A/N: I received some really awesome comments from the previous chapter, but to some, I can't reply through PM but thank you all who reviewed, I am thrilled by all your comments!

I am indeed not a native English speaker, as Mandarin is my mother tongue and English is my second language. There are times when I can't catch some mistakes, probably because I've never even realized that some sentences sound awkward or that I am using some words wrong. But hey, one of my goals for writing a fic is to help me improve my grammar and English in general! So if you see any huge grammar mistakes or writing habits that irk you, I am probably still oblivious to them. And if some readers would be kind enough to point some mistakes out, that would be amazing!

Beta'd by the adorable Alice J.

Chapter 18 - All the World's a Stage

"Your mission is to assassinate Nishikawa Ryobe, a politician in Kusagakure. He is the leader of a rebellion faction that works against the current Kusagakure regime, and the leader in Kusagakure right now wants him dead." I listened quietly as Hokage-sama listed out the requirements for this mission. This time, only Hound and I were being called, seeing this was an assassination mission and the saying 'the more the merrier' wouldn't work here.

"Kusagakure has always been allies of Konoha, however, Nishikawa planned to sever all ties with Konoha if he was promoted as a leader and that is damaging to Konoha's safety, considering the Land of Grass was the only area separating our country with the Earth Country and Iwagakure," Hokage-sama explained, and it's all clear to me that this assassination was political. Kusagakure was the last barrier of war between Konoha and Iwa, the current leader must use this as a leverage against Fire Country so that Kusagakure will continue to support Konoha instead of Iwa.

"Leave as little trace as possible, and you won't be receiving help from Kusagakure so you are on your own. Here is the file on Nishikawa Ryobe, I expect results within a week." the Hokage handed the file to Hound and dismissed us. I followed my captain silently as we returned to locker room 15. The locker room was empty today since none of our other teammates were present so we took off of our masks.

I stayed still as Kakashi read file quickly, there was a reason he was a Captain, he could devise a good plan within seconds of hearing the information, and if we wanted the assassination to work, we needed a damn good plan.

"Our target here is quite a charity worker, apparently he takes in war orphans on occasions and gives them jobs," Kakashi muttered slowly. I guess whether this Nishikawa person was a good leader or an evil one really didn't matter, for the sake of Konoha, he needs to die.

"So what do we do, infiltration first or straight up assassination?" I asked.

"Infiltration first. He is a jonin level shinobi, and his followers were full of low-level jonins and high-level chunins. We can't just walk up and kill them." Kakashi concluded as he closed the files. For a moment, he stared at me, as if to decide how much I could sell.

"No, no, no. What are you planning!" I said with a sinking heart, he was planning something, and that something wouldn't be pleasant for me.

"Your hair colour is normal, and your eye colour is normal, well minus the sharingan. You looked small like a starved child. Rabbit, you are going to be pretending as a war orphan, and hope that Nishikawa will take pity to you and give you a job." Kakashi laid out the plans before I could protest.

"There was no way he is going to fall for that. He is a political leader, he must be paranoid as hell. How can you guarantee that he won't just kill me on sight." I demanded, with unease in my voice. What my captain was proposing was a risky move, one that could get me killed.

"Apparently he does. But he won't be careless, he will search you to be sure you are weaponless and he will put you somewhere very far with lots of guards beside him. Besides, people are always less suspicious of children, and you look like you could be eleven." Kakashi reassured me, but it didn't sound reassuring at all.

"Give me all your weapons, you can't have them. Remember to suppress your chakra to civilian level. And that means you can't use transformation techniques to cloak yourself. Here, use this to cover your battle scars and tattoo, just in case. Change into civilian clothes afterward" He pulled out a box from a locker and threw it to me, it was make-up. I couldn't argue with my team leader, and despite how much I hated it, it seemed feasible. A lot of danger, but feasible.

"Listen to the plan carefully," I heard Kakashi said as I start dumping out all my weapons, I got rid of my gray Anbu jacket along with my twin swords and then I proceeded to pull out all my weapons hidden on my body. The two weapon pouches, the few mini-blades hidden in my shoes, and a few more blades bound to my waist. Kakashi waited until all metal sounds were subdued before continuing.

