walked in.
"Crap, since when was she so girly?" Lian said, looking from their tent to their sensei with a look like; Oo.
Everybody had gathered around a campfire that they'd made and were eating random meals that they'd each brought along. Seishou was eating some miso ramen that she'd stored in a thermos, Torai had some rice dumplings, Lian had regular rice balls wrapped in seaweed and that had a plum in the middle. Komadori was eating fish that they'd been made to catch and cook while ino was eating a spare fish that she hadn't wanted (because it'd been too small, even though it was the same size as the others.).
"So, any volunteers for the first watch?" Ino asked, in between bites of fish.
Nobody raised their hands, they pretended to be preoccupied with eating their food, or studying their generic Shinobi sandals, or both. "It's from nine to midnight..." Still nobody raised their hands. "I'll take the first watch. Torai, you take the second watch from midnight to three, and Lian and Seishou will take the third watch from three to six."
"There's no hell of a way you're going to get me on watch duty with that akachan." Seishou said while slurping up her ramen rudely, purposely making the end of one noodle flick up and hit Lian in the face.
"And there's no way that I'm being on watch with bakamono here." Lian said, wiping the soup that had been flicked onto her face off and flicking it back onto Seishou.
"Okay, then." Ino said, sighing. These kids are too difficult. Worse than Shikamaru. "I still have the first watch, Torai and Seishou have the second, and Lian, you have the third..." When Torai opened up his mouth to complain Ino continued. "... and no more complaints."
Everybody finished up their food within the next ten minutes, right afterwards going to get some sleep before their watch, or just for the whole night (in Komadori's case). Ino sighed and sat down on one of the logs they'd been using for a bench and stared at the dwindling fire.
Three hours later Torai and Seishou were sitting on the same bench, though not necessarily doing the same thing. Torai was staring at the glowing ashes that used to be the fire, and Seishou was staring at Torai with hearts in her eyes, though every time he'd look over she'd look away blushing.
There was some rustling in the bushes behind them and Torai quickly stood up and spun around, though by the time he was concentrating enough the rustling was gone. "Torai-kun? What is it?" Seishou said, turning her head to look at the bushes without even looking bothered.
"Don't be so relaxed, we don't know who or what could be out there." He snapped, sitting back down, practically glaring holes in the ground. "For all we know we could be being watched by an A-rank criminal right now."
"Don't be so silly." Seishou said, laughing a bit with her eyes closed. When she opened them back up it was still pitch black. Blinking a few times she asked, "Torai-kun, did it just get darker?"
An unrecognizable voice came out of the darkness, it was a woman's voice. "You're the one being silly, little girl. Not even bothering to pay attention to your basic ninja-know-how." There was the sound of mother-like tutting.
"Who the hell are you!" Seishou yelled, standing up. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought she heard somebody calling her name, but she ignored it for then.
There was some dry laughing. "It is of no concern for you, girl. You don't need to know the name of your killer." The voice in the back of her mind was getting louder now, so familiar, but she still didn't recognize it.
"You won't be killing me, Torai is there, and I know that Ino-sensei and Lian aren't far away!" Seishou was really feeling bad now, there was an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach like she was going to throw up.
"I killed them all already. Now, would you rather be sliced in half horizontally or vertically?" You could practically hear the sadism in the voice. Now there were two, or maybe three, voices calling her name... She took out a kunai, just in case.
"No... No. No. No.NO!" After the last no she was hardly slapped across the face. The darkness seemed to clear and she saw Torai, Ino, Komadori, and even Lian (who had been the one who slapped her).
"You should've listened when he told you to not be so relaxed. There is a strong ninja watching us, and from the type of genjutsu he used he is, or used to be, part of the interrogation and torture division of the Kagegakure ANBU." Lian said, trying not to break into a smirk because of 1) she got to slap Seishou, and 2) the fact that Seishou didn't notice it was genjutsu.
"Kagegakure is a new ninja village, isn't it?" Komadori said, trying to look clueless, though they knew she was hiding something.
