AN : Hey ya'll! Cinnabunnbunn here. How have ya'll been?
I know, I know. I'm hecking late to this update, but you know life. And I just don't have the motivation to continue this story (or any of the other story tbh). The thing is, I'm just not getting enough feedback to continue doing this. I get maybe one favorite or follow, very rare. And the review is even rarer, if there are any at all. When I don't see any interaction with the reader, it just pains me. To put so much effort into one piece and not even receive any response.
So with an unsure heart, I might or might not update this story. If I magically get enough motivation to continue this when I get out of bed tomorrow, I might start writing the next chapter, or if I spiral into another depressive episode, then this might as well go on hiatus. Though I do have some new story ideas. Lets see what happens.
And I didn't even plan on this chapter turning out like this. Also, pretty much this whole chapter is around Sasuke and what him and the boys have been doing for them to get so screwed.
Onto the chap…
Seven hours ago
"Are you sure that this is a good idea?"
Sasuke was very much sure that this was the worst possible idea Naruto could've ever managed to conjure up in his tiny brain.
Secretly collecting information from the headquarters is one thing, but breaking into it is another thing. Okay, maybe they weren't exactly breaking in, but no one is informed of their true intentions, and they are in a group of four for God's sake! Who's going to believe that their intentions are innocent.
"Of course it's not. Has this imbecile ever provided us with any reasonable plan." Neji irritably commented while tugging on his neck tie in nervousness. The four of them; Sasuke, Naruto, Shikamaru and Neji, were currently walking through the entrance of the AROWS headquarters, a generally bad idea in all of their minds, excluding Naruto.
"You still agreed though. And it's not even a bad idea, you all will have to take possession of these information someday. Then why not just start today." Came Naruto's excited reply. He was the only one out of all of them, who seemed to be happy with their actions.
All decked up in pressed suits and polished shoes, the boys were on a mission today, albeit a bit tentatively. Walking into the headquarters, their objective was to wring out confirmation of Sakura's identity. They would get past the security, get to the database locker, get the secret, secret agents' data and find out if Silver Hillman and Sakura Haruno are the same person.
At least that's what their plan is.
"But do you have any idea of what would happen to us if any of the leaders found out about our actions?" Sasuke tried to be the word of reasoning amongst of the chaos. "They will have our heads on a platter."
This was ridiculous. Anyone could see that. Breaking into the top secret database, and for what, some petty, childish mission of uncovering someone's supposedly secret superhero identity.
No one would believe them if they told someone that they are the future of this country's security.
"Oh they won't. Don't be pussies." Naruto dismissed their concerns with a wave of his hand as they proceeded to walk through the menacing glass doors leading to their doomed fate.
The clicking of the heels of their polished shoes and the looks people in the lobby gave them really started to solidify the idea of this plan being a mess in Sasuke's head. Naruto, assuming the role of being the supposed leader, walked up to the receptionist with his famous thousand-watt smile and dialed up his charm a notch, thinking that might help.
"Hello there, pretty lady." The receptionist looked up through her wire rimmed glasses and stared at Naruto in veiled annoyance at being addressed as such. Still, deeming it as her job to be polite and helpful, she put on a stiff smile and addressed the blonde.
"May I help you, sir?"
Naruto, apparently ignorant to the air around him, just grinned and leaned over the glass guarding on the marble table, not paying the mess of his suit any mind. "We just wanted to clock in our visit and open up the access. You know, just familiarize ourselves with the place for the future."
The receptionist seemed puzzled at first, but then she peeked over his shoulders to look at the rest of the bunch, and Sasuke saw her eyes widen as she finally seemed to realize who were standing there. The change was instantaneous, she straightened out in her seat and nodded her head with a flush high on her cheeks.
"Y-yes sir, you may go that w-" before she could finish that sentence, the office phone sitting on the table rang up. "Hello?... Yes Ma'am… certainly." Putting the receiver down, she turned to address the bunch. "You may go through. Leader will meet you in conference room 5 to help you with what you need."
'Shit.' There went most of their plan. Sasuke was almost positive that a WSL being with them through their 'tour' puts an end to their whole plan, even if there was never one to begin with. They need to think of something quick.