"We will try to find him in Kusagakure roadsides, since he has a tendency to patrol the area himself, promoting his political party and charity works. You will infiltrate his camp and assassinate him. I will follow you quietly and get you out if something happens." How could he say that so easily? Forcefully, I push down the unease caused by my weaponless state and glared at him.

"Don't give me that look, you know how to kill people without any weapons, so do it. I will be there to help you. Quit glaring and let's get going." Kakashi scolded me. After another second of glaring, I grudgingly went into the bathroom.

I pulled up my shirt to reveal the stab wound on my stomach. It was a huge scar that looked like a hole in my stomach, caused by a puncture wound straight through my abdominal region. I started to cover the tell-tale sign of my battle training with the make-ups, no civilian child can get that scar and survive it.

"Put some dirt on as well when we arrived in Kusagakure, you are supposed to be a war orphan," Kakashi warned as I finished covering up the long laceration scar on my thigh and the Anbu tattoo on my shoulder.

"What am I suppose to do, crying on the roadside?" I yelled out sarcastically as I changed into the ripped linen clothes he threw at me. We had those spare clothes for infiltration laying in the locker room somewhere, but it seemed only Kakashi and Bear could find them.

"Figure that out yourself, but make it convincing, it's for your convenience after all." He was saying it so nonchalantly that I wanted to kick him. He said it so easily as if lying was that simple. Aren't you being a little hypocritical? You lie like chewing candies, I thought to myself with a bitter smile. It wasn't long before I pushed open the bathroom door looking like the image straight out of the slum. Might as well get it over with, it's not like I've never done this before.

"I'm ready, Let's go."

(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~

I hid in the bush along with Hound and watched the caravan containing our target approaching our location. It wasn't huge, but it was big enough that I can't just go and charge in. The gears in my brain turning, I had to figure out an identity, a convincing one.

A moment later, I picked up a jagged stone and used it to scratch my skins until there were faint red lines showing on my arms and legs.

"What are you doing?" Hound asked as he stared me in shock.

"Pretending. No war orphan can ran this far from their village and not have and scratches." I said coldly as I finished the disguise with a red line by my neck. Hound stared at me in silence, which was basically a way of showing that he didn't approve.

"Are you really alright doing this?" Finally, he asked and I almost laughed at his words.

"Now you are worried? You came up with the plan." I retorted sarcastically, "Just take care of my swords. I will be fine, even if things does go a little crazy, I have my Mangekyou Sharingan, remember?"

"How are you going to approach him, I hope you have a damn good plan." He let the argument dropped and changed the topic. Typical.

"Oh, you'll see, I'm going to rob him." Before he questioned me any further, I ran out of the bush and aimed straight for the caravan.

I ran like a thirteen-year-old child, not an Anbu agent. My feet were heavy and I panted as I ran. I wasn't running very fast, but I was running fast enough that people would call me a sneaky little brat. My chakra system was concealed, so to a sensor, it would feel just like civilians'. I ran towards the road, where the caravan was traveling. Right now, Nishikawa's guards hadn't noticed me yet, but soon, they will definitely notice me.

I saw a servant lady holding a plate of rice cakes, walking toward the main caravan in the center. Nishikawa obviously knew how to enjoy his authority, even if on the road. I ran towards her, and like an idiot, I jumped on her, grabbed the rice cake like a hungry little wolf and started to run back.

"Oi! Stop! Sneaky little thief!" One of the guards yelled as he ran after me. He was running faster than me, and soon he caught me. He pulled me back by my collar as I screamed and kicked, trying to get away from him using only as much strength as a hungry thirteen-year-old child would. He quickly brought me back to the caravan and dumped me on the floor. When I looked up again, I saw a man with gentle and kind eyes. Nishikawa, he was as charismatic as they say. Immediately, I flinched under his eyes like an injured little puppy and hugged the rice cake close to my chest, as if to protect my hard earned food.

"Master, I brought the little thief back, what do you want to do with him." the guard reported to Nishikawa diligently as he nudged my body with his sheathed sword.

"Child, why do you steal?" True to Hound's information, he did have a soft spot for children. I hesitated and didn't answer him, but then the guard yelled at me angrily "Oi, brat, answer Nishikawa-sama!" he brought up his sword to intimidate me and I pretended to shake in fear and whimpered.

"Stop it, Koma, you are scaring this child. It's okay, child, tell me, why do you steal, what happened to your family." He asked again gently. I looked up slowly and hesitantly, with a guarded and hurt expression in my eyes.

