Chapter 49
"Sometimes, you have a bad day. Sometimes, you have a horrible day. Sometimes, you think of that kid in that one story where everything seemed to go wrong and just think, 'You know NOTHING'. What a bad day, am I right?"
Tsunade growled under her breath as she sat at the bar, her red lips pulled into a sour scowl. The tournament had been delayed past the originally promised five minutes at this point, with the end to the break no where in sight. All of the dealers had gone into the back with a manager to talk about who-knows-what, and she didn't expect them to come out any time soon.
"Dirty rotten brat," she grumbled, chugging down the contents of the small sake cup the bartender poured for her. If that brat hadn't pointed out that one idiot for cheating, she'd probably be in the second or maybe even third round by this point. Poker happened to be one of the few forms of gambling she was good at, seeing as it depended on bluffing and seeing through bluffs than regular luck alone. All medical ninja developed a good skill for reading faces and detecting lies given how so many idiots liked to act tough and hide their injuries.
Her expression darkened at the thought, a small crack appearing in the porcelain cup as her fingers unconsciously squeezed.
"Tsunade-sama, please teach me medical ninjutsu!"
"Tsunade-sama, look! I finally revived the fish! Will you teach me now?"
"Tsunade-sensei, I did it! The cut is totally gone!"
"Tsunade-sensei, I know it looks bad, but—I need to do this. No one can know about this. Please, I beg you!"
"Shishou, thank you for teaching me all these years."
"Lady Tsunade?"
Shizune's concerned voice snapped Tsunade out of her dark musings, and her eyes trailed downwards to her hand. Shards of porcelain littered the countertop below her closed fist, a small pool of sake dripping from her hand. Her face darkened as she unclenched her hand, letting the few remaining fragments of the cup drop as she stared at the small, pink dents left in her palm.
Her gaze slowly drifted to her wrist, the smooth curve interrupted by a wide, hand-carved wooden bracelet with a red lacquer finish. She breathed slowly, glaring at the kanji for 'Faith' carved into the wood. Her hand balled into a fist again and slammed onto the table, her teeth digging into her lower lip.
"Fuck this," she growled under her breath, and then raised her voice to yell at the bartender. "Hey, you! More sake! Now!"
Sakura hesitated as she hovered in the doorway, her mouth pressed into a tight line while watching Kakashi. The jounin sat on the edge of the porch of Tazuna's house, staring into the distance. The sun had yet to even peek over the trees, the sky still dark save for a dusting of pink in the horizon that really looked quite pretty. She sincerely doubted he was taking in the scenery, though.
No, for Kakashi to be out here, now, he was probably just... thinking.
Gnawing her lower lip, she hesitated before spinning on her heel, quietly tiptoeing back into the house. "Sakura-chan." She froze midstep, giving a small start. When she whirled around she found the silver-haired man still facing forward, staring at the not-quite-sunrise, but he continued quietly, "You're allowed to sit here too."
Sakura stared at him in silence for a long moment, still surprised he'd addressed her at all. Releasing a deep, shuddering breath, she crept forward and carefully sat next to him, swinging her legs over the edge of the porch to dangle over the grass. For a long while, neither of them spoke. She just stared out at the horizon while avoiding his gaze, her fingers curling around the edge of the wooden planks.
Eventually, she inhaled sharply and forced herself to speak. "Kakashi-sensei, are... are you really okay?"
"Straight to the point, I see." Kakashi hummed in thought. "Well, I could act tough and say I'm fine, but I don't think you'd believe that right now, would you?" Sakura bit her lip and shook her head, still not looking at him, and heard him sigh. "Thought not."
He sighed yet again, and she could hear the wood creak as he shifted his weight to lean back. A long time passed before he spoke again, seeming to carefully consider his words. "I'll be honest, these past few days have been incredibly trying. I still have no idea who that man is, or just how strong he is since we never actually fought. I can't even say what his motivations truly are, despite all that's happened. But," his voice took on a sterner note, making her stiffen and her fingers dig into the fabric of her shirt, "I do know he's dangerous."