Fortunately, at least one of them still seemed to have a few of his braincells intact.
"That won't be necessary." The drawled voice of Shikamaru cut through Sasuke's racing thoughts, "We aren't here for the first time, so a tour won't be necessary. No need to bother the leader."
Sasuke would've commended Shikamaru for his quick thinking, had it actually worked.
"She insists." The receptionist gave him a saccharine sweet smile as she typed their name on the visitors list. "Please go to the fifth conference room, leader will meet you there. May I send an escort?"
"No need." Sasuke ground out his frustration while dragging Naruto by his collar towards the elevator. If they are going to have to deal will the leader regardless, then there is no point in standing around if nothing is going to change.
As the troop loaded into the empty elevator, they collectively released a heavy sigh.
"We're fucked."
And Sasuke couldn't agree more with Neji.
If there is ever an instance in Sasuke's life where he wished he would be anywhere on the planet other than place he currently is, it would right this moment.
Sitting in front of the ever intimidating Tsunade Senju, he really wished he was rather at his home getting grilled by his father. He momentarily looked up to see the blond woman staring right at him, face stony and unflinching and her left-hand leisurely swirling the glass filled with white wine. Sasuke averted his eyes again to the cup of coffee sitting before him.
The group met the first leader in the conference room with four cups of steaming coffee already present on the table, about five minutes ago, and since then they have sitting in what is likely the most awkward silence ever. Even the warm ambience of the maple wood flooring, mahogany furnishing and beige walls didn't provide any sort of comfort.
And Naruto was certainly not helping.
"So, grandma," The annoying voice called out again, "How old are you?"
Sasuke froze on his way of picking up his cup and he could distinctly hear Neji choking on his coffee at the blonde's abrupt question. He looked at Naruto to see him obliviously grinning like a fool and he also noticed the pause in Tsunade swirling and vein on her forehead ticking.
At that moment, Sasuke decided to mentally bid the idiot farewell. Not that he would've been missed much anyway.
Shikamaru decided that that would the perfect time to intervene before some more accidents can happen.
"Dr. Senju, may we excuse ourselves? You must be very busy with your job. We will handle ourselves."
Tsunade pulled her glare away from the blonde and returned to her previous nonchalant posture.
"Why are all of you here again?"
Sasuke secretly wiped a bit of sweat from the nape of his neck before taking a sip of the warm beverage. Even the air conditioner can't do anything for all of Sasuke's nerves. He gulped down the rest of his drink before providing am answer.
"We are just here to look at the employee registers." He hoped his excuse would be believable. Well, it wasn't an outright lie. They did want to see the agents report, just not the ones in the building. Just thinking about the subject of their research gave him a flashback of the scene from the day before. He remembered flashes of red chiffon, pink hair and dark, glossy boots. and it was enough to feel his ears getting a bit warm.
Tsunade seemed interested at his response. "Employee register you say. What do you need to look in the employee register?"
"We will be working her in a year or so, so we just wanted to get a feel for the surroundings and the people."
"But what is Uzumaki doing here?"
He had no reason for that.
"He's the sidekick." Surprisingly, it was Neji. "He's just here for the ride. And if he causes any mischief, you know who to blame."
Tsunade still looked at them skeptically for a few more moments for putting down her wine glass and standing up with a flourish, her long coat draping behind her and her heels clicking loudly on the floorboards. She truly looked every inch like the fearsome leader she's supposed to be.
After looking at the group of boys for a few more moments, seemingly debating in her mind, she finally motioned for them to follow her outside the room and to the elevator.
Sasuke released a breath of relief as the group started moving after the Senju. They were finally getting somewhere. Though getting to the confidential files without anyone's knowledge or alerting the system might be a challenge.
As everyone poured into the elevator, Tsunade pushed the button for the elevator to go to a floor below, which was the second highest floor. Sasuke and his friends stood in silence, the emptiness only filled by the low elevator music and silent breaths of all the occupants.
After a few moments, the door opened with a ping and after a few more minutes of walking through the bright hallway with multiple steel doors and cool florescent lights, they finally reached the desired door.
Seemingly unassuming but after a fingerprint scan and voice lock later, they stepped into the dark and intimidating room of all the reports.
The large room was lined with