"I'm… I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in two days. I'm sorry, I just want to eat something." I said in a broken voice and adding the whimpers for extra effects. The man suddenly stepped out of his caravan, and I crawled back and shrunk myself. It wasn't all an act, I didn't expect that he will approach me, a suspicious figure on the street. Or, he is planning to kill me, with that thought in mind, my body tensed under my loose clothes.

"Don't be afraid, my child. You can eat that rice cake you know, all you have to do is ask, not steal." He petted me. Yes, he patted my ruffled and dirtied hair with gentle strokes. It annoyed me to no ends and I almost wish I could just kill him right here. But then, I wouldn't able to escape unscathed, not with the shinobi guards surrounding the area.

"Where are your parents?" He asked again as he brought me up to the ground and ordered his servants to bring me another plate of clean rice cakes since he saw the one I was holding was covered in dirt.

"I don't know, I live in a village that way" I pointed at a general direction with my shaky hand, "But something really bad happened and our house was burned. Papa said he will come and get me soon, so he told me to run away first." I said fearfully. I - or Kakashi - did my research, there was a village destroyed three days ago in the direction I was pointing due to bandit attacks. Suddenly Nishikawa was looking at me with pitiful eyes, and a few guards around me gave out sighs. Good, they are feeling sympathy for me.

"Oh you poor child, you don't have a place to go. Why don't you follow me? I will give you a place to stay and food to eat." He said with a sad smile, but there was something flashing in his eyes, suspicion and testing.

"No, Father said never trust strangers and he will come and get me. He promised." I said quickly, with panic in my eyes. I shouldn't accept his offer so quickly, that's way too easy.

"But I have rice cakes, and you would never have to steal again," he said gently. I was pretty sure in my old world, baiting children with food was illegal, but apparently here, it was an act of charity and goodwill.

Then, my stomach grumbled. I did not plan for that, but I guess I have Kakashi to thank for that since he refused food for me for the past two days. I catch the opportunity and eyed the plate of rice cake next to the man with a longing expression and I swallowed my saliva.

Nishikawa was smiling as he ordered his servant to hand me the rice cakes. Without any hesitation, I bit them down like a hungry wolf. I was suspicious of poison, but I didn't have a choice, I need to eat like a child, a poor child who was not vigilant enough to be a shinobi.

"Come with me for now child, if your father comes for you, then you are free to leave." Hesitantly, I nodded. He asked the servant to bring me to the back of the caravan and I followed like a little rat, keeping my eyes down and my hands fidgety. I stayed quietly in one of the back caravans as a maid accompanied me. She was a shinobi, I knew that. Her feet were too light and her balance was too good when the caravan was shaking from the uneven grounds. Like Kakashi said, Nishikawa was no fool, he kept me guarded and far from him. If I wanted to kill him, then I'd have to do more than pretending to be a child.

I returned with Nishikawa to his villa, or really, his base of operation. His villa was not lavish like the Daimyo, but it was a lot more than what most can afford. The report described him as being a good shinobi from Kusagakure, good enough to be a Jonin. Then he retired when he was forty-three and became a businessman when the Third Shinobi War was over. It seemed that he was the one that brought back the economy in Kusagakure and he used some of that money to help the poor and adopt orphan children until this day. He was the kind of man that everyone would like, a powerful shinobi, a smart entrepreneur, and a kind hearted person. But when I saw the expensive villa compared to the poor conditions of most people lived in Grass, even if he had started the businesses, with the way Grass was hindered by the war, his wealth couldn't have been that great. I wondered where his wealth really came from…

Nishikawa ordered the kunoichi to take me to the bath and treat my injuries, which I had no doubt was a form of inspection and tests. The make-up would have undoubtedly been washed off if I ever touch water, a bad plan on Kakashi's part. My assassination had to start somewhere and now is as good as ever.

The woman brought me to the bath and removed my garments for me, she winced a bit when she saw all the bruises and cuts on my body. Just then I started to shake, like a rabbit being exposed to headlights.

The women immediately squatted beside me and looked at me at an eye level, she asked "What's the matter?" while looking into my eyes reassuringly.

"What's master like? Will he really take care of me?" I asked with a childish voice which I was sure Kakashi would joke for eternity about it.