At this point she risked a glance his way, and found his single visible eye locked onto her, more serious than she'd ever seen it before. "If you ever see him again, do not engage him. Drop whatever you're doing, and run. Am I understood?"
Sakura swallowed and nodded, her head falling forward with her eyes squeezed shut. "Yes, sensei."
xxx
"What do you want?" Sakura demanded, her voice rough and scratchy as she glared at the man who had once captured her teacher. Every instinct screamed at her to run, even without Kakashi's warning ringing in her head, but she couldn't. She didn't mean that in a physical sense, either. The man had made no attempt to restrain her in any form, hell, she could probably get up and walk out the door with no problem.
But while normally this level of mobility during a hostage situation should be a positive factor, as a thirteen-year-old genin who mainly played support, the sheer amount of freedom petrified her.
He hadn't neglected to bind her out of negligence or because he didn't take her seriously. He did so because of his confidence in his own skills to stop her. Even if she'd still had her weapon pack, Sakura wouldn't be able to take him on. She had no idea of his actual skill level, but his confidence and ease during their single previous encounter made it perfectly clear that he was on a different league.
Her heart beat faster as she remembered his taunting voice echoing around them, her eyes struggling to follow him as he seemed to just blink out of existence with Kakashi slung over one shoulder. He'd managed to grab Kakashi so fast none of them had even seen it—one second Sasuke had been supporting him, and the next he was stumbling from the sudden absence of the unconscious jounin's weight.
Forget beating him, Sakura wouldn't even be able to touch him.
Across from her the masked man just raised his hands in a placating gesture, speaking in a light and friendly tone. "Sorry, I know this is probably really scary. I promise I don't plan to do anything though."
"Forgive me if I don't believe you," she quipped sarcastically. Internally she screamed at herself for talking like that, because what if he got mad and decided to kill her—
The man broke into sharp laughter, short but carefree as he shook his head. "Hah, yeah, no, that's pretty smart. Never trust kidnappers, even if we're technically allies."
"Technically?" she repeated, narrowing her eyes. Gather as much information as possible, try to do something useful.
"It's a long story, and one that could probably get you killed if I told you. Not by me, of course, but, well, there's plenty of other people who'd prefer to think of me as dead." He waved a hand dismissively. "You know how it goes. Or, maybe you don't, in which case, good for you. This world's way too rough and you're still a kid, you shouldn't have to deal with that stuff just yet. Anyway, seriously, I really don't plan to do anything to you. I wasn't expecting there to be any Leaf ninja way out here. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Her breath hitched, her eyes narrowing sharply as her hands curled at her sides. She didn't have a full picture of what was going on, but she could glean enough information from his words to get a basic idea. "We're in your way," she said carefully, just to make sure, and he bobbed his head in affirmation.
"Yep! You're just bait. Sorry about that." Sakura swallowed at the cheery confirmation, carefully schooling her face to look placid and unmoved despite the cold tendrils of fear steadily ensnaring her in an icy web of nerves. He had some sort of objective here in this town, and while she couldn't imagine what it could be she at least knew that it couldn't be good.
"I hate to break it to you, but I'm not a good option," she forced out. "I've spent the past three days with Lady Tsunade. My team has no way to know I'm missing, and even if they notice I'm gone they'll just assume I'm still with her." Sakura knew she couldn't stop him, but the fact he wanted to distract her team meant he thought her teammates would somehow get in the way. So if she could convince him they wouldn't notice her absence, and the distraction would fail—
His disappointed sigh cut through her thoughts, the masked man crossing his arms and shaking his head while clicking his tongue. "That's so horrible of you, Sakura-chan," he scolded softly. "Konoha values teamwork above everything else. You should have more faith in your teammates. After all..." He trailed off, and for the briefest second she swore she saw red in the eye of the mask.
"Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their friends are worse than trash."
An icy chill washed over her, the blood draining from her face. "Th-that's..."