"Yes, it's a relatively new village, within the last five years, actually. What do you know about it that you're not letting on?" Ino said, looking curiously at Komadori.
"I don't know anything." Komadori snapped back quickly. "Nothing at all, I've just heard about it from my father when he had meetings with the Kazekage and other leaders."
"Okay..." Ino said, still not believing her at all. "We're all going to have to stay up now, since we don't know if they're still around or if there are more of them."
They sat there for about a minute before Seishou asked a question. "Why are the Kage Ninja here, anyway?"
"That's what I'm trying to think about. They've had no rivalry with the wind country or Sunagakure as far as I know." Ino glanced at Komadori at that part, she was biting her long, manicured nails. "Though they have been rivals of Konoha since the start, since the Kazekage (A/N: That sounds sorta strange...) is actually one of the former sound-nin's from when I was a kid, I think she fought when they were taking Sasuke to the sound village back then, though she's physically handicapped because of the fight she had against Shikamaru from after Temari came to help out... She's a paraplegic now, though it doesn't impede her attacks one bit."
"Tayuya..." Torai said, sighing. "Her name was Tayuya. Tou-san used to always talk about it for bedtime stories when I was a little kid. There was Tayuya, Jiroubou, Kidoumaru, Sakon and Ukon, and Kimimarou."
"Your dad told you BEDTIME stories about that! It's supposed to be the worst mission anybody lower than Jouninrank has ever been on." Seishou said, staring at Torai, this time in amazement more than love. "How could your father tell you bedtime stories about that."
"He only knows what people have told him, because he was trapped in a round crate the whole time with an advanced sealing technique that I'm not supposed to tell anybody about why." Torai explained.
"You're no fun, Torai-kun." Seishou said, pouting childishly.
Lian sighed from exasperation and said, "Don't pout like that, you look younger than I really am."
With that she received a rather strange mix between a pout and a glare from Seishou, since she hadn't stopped pouting yet. Before she could actually say something to retort to Lian's statement Ino cut in. "Since we have to stay up anyway we should pack up and go. Lian, Torai, take down the smaller two tents, Seishou, help me with Komadori-hime's tent."
While they were packing up the tents Komadori was fidgeting and looking around like a paranoid person, which all four of the ninja noticed. They finished packing up and got into the original formation, though a little closer (though they couldn't help it since Komadori was trying to stick as close to them as she could).
The Hyuuga activated her Byakugan, causing the dark colors of the night to turn to various shades of blue, along with the 360 degree vision. "Lian will keep watch for ninja, but always keep on your guard, you never know what'll happen."
They walked along the path, Lian leading the way in the dark and quietly warning them if there was a tree root or a tree branch. From behind her to her left Torai said, "I sense a strong chakra coming from somewhere near, it's hard to identify the exact location or exact power."
Nobody heard his last two words, because they were all enveloped in the same darkness that Torai and Seishou had been in earlier, though it made them faint almost immediately. Ino had dispelled the illusion quickly and dispelled it off of Komadori, but when she concentrated on her surroundings all of the Genin were gone.
Lian blinked her eyes open only to close them again because of all of the bright light reflecting off of the white. What the hell? A hospital? She looked down at herself and realized that somebody had removed her ninja gear, including all of her hidden weapons, even the miniature scrolls she hid in both of her hair buns were missing.
Eventually deciding to look at her other surroundings because her eyes had become partially adjusted to the light she found that Torai and Seishou were also in the room laying on hospital beds like hers. "Oi, Seishou!"
"Awah?" Seishou blinked and shielded her eyes from the light.
"Do you have any clue how we got here? Do you remember anything after the darkness before here?"
"I think so..." She said, still using her right arm to shield her eyes from the track lighting above them. "I didn't see anything but I think I heard somebody say something with the words 'great', 'kids', 'trap', and 'hime' in it."
"Okay, we need to wake up Torai and see if he knows anything." Lian said, hopping out of her bed and finding that the white tile floor was excruciatingly cold on her bare feet. Ignoring the cold ground she walked over and started shaking him violently, only to have her hand swiped away and for him to roll over and put the pillow over his head.