The woman's posture relaxed and she answered: "Don't worry, my child, Master is the kindest person you will ever meet." She smiled into my eyes as her body relaxed. Big mistake.

My Sharingan flared, six black tomoes spinning on two red iris. Before she could even realize what the hell happened, her pupil dilated for a moment before they returned to normal. For now, she was under a sharingan genjutsu and she was mine to control. While I was at it, I scanned around and noticing no other chakra presence around.

"Are you a kunoichi?" I asked immediately, just to be sure the genjutsu was working

"Yes," she answered dazedly.

"Is there a sensor in here, can he/she sense us," I asked my most concerned question.

"Yes, one by Master Nishikawa's room, his range is 100 meters. The bath is at the opposite corner of the villa as Master Nishikawa's room, so he couldn't sense us here." I tightened my lip at the mention of a sensor. I had hoped they won't exist here since good sensors were quite rare, but I guess I was lucky that there was only one.

"Let's go into the bath, shall we, Nee-chan," I said to the Kunoichi sweetly and she smiled mechanically as if nothing happened. I could hold on to the genjutsu on one person for a few hours, and then it would break. Compared to my genjutsu skill a year ago, it was a huge improvement. But not enough, not enough to counter Itachi.

I stepped into the bath, feeling the warm water touching my body. I sniffed the water, smelling the sweet aroma coming off from the water. Sleeping drug, I realized, so slight that any normal child would have faint after bathing here, but not enough for a trained shinobi like me or the kunoichi under my genjutsu. Now I am really suspicious, just what do they do to the war orphans they 'kindly' took in.

"So, want to talk about the security and the layout of the villa?" I whispered to the woman next to me as I washed off the makeup and the dirt on me. She told me everything, well, everything she knew. Her mind wasn't that strong against the genjutsu, especially sharingan genjutsu, maybe that's why her rank wasn't that high and her information was limited.

I bandaged my tattoo and scars and made the kunoichi believe that she bandaged it for me because it was injured. When I walked out of the bath smiling, I dispelled her genjutsu. She would believe that nothing abnormal happened, and she was comforting me with 'small talk'. She would forget my red sharingan and my face would fade out of existence in her memory eventually.

I counted the numbers in my mind as the kunoichi led me out of the bath. Three, two, one… then I collapsed like a weightless doll right into the kunoichi's arm. I relaxed my muscle and adjusted my breathing to the minimum as I stayed limp in her arms.

"Finally, the paralysis is finally taking effect, just when I got bored of the little brat." The woman dropped her nice act and said with disdain in her voice. She dragged me across a few hallways and then she stopped somewhere.

"Here, Master wants her in the batch to be shipped tomorrow," she said it to someone else which I couldn't see. There was an annoying snort and then another voice answered: "Sure, dump the brat in." There was a creaking sound like a door had just been opened.

The woman threw me in mercilessly and I ignored the pain of the harsh impact. There was a collective gasp around me when the new voice spoke up: "Listen up brats, don't cause any trouble for me, or I'll kill you all!" There was a bang, and the door was shut close.

After a few second, I opened my eyes and sat up quietly. Finally, I was able to take in all the details of the room. It was a small space, about twenty meters squared. However, there seemed to be about fifty children crowded in the room, all looking sad and desperate. Human trafficking, where else would Nishikawa put all the war orphans he had 'rescued'. I thought about giving Nishikawa a swift a painless death before, but I just changed my mind.

I could hear the woman walking far far away, leaving just one guard keeping an eye on the small prisoners. Immediately, without any second thoughts, I walked up to the closed door and start kicking and banging it while yelling "Let me out! Let me out! Your bastard!"

"Stop, what are you doing, he will kill us!" A small muffled voice warned me hastily as I kept on banging the door. Eventually, there was a howl outside as the door creaked open, revealing a furious male guard.

"What the hell did you say? I'm going to…" he didn't get to finish his sentence because I leaped on to him and locked my arms onto his neck. With one forceful twist, his neck was broken and twisted at an unnatural angle. I lowered my body and stopped his fall from making a loud sound on the ground. Geez, he was heavy. But my training in Anbu did help with my strength, courtesy of Captain. Silently, I twisted his neck back to the front and propped his body up against the wall. I tucked his hands into his pockets, stealing his pouch of kunai and shurikens in the process. He looked just like he was leaning on the wall and relaxing and the whole process took less than ten seconds.