"That's pretty much Kakashi's catchphrase, isn't it?" the man mused. "I thought you might recognize it. No way he wouldn't pass it on to you guys, I bet even Masaru-chan's heard it a bunch of times by now. But, more importantly, do you want to hear a story?" The question was so sudden it took a moment for Sakura to process it, and once she did she stared at him incredulously.
"W-what?" she stammered, and the man laughed.
"Well, since you insist, I'll give it my best shot!" He clapped his hands enthusiastically, and she could practically hear the smile in his voice. "So, long ago but also not THAT long ago, there was a girl with long red hair. More importantly, she also had very special type of chakra. Other villages wanted that chakra, and one day a bunch of ninja kidnapped her to take her to their village. She couldn't escape them on her own so she tried to leave a trail, but days passed with no rescue in sight. But then, just as she started to give up hope, a dashing hero appeared to save the day!"
He clapped his hands once more, leaning forward slightly, and Sakura reflexively leaned back even though several feet of empty space separated them. "And do you know how he found her?"
"I... N-no?" she replied hesitantly, and then suddenly he was right in front of her, making her jump back with a scream. Her back slammed into the wall, her hands scrambling for the weapons pouch that usually adorned her thigh.
"Because she used that pretty red hair to leave a trail," the masked man declared in a low voice, and her heart fluttered to a stop as he held up a single strand of bright pink hair.
"The trail ends here," Sasuke declared tightly as the trio perched atop a roof. Shikamaru hummed, narrowing his eyes at the building across from them. They had followed the trail of pink hairs across the town until reaching what appeared to be an abandoned warehouse. They could see a dull yellow light in one of the windows, the only sign of life in the entire building.
"This place screams evil hideout," Masaru muttered dryly, and Shikamaru had to agree.
"Chances are she's in there, or the kidnapper is," he said lowly. Next to him Sasuke tensed up, looking ready to leap off the roof and burst through the window, and he had to suppress a sigh as he grabbed the Uchiha by the arm. "Hold on, the chances of it being a trap are too high to risk."
"Then what do we do?" Sasuke retorted, spinning to glare at him. "We're days away from Konoha. Even ANBU would take at least half a day to reach here! By then Sakura could be dead!" His Sharingan spun wildly as he spoke, his irritation obvious in the tight set of his jaw, and even Shikamaru had to shudder at the cold intent he radiated. He understood now why some people used to call the Uchiha demons, those eyes burned through him.
He swallowed the down the instinctive urge to run, look away and forced himself to meet the other boy's gaze head-on. "We're not rushing into this," he said forcefully. "The last thing we need to do is get into more trouble." Sasuke just scowled, wrenching his arm free and turning to glare at the building. Masaru shot Shikamaru a surprisingly bland look, clearly unimpressed with his cousin's antics, and Shikamaru had to suppress the urge to sigh once more.
This mission was supposed to be easy.
From the moment he opened the file, Shikamaru knew the mission would largely be a waste of time. While the part about Mito's tessen had been true, the Hokage had been upfront about the bandit group's actual location and that it was a ruse to get Masaru and Sasuke as far from Konoha as possible until Gaara returned to Suna. He didn't expect any actual results from the mission beyond the fan's potential retrieval, and neither did the Third Hokage.
Overall, Shikamaru viewed this mission as more of a vacation than anything. Minimal risk of combat, a simple objective with a specific timeline, and a team of relatively quiet genin with established teamwork. Even after running into Tsunade, it had been a recipe for an easy time. While it served as a test of his abilities to lead a team as a chuunin, it mainly seemed like a chance to unwind and just get away from the stress from a still-recovering Konoha.
But now here he was, standing on a rooftop staring at the building where his fourth team member was potentially being held hostage, while the other two appeared to be in the middle of some weird family spat.
All in all, Shikamaru's first outing as team lead could be summed up by one word: troublesome. Stereotypical and cliché as it was, the Nara clan's favorite word fit the situation perfectly. He just really hoped it wouldn't escalate to a new word: disastrous.