"Jeez, you're such an amature at this sort of thing. I have to wake my father up all the time..." Seishou cracked her fingers and walked over to his bed, positioning herself for a kick she yelled. "Wake up you fucking lazy ass!" afterwards kicking the bed as hard as she could, causing it to roll into the side wall, waking Torai up.
"What is it?" He said, glaring at the two for a little before realizing it was bright and covering his eyes. "Why the heck is it so bright, too... And why are all of my weapons gone?"
"We were apparently kidnapped by somebody and brought here. Do you remember anything after we were knocked out by that darkness-thing?" Seishou said, explaining the situation quickly to Torai.
Torai rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times to get his eyes adjusted to the light and then looked like he was trying to remember something. "I remember a city, going through it quickly. We were brought into a large building then I can't remember anything after that."
Lian reached up her hand and started rubbing her forehead to feel that her forehead protector wasn't there. At least tou-san had gotten rid of the whole branch house, main house crap, and the cursed seal like he had...
"Let me try using my Byakugan..." Lian preformed the handseals and just when the veins were starting to appear in the side of her head she dropped to her knees with her eyes clenched shut holding the sides of her head.
While both of her teammates were looking on in horror a group of three nurses came in through a door that hadn't been noticed because it practically melted into the wall painted white like the rest of the room. Lian was picked up and put in her bed and the nurse preformed a few unfamiliar handseals and placed her hand on Lian's forehead, and the screaming that she'd started quieted down to just some wimpering as her breathing started slowing down, signaling that she was asleep.
When the nurses were about to leave Torai said, "What the hell just happened?"
The tallest of the nurses, a red head, turned around and answered. "Oh, your little friend has headaches like that all the time. No need to worry, she'll be fine when she wakes up."
Almost leaving agian Seishou decided to speak up. "Where are our forehead protectors, and our ninja gear! Where the fuck are we!"
"Forehead protectors and ninja gear? Oh, you kids must've been playing ninja when you fell off that tree and hit your heads. I guess that's why you can't remember where you are, don't worry, it'll all be explained later. I hope your friend's headaches will bet better by then, she probably got the worst head injury if headaches like that keep happening." The nurse finally left the room, closing the door. They heard the click of a lock from the other side.
"Damn." Torai said, really wanting to punch something (preferably one of his siblings in his opinion) right then and there. Seishou was just looking at him worriedly. He took a breath and continued, giving some instructions to his conscious teammate. "Okay, try concentrating a little bit of chakra to your fingertips, only a little."
They both did what he had said, causing Seishou to yelp and begin rubbing the fingers on her right hand. "It felt like a pin pricked me."
"Yeah, same here." Torai said, a grim look came across his face. "They shut down our chakra systems somehow, we can't focus or use chakra at all. For all we know, they're just going to pretend we've lived wherever we are right now for our whole lives as normal kids, not ninjas, and they probably have some way of causing us to only remember that..."
Seishou had a horrified look on her face, and looked down at her trembling hands. "No... W-we haven't e-e-even been t-to the Ch-ch-Chuunin exam y-yet! W-we have t-t-to get o-out!" She was practically going hysterical.
Suddenly she jumped out of her bed and rammed the door as hard as she could, throwing her small self against the door again and again, hoping it'd give way. "Seishou, chotto matte." He said, hoping she'd stop to just listen to what he was thinking. Before she stopped she rammed the door one more time and fainted.
They didn't just shut down our chakra systems, they drained our chakra also. How else would she have fainted so easily... The same nurses came in again and put Seishou in her bed, leaving before any questions could be asked.
Torai stared at his unconscious teammates, what the hell had they gotten themselves into?
Ooooh, this is getting interesting, isn't it. -pokes readers- I know you think so. This chapter was about a thousand and five hundred words longer than the other chapters, I hope that entertains you! The next chapter will be up as soon as possible.
chotto matte – wait a second