There were gasping sounds behind me from the children. Troublesome, I thought, and before any of them could scream, I turned around and released the killing intent. The killing intent was not chakra based, so right now, even to a sensor, I would be a normal child. But my killing intent was malicious and ruthless enough that the children froze and fainted.

To my shock, a child was still standing before I walked away. I widened my eyes in surprise as I watch the child holding on with that trembling leg, but nevertheless, he withstood the pressure. It was a boy of age eleven or something, he had ruffled black hair and a skinny body, probably due to the lack of nutrition. He kind of looks like an older, but food deprived Sasuke, I thought in my head. He looked like he was about to say something, so quickly, I turned around and appeared right next to the voice, holding a kunai against the trembling skin.

"Say one word and you are dead," I whispered coldly. He choked the sounds back into his throat and stood still like a statue as if every move would kill him. However, I could still read his lips making the shape for the words he was about to speak.

Save us.

No no no. This is not a time for the empathy to flood out like a tsunami. I was not a saint, but after all that had happened in this lifetime, I couldn't say that I was without emotion either. Oh, this is so troublesome. Well, there goes my option for silent escape.

I did the only thing I could do at the moment. I stared at him, my blood red eyes to his startled black ones. Then, I put him under a genjutsu.

I had to be careful since his chakra system was very undeveloped like a new Academy students. The genjutsu was not to compel him to do something, rather it was showing him a virtual route towards one of the exits at the back of the bathhouse. There were three exits in the villa, all guarded under normal circumstances. However, the one at the back of the bathhouse was the least guarded one, according to the kunoichi, because it was the farthest from Nishikawa's study.

The genjutsu was all I could do, showing him a vague escape route and hoping he was calm enough to remember it all. I couldn't save them. I was but one assassin and I had no power to get all of them out. It was not my mission objective nor was that within my capability. However, I supposed that I could make some chaos to attract the shinobis' attentions and give them a chance to escape on their own. After all, no one would care about some children for human trafficking when their leader was assassinated. They were shinobis, trained warriors, their hearts would always be wired towards the enemy.

"When the villa becomes chaotic, hurry and wake up all the children and run," I said to the boy coldly as I withdrew the kunai. I released another wave of killing intent onto the boy and he slumped to the ground, shaking in fear. He was a child, after all, no matter how hard he resisted, he would still break easily.

"Don't go to Iwagakure, you won't survive there, not if you are from Grass." That was my last warning, he will be paralyzed for a while and then the effect of my killing intent would fade. Plenty of time for me to kill Nishikawa.

"Stay safe, and may you be able to run away when you wake up. Your fate is up to you now." I whispered softly as I left the room of unfortunate children, knowing that they wouldn't hear me. I couldn't save them. Only they can.

I sneaked past the countless hallways, pulling out the layout plan information from my mind. I avoided the guards since I didn't have a lot of time to start a killing spree, Nishikawa's head takes priority before anyone could discover that one of their own was dead like a rock.

Suddenly, I stopped after I took a turn and hid behind a corner. According to the Kunoichi's information, I just needed to walk to the end of this wall way and turn left, then I would see Nishikawa's room. However, one more step, and then I will be in the range of the sensor. He is someone I had to kill in order to complete the mission. Having a sensor who had sensed your chakra signature chasing you was like playing hide and seek with Shun. You simply don't.

I took a deep breath and composed myself, whether I succeed or fail depended on this try. I hid a kunai in my sleeve and walked out the corner bravely. I could almost felt my own suppressed chakra signature being sucked up by another. Instead of rushing to the sensor, I paced around. I walked back and forth, in a slightly rushed step and my footwork showed my panic. According to the kunoichi, Nishikawa usually had two guards guarding his door, and fighting a sensor with another beside him was a messy situation. All I needed to do is draw the sensor out.

I paced a little closer until I could hear the guard's exchanges. "I sensed someone." One of them said. "Who is it?" "I don't know, it's someone new" "Then alert the Master, we might have an attacker." I drew a breath, almost ready to draw the kunai and slash their throats. "No, it's too undeveloped to be a shinobi, it's probably a civilian. I'll take care of it, maybe someone got lost, I felt the signature pacing in a circle." I relaxed and pushed my kunais back into my sleeves.