"If we're lucky, she got jumped by some of Tsunade's debt collectors," he thought aloud, earning surprised looks.
"If we're lucky?" Sasuke repeated, his voice an agitated hiss. "What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
"Tsunade's notorious for taking on excessive loans to pay for her gambling habit. If some of her debt collectors saw Sakura with her, they might have thought they had some sort of relationship and thought they could use Sakura as ransom."
The look on Sasuke's face made it clear just how unlikely he thought that idea would work for them. "In that case," he continued before Sasuke could launch into another rant, "we'd be able to negotiate Sakura's release pretty easily."
"If we're unlucky?" Masaru asked, and Shikamaru nearly grimaced.
"She's bait for our team." Both Uchiha tensed at that, looking a little paler at the notion and quickly averting their gazes back to the building in cold silence. It didn't take much imagination to think of why someone would want them; between the last two loyal Uchiha and a clan heir, this particular team would be highly coveted for their genetic material. If they were going to go in, they needed to be smart about it.
Shikamaru frowned as he started thinking over potential courses of action, falling so deep in thought he almost didn't notice Sasuke suddenly stiffen, his face twisting with rage as his lips curled back in a snarl. "You!" he hissed, and then leaped off the roof. As he bounded towards the warehouse Shikamaru and Masaru gave small starts, not expecting the movement, but quickly collected themselves as they took off in pursuit.
"Dammit Sasuke, slow down!" Shikamaru yelled as he and Masaru chased after him, mind already racing through what little information he possessed. Unknown enemy, but apparently familiar to Sasuke and clearly someone he didn't like. That narrowed down the options, but Shikamaru wouldn't know most of those options since he didn't know Sasuke that well. He did know one option though, one he'd been briefed on before this mission, and he really hoped he was wrong.
He didn't have much time to think on it though, because it only took a few seconds to catch up to the errant Uchiha. Sasuke barreled through the window, which fortunately for him had no glass, and the other two followed in quick suit. Upon touching the floor Shikamaru quickly assessed their surroundings—storage room, no furniture except for a few candles, dusty boxes and spider webs covering the only doorway—before his gaze settled on the man in the center of the room.
Even with the dull glow of the candle to counteract the spreading darkness of dusk, Shikamaru couldn't make out many features. He wore all black clothing, the dark fabric blurring together in the shadows to form an undefined blob with the pants hems tightly wrapped around his shins with equally dark cloth. Even his hair was the same inky black as the shadowy walls behind him, blending into the shadows and impossible to define.
Really, the only thing that did stand out was his mask. Deep, bloody crimson, with a single hole for the right eye and strange spiraling lines snaking around it.
As Shikamaru looked at the mask his stomach sank, his skin growing cold. "Dammit," he whispered, his hands clenching at his side. The man just tilted his head, raising a hand in greeting.
"Hey, everyone!" he greeted cheerily. "I've been waiting for you!" Masaru made a choking noise behind Shikamaru, but he couldn't look at him to see if anything was wrong because his attention was focused on the other Uchiha in the room.
"You bastard!" Sasuke roared, flinging a volley of kunai at the man as he lunged forward. The masked man easily sidestepped the projectiles' path, catching one by the loop on its end with his index finger.
"I missed you too Sasuke-chan," he commented lightly, spinning the kunai around his finger before tossing it into the air. He twisted to the side to avoid Sasuke as he barreled past, swinging an arm out at the same time so Sasuke's stomach collided with his fist. Sasuke gasped at the blow, all breath leaving him, and the man quickly shoved him backward.
Shikamaru moved on instinct, rushing forward to catch his teammate before he could hit the ground. He staggered as Sasuke fell into his open arms, grunting at the sudden addition in weight, and the Uchiha just sagged against him for a few seconds with a pained expression as he gasped for breath. The man just casually held out a hand to catch the kunai on its descent, giving it a twirl before slipping it into his kunai pouch. "Throwing stuff is still rude though," he remarked casually, and then seemed to pause. "Wait, Masaru-chan, is that you? Your hair is so short!"