"Yo, what's going on here, why are you wandering? This area is off-limits." one of the guards - the sensor - walked towards me quickly as he scolded me harshly. Once he saw my childlike stature and my panicked steps, his muscle relaxed.

Three meters, two meters, "Thank god someone is here, I think I got lost, this house is just so big." One meter. "Seriously, there should have been someone with you." Zero. I reached for his arm, lightning chakra buzzing from my fingers. His eyes widened just as my fingers wrapped around his wrist.

His body stopped moving for a second from the paralysis of the concentrated lightning chakras. I pulled him down, and he fell down towards me. My other hand already flipped the kunai out, like a hug, I let him fell into my arms. Then, I stabbed the base of his neck, plunging the sharp kunai into his brain stem. A rush of lightning chakra filled the kunai and rushed into his neck. A second later, he was dead without even letting out a scream. His body stayed lifeless in my arm, in a cradle of death.

Quickly, I placed his body on the floor, there wasn't a lot of blood, but I needed to finish the job before anyone noticed. I studied his face and quickly used a transformation technique to cloak my appearance. Now that the sensor is dead, I could use some chakra without being noticed, at least, for the first little while. I walked calmly toward Nishikawa's room, taking bigger strides to make the transformation seem more natural. As soon as I turned the corner, I could see the other guard and Nishikawa's door about twenty meters away.

"What's going on, who was it?" The remaining guard asked, keeping his voice down so he wouldn't bother his master. Loyal shinobi, I thought, I wonder what made him so loyal, charisma or money?

I didn't answer him because by the time he realized something was abnormal with me, I was already in front of him, red eyes staring at him. His body froze under the genjutsu. Then, as if he was a robot, his body dropped slowly and awkwardly until he was lying on the ground, unconscious. I didn't hesitate when I crouched down and slashed his neck. The blood was flowing by my feet as I turned towards the closed door. Only one more left.

I could see past the thin door and tell the chakra behind it. Nishikawa was sitting by his desk, quietly and peacefully. Either he was oblivious to what's happening outside, or he was so confident that even if his guards were killed, I wouldn't able to kill him. I'd pick the latter, he was a jonin after all.

I crashed straight into the door dodging an incoming sword to my head on my way in. There was no point in hiding, he had already found me out. I lowered my body as Nishikawa stabbed his sword at me, then I slid on the floor towards his knees. He raised his leg, ready to kick me, but I tilted his direction with a throw of the kunai. I dodged his kick and grabbed his right leg, twisting it with my chakra enhanced hands. There was a crack, a scream and the man fell down. He was a jonin, yes, but he retired ten years ago and started to luxuriously enjoy life with his 'earned' wealth. Compared to himself, his legions of shinobi followers were much more formidable.

As he fell, I got up and grabbed his sword hand and with a jolt of lightning, the sword fell from his hands. Following through with the momentum, I dragged his arm up with me as I did a backflip and landed in front of him. His arm has just been twisted in a whole circle, and when I let go of it, it felt limply by his side as he dropped to the ground with a broken knee.

"You… assassins. Where are you from?" He huffed as he stared at me venomously, all his kind charisma gone in an instant.

"None of your concern. You know, I thought I'd give you a quick death seeing as you were such a philanthropist, but then, I saw the children," I said emotionlessly. In a flash, I stepped in front of him and slashed his neck with a kunai. I was careful with the strike, deep enough that it would damage the trachea, but shallow enough so that he wouldn't die right away. He gripped his neck with his other hand, but he couldn't speak.

"Human trafficking, I guess that was your main business, right? You didn't care what they would become so long as you got the money. Slaves, prostitutes… killers." My eyes darkened as I said the last word. The man just gurgled in response as his blood flowed down his hands into a pool under him.

"The Land of Grass would be better without you," I whispered. The pattern in my eyes changed, the three tomoes turning into three petals with three black shades. I pushed the chakra into my right eye and stared at Nishikawa's body. Instantly, a ball of black flame sprouted on his chest, and it burned and burned no matter how hard he shook and convulsed in pain.

Amaterasu, the eternal black flame that will purge whatever it touched until there was nothing left. I let it touch Nishikawa, and now he was a pile of nothingness. The fire only burned for five seconds, because there was so little to burn.

When I dispelled Amaterasu along with the mangekyou sharingans, I felt a wave of dizziness rushing up to my head. For something I had never practiced before, the first try wasn't that bad. Usually, my assassination would be over a million years ago, but I dragged it just a bit too long (even if I was trying to intentionally attract some attention). Oops, I let my emotions get the better of me and now I need to leave before I was killed for my decision.

The dizziness was gone quickly, my chakra reserve was not that small that they would be exhausted after one use of Mangekyou, however, it was pretty much halved. Between the few mind control genjutsus and the Amaterasu, I used my sharingan way too much today. I closed my right eye to let it rest, feeling the metal tasting liquid dripping down my cheek.

Chaos quickly ensued when I left Nishikawa's room. Like I said, Nishikawa's legion of shinobi was more formidable than him, and they were chasing me. I ducked into the hallway to my right as waves of shurikens were flung at me.

I quickly ran through the mind map in my head. I was on the second floor, and I still needed to get through eight hallways and one set of stairs before I could leave the villa, all the while leading the shinobi away from that room of children. I still had to get past tons of shinobi throwing jutsus at me as well as figure out how to get away once I was out of the gate. This sucks, and Kakashi sucks. I knew full well that this was probably not all his fault, but I couldn't blame it on the children, and this was probably not a good time for self-reflection either, so Kakashi it was.

I jumped on the wall to avoid being hit by a bunch of water bullets, then I heard screams from the hall in front of me. They were closing in on me from both sides, I figured they'd predict my path after some time, but not this soon. I had one sword on me that I picked up from Nishikawa, and I could perhaps perform another Mangekyou technique. Kannon Bosatsu was out of the question, casting one on this many shinobi would kill me before it saves me. Do I really need to use Amaterasu to burn my way out of here? I thought with annoyance. That was one way for me to stay alive, but it would probably burn everyone inside and destroy the stealth aspect of the mission, not that it wasn't endangered already.

Surprisingly, I wasn't as afraid as I should be, considering I was about to be killed any minute. Yes, I was annoyed at my predicament and Kami help me if I ever see that kid who triggered my dark side again, but the acute fear of death waned a bit. What replaced it was a small bit of...thrill.

Suddenly, I felt someone grabbed my right wrist and pull me into a small corridor on my right. I couldn't see who it was since my right eye was still closed for recovery, but still, I felt nothing on my right until someone grabbed me. So I panicked and send a jolt of electricity down my right arm, hoping whoever it was will let go.

I heard a wine before a familiar sound calmed me down, "Stop struggling, I'm bailing you out of here." Kakashi pulled me along towards some escape route only he knew. Somehow, the amount of shinobi chasing me was smaller, clearly, they couldn't predict wherever the hell my captain was taking me.

Quickly, I realized he was running towards the balcony, not the gate. Before I could ask any questions, he was already zig-zagging like running in a maze. Somehow, he knew the villa better than I do, and he was successful in shaking off our pursuers with his unpredictable routes.

"Jump!" He yelled at me as we arrived at the balcony. I looked down from the railing and saw the outdoor pool under it. I wasn't moving for a second, but Kakashi was. He jumped down from the railing and dragged me along with him like a dead sack of potatoes, and then we plunged into the water.

I was so not prepared when I was dumped into the water. I could feel the cold water numbing my body, threatening to drown my senses and pull me into unconsciousness. There it is, the feeling that pulled me back into the fear of death. I almost panicked and screamed out because I was freaking suffocating, but very faintly, I could also feel Kakashi's hand clamped around my arm the whole time, dragging me to somewhere. There was a minor tremble, and then I was really washed away by the current, towards somewhere unknown.

Finally, I felt I was being dragged out from a hole and I flopped onto the ground immediately, letting the grounded feeling sink into my body. I pushed myself up weakly and coughed the water out.

"Still alive?" I heard someone beside me asking. It was Hound. It was Kakashi.

I coughed some more before I had enough air to speak. "Fine, just fine. What happened to all those shinobi chasing us, where are we..." I couldn't help but shoot out questions, I felt vulnerable, I felt unsafe.

"Easy… I said I would get you out, didn't I?" I turned my head towards the voice, seeing the same hound mask I've been seeing for ages. I looked around, seeing the hole in the ground with the wet soil surrounding it. I suddenly realized, he prepared a tunnel on the side of the pool before hand. By using a simple Earth ninjutsu, he blasted the hole open and the water current pushed us through the tunnel. That was actually a genius plan, so much better than my run-for-the-gate-like-an-idiot plan.