This time Shikamaru did risk a look back at his other teammate, swiftly sliding his arms underneath Sasuke's armpits to lock him in place as he did so. Masaru looked much paler than usual, almost ghostly white as he stared at the stranger with wide, black eyes. He couldn't look for more than a few seconds before Sasuke started squirming in his grip, cursing loudly.
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM, YOU FUCKER!" he screamed. "DON'T YOU EVEN LOOK AT HIM!"
"Sasuke, stop it!" Shikamaru yelled, grunting as he tightened his hold on the Uchiha. "He's trying to rile you up!"
"Actually, I'm really not," the man interjected, sounding faintly amused. "I really didn't expect him to have such a short fuse. It's... kinda sad, actually." As he mused aloud to himself Masaru stepped forward, inching closer to his teammates without taking his eyes off the man.
"Who is he?" he breathed to them.
"That's the bastard that kidnapped Kakashi in Wave!" Sasuke replied, still kicking and straining against Shikamaru's grip. "Let me go already!"
"Sasuke, stand down," he ordered gruffly, even as Masaru recoiled in shock.
"Wait, WHAT?" he blurted, his voice rising several octaves higher than usual. He looked between them and the man several times, his eyes somehow even wider than before. "Y-you're...?"
"Guilty as charged," the man confirmed with a nod. "Wow, saying that feels a lot different when there's actually a crime involved. Although to be fair, I'd say Kakashi benefitted from it more than anything, but... still technically kidnapping."
"What do you mean he benefitted from it!?" Sasuke snapped, even as Shikamaru tensed, and the man tilted his head.
"Wait, you mean you don't know? Actually, I guess that makes sense, since it'd probably cause a lot more panic if it got out."
"Panic?" Masaru repeated, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion as he glanced at Shikamaru. Shikamaru just met his gaze evenly, swallowing thickly before turning to stare at the man. With a few swift motions he'd released Sasuke and shoved him back, positioning himself between him and the stranger with one hand angling for his kunai pouch.
"He experimented on Kakashi's Sharingan," he informed them tightly, and he could hear the twin intakes of breath from the Uchiha at the news. He'd been warned about this man during the initial briefing for this mission, even got shown a drawing of the mask created by Kakashi. The Hokage had been explicit about the secret's S-rank status, and had only given him the bare-bones details because Shikaku had advocated for his ability to keep it under wraps.
Apparently even the Uchiha had been kept in the dark about it, judging by their stunned reactions. "He... he experimented on it?" Sasuke whispered, all his earlier rage gone and his voice left weak and shaky. "On—on Kakashi?"
"On... on Uncle Obito's eye...?" Masaru breathed, barely audible. The name Obito meant nothing to Shikamaru but he nodded anyway, his gaze fixed firmly on their enemy.
"Stay back, both of you," he ordered lowly. "This guy is above our pay grade, and he has a proven interest in the Sharingan."
"You make it sound so sinister like that," the man commented. "I mean, I guess technically I do, but it's not an abnormal level of interest. Heck, I'd say I'm more interested in Team Seven than that. Otherwise I would've skipped the part with the princess and gone straight for you." Sasuke's breath audibly hitched as he recoiled, and Shikamaru could sense his chakra flare in tightly controlled aggravation.
At the exact same moment an almost inhuman screech cut through the air as a blurry blue form surged past him, charging at the man—but it wasn't Sasuke. Shikamaru could only watch in shock and disbelief as Masaru shot forward, his eyes blazing bright, bloody red as he screamed.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" he shrieked, swinging his fist at the man's face. The man quickly dodged out of the way and blocked a follow-up roundhouse kick with his forearm, shoving Masaru back. Masaru didn't lose momentum as he fell back, spinning around swinging his arm in a sweeping motion with his hand aimed for the man's neck. "IF THERE'S EVEN ONE HAIR OUT OF PLACE I WILL MURDER YOU!"
"Woah, touchy," he remarked, leaning back to avoid it. At the same time he ducked and spun, sweeping a leg out at Masaru's stomach to send him flying back. Clear fluid spewed from his mouth as he skidded back, only anchored to the ground by a swift infusion of chakra to his feet. Masaru didn't even wait to regain his breath before charging again, this time aiming low for his legs.
Shikamaru should probably intervene. Hell, Sasuke probably should step in too. But they just stood there and watched, too stunned by the sudden aggression on Masaru's part to react. Just minutes ago Shikamaru would have pegged Masaru as the more calm and rational of the two Uchiha; he'd never seen the boy even get angry, his defiance usually manifested in blank stares or aggravated grumbling.
Clearly, he'd misjudged something about him.
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH A HAIR ON HER HEAD!" Masaru screamed as he launched blow upon blow at the man, twisting and contorting his body in various ways to aim for increasingly creative spots. A knife-hand aimed at the jugular, a knee aimed for the groin, an attempt to hook an ankle around the back of the man's knees to pull him off-balance. Each blow was dodged artfully and smoothly, the man showing barely any effort before grabbing Masaru by the shoulders and flipping him over.
Twisting even as he fell, Masaru hissed in pain but then quickly staggered to his feet, his teeth bared in a ferocious and vicious snarl as he began flashing through hand seals Shikamaru swiftly recognized from their training as the ignition jutsu for Foxfire. Three seals in the man suddenly vanished, just blinked out of existence, and then he was suddenly behind Masaru grabbing both of his wrists and jerking his arms apart.
Only then did the shock wear off, Shikamaru staggering as his stomach violently lurched. Shit! "MASARU!" Sasuke shouted, while Shikamaru mentally cursed himself for his inattentiveness as panic started to set in. The rage faded from Masaru's face as realization of his predicament set in, his head turning to stare at the man in wide-eyed horror.
"You shouldn't do that, Masaru," the man told him, his voice eerily calm and devoid of the earlier playfulness. "You'd just burn your hands." Masaru didn't respond, just visibly sucked in a breath as he stared up at him. A long second seemed to stretch on forever, time seeming to freeze as the pair stared at each other. Then, just as suddenly the man shoved Masaru forward, hurling him right at a charging Sasuke so that they crashed into the ground in a pile of splayed limbs.
At that point the man turned his gaze to Shikamaru, making him stiffen. "You shouldn't have been standing by," he informed him solemnly. "You're the commanding officer on this mission, you should have stepped in the second his emotions got the best of him rather than let him engage an unknown entity while emotionally compromised. It's your first mission so I'll give you a pass, but if I really wanted to hurt you guys, I could have easily killed him just now."
The warning chilled Shikamaru's blood, making his skin feel cold and clammy, but even so the inflection of the man's words didn't skip him. "You sound like you're trying to give me advice," he remarked coolly, even as his hands trembled at his sides, and the man hummed.
"That's because I am. I might not be able to wear my hitai-ate openly anymore, but I'm still a member of the Hidden Leaf. It'd be a crime for me not to give one of my adorable little kouhai critique on how to improve. That said, your first report as a chuunin squad leader is going to be really messy. I mean, letting the team split up and leaving one member alone and vulnerable?" He clicked his tongue in a chiding manner as he shook his head. "Really, that's unprofessional and dangerous. You're leading a team of three genin in unknown territory with no jounin backup, you should be more cautious!"
Shikamaru winced at the reprimand, already fully aware of his mistakes so far. He'd been mentally reviewing the potential report every step of the way following Sasuke and Masaru along the trail of pink hairs. He could think of six different ways he could have handled it better so far, and he'd probably have thought of more if not for the urgency of Sakura's situation.
"Where is she?" he asked lowly, willing his voice to remain level.
"You probably should have asked that earlier, too," the man remarked dryly. "But to be fair, Sasuke-chan did kind of launch an immediate attack so you didn't really get a chance to, so I'll let that slide too. Anyways, I was gonna have her here, but then I realized that would be too easy, so I decided not to. In other words!" He clapped his gloved hands together, almost certainly grinning behind his mask. "The princess is in another castle!"
A brief silence fell, even the two tangled Uchiha stopping their grunting and grumbled arguments as they all stared at him in shock. "What," Sasuke deadpanned from beneath Masaru.
"See, you got one thing right: I did want her for bait," the man responded cheerily. "But I was going for more of the stalling variety. Sooo, you still have a bit of searching to do!" He sounded so sunny when he said it, like it was a big joke. Shikamaru just stared at him in silence as he processed his words, the gears in his brain slowly grinding to a halt to change tracks.
Then he heard a soft, muted buzz, making him stiffen. His eyes darted to the side for a brief second to see a tiny black beetle flitter towards him, the beat of its wings almost perfectly silent as it landed on his arm.
Almost instantly he relaxed, the smallest of smirks tugging on the corner of his mouth as he turned to face the man. "Actually, I don't think we do," he said, a smug note slipping into his voice, and the man tilted his head inquisitively.
"What's that? Are you saying you're going to give up on your teammate? Seriously, what do they teach in Konoha these days?" Shikamaru didn't fall for the taunt, his smirk growing just a little larger as he let himself fall into a slouch.
"Did you really think Konoha would send its only two Sharingan users out alone with only a single, recently-promoted chuunin?" he asked dryly, inclining his head to the small beetle on his arm. Silence fell as all eyes in the room locked on the tiny kikaichu, none of them speaking for a long while.
"...Huh," the man finally said. "Guess I really should've seen that coming."
Then he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving them alone.
Halfway across town in another abandoned warehouse a certain masked man stood suddenly stiff and alert, ignoring how Sakura scrambled back in alarm as his head turned to peer over his shoulder at the doorway. "Well," he remarked flatly. "This is a surprise."
Two cloaked figures slipped out of the shadows, one with a white porcelain tiger mask and the other a monkey. The man with the blood red mask turned to face them more fully, dipping his head in greeting. "Hello, ANBU-san."
I am so sorry for the delay! Last Thursday I had a major project due so I couldn't post, on Friday and Saturday I had work, and then on Sunday I woke up with the start of the cold from hell. I'm not kidding, it's been a bad week for me, on Tuesday I was just a vegetable. Yesterday was also bad because I got my mom sick too, so our house is just full of coughing. On top of that I was kinda iffy on some parts of this chapter, mainly how to end it. I almost combined it with the start of the next one, but that became a 7k+ word behemoth so I decided against it.
But on the bright side, while I couldn't focus on writing/editing I COULD focus on finishing something else:
Echoes of Light now has a new cover!
This is a fun one and I have a lot of thoughts on it, but I'll keep them to myself for now. Drawing Sakura and Hinata was fun. If you want to see it in full, I'm also posting it to Deviant Art, under the same username as here (cannibalisticapple). That said, I'm not sure how long I'll use it. It's relevant to the next portion of the story, but after that I think I might change back to our masked friend, or maybe something else entirely. I dunno, we'll see.
Anyways, thanks to all the reviewers: Reebajee (that is a LOT of good omake ideas), xXxSpades231Xx (all will come clear, though funny you should mention the Sasuke retrieval arc… Also Masaru would probably look ridiculous in an Akatsuki cloak right now but after he gets older he'd look pretty cool and intimidating), May525 (good theories, though not quite right. Also, Fu has a giant beetle bijuu, and Masaru has fire. Thus, Firefly.), and Darksoul (Me estás dando ideas, malas ideas... Podrío ser malvado. :3), Dreckman (Welcome back! And yep, this will definitely have some long-lasting repercussions for Sakura.), and Guest (I did change the cover, but like I said above it's not a permanent change).
Also a more general comment: I am seriously amused at how many people thought he'd give Sakura the Sharingan. I mean, a LOT of people thought he'd give Sakura the Sharingan.
Anyways, that's all for now. I'll see you all in two weeks!