"I collapsed the tunnel once we got in, and I left a fake trail beforehand to the opposite direction. We should get moving, it's still far away from the border." He explained to me calmly. Then, he got up quickly, gave me a hand and pulled me up.

"What were you thinking? Making a commotion when you could have gotten out without anyone noticing." I averted my eyes quickly as Kakashi asked with mild anger in his voice. I guess it was too much hope for him not to notice.

"Um...I panicked." Yep, that was the best answer I could come up with.

"And? What would happen if I hadn't been there? Slaughter the whole villa?" Okay, maybe it was a bit more than mildly angry.

"But you said you would be there." See, I was trying to use his words against him, he did say that he would take care of the escape plan. I was hoping that with my slightly dazed mentality at the moment, he would just let this go.

With a loud sigh, he eyed me with frustration, as if deciding whether I am annoying or very annoying (probably the latter). Eventually, he shook his head lightly and started walking.

I stood there for a moment until Kakashi turned around and stared at me like I was an idiot. Quickly, I understood that he was expecting me to follow him. So he wasn't planning on leaving me here for a night to reflect on my impulsive mistake.

"So you basically dug a hole for the whole night?" I changed the topic quickly.

"Not me, my summons. I just relaxed all night, sleeping." He retorted with his usual laziness and I just cocked my head and gave him a 'Really?' expression. There was no way he just slept all night, he scouted the scene, memorized the villa floor plans, prepared a fake trail and hid out of sight to pull me out. I may be the one that executed the assassination, but he was the one that ensured my safety and the completion of the mission.

"Summons?" I asked with curiosity. I had heard of them before, animal companions that form contracts with shinobi. But they were so rare that I had never seen them before.

"Summoning technique!" Kakashi actually performed the summoning in front of me. After a poof, a small pug appeared. It was wearing a navy ninja vest as well as a Konoha headband on its head.

"Pakkun, how's the patrol?" Kakashi asked the ninken as I watched curiously.

"They followed the fake trail. Border patrol team reported no trouble, we can move out now." Despite its cute and small appearance, the ninken's voice was deep and rich. After he reported to Kakashi, he tilted his head slightly towards me and asked: "Kakashi, who is this, your young pup?"

"She's my subordinate," Kakashi answered flatly, with much unwillingness to admit it. I stared at the pug, its fur just looked so soft, and I wanted to ruffle it just like with Sasuke's hair. See, now that Sasuke was in some kind of rebellious phase, he refused to accept the role of children, nor did he feel like letting me touch his hair.

"He's adorable. I want to rub his fur." I muttered automatically before I realized what I said. Immediately, I covered my mouth with my hands, but it was too late, both Kakashi and the pug - Pakkun - were staring at me.

Kakashi looked at me as if he couldn't believe what he heard. I don't blame him, words like 'adorable' were not on my normal vocabulary list. However, I would definitely blame it on the fatigue and the nearly-drowned experience.

"She's a funny one, I like her, Kakashi. But we need to get moving before they come searching." Pakkun laughed and he hurried us to keep moving. Kakashi followed the pug and I followed him. Suddenly, he threw something at me and I caught the incoming objects swiftly - they were my twin swords and my rabbit mask.

"Take care of your own weapons now and put on your mask." He ordered, but his voice seemed less authoritative. Immediately, I strapped the swords on my back and placed the Anbu mask on my face even though I knew that it conceal nothing.

"Yes, Captain." Weapons and this false sense of anonymity, they are my saviours.

As I ran away from the villa now all lit up from the chaos, I wondered if those children had gotten out or not. See, I didn't really want to help them, not when all I could do was giving them a false sense of hope.

What would they do even if they got out? They had been taken by Nishikawa exactly because they were orphans, therefore no one would care about their disappearances. Between all the violence and pillage in the Land of Grass, their chance of survival was as low as it gets.

The Land of Grass was really not a good destination for tourism right now, or anytime for that matter.

A/N: I don't think any place in the Naruto world is good for tourism...but thanks for reading this chapter! I like constructive criticisms, I really do. Like I said, the goal is to improve my writing in general. So if you have time, I would really appreciate it!

Next update is a week from now, on next Saturday ^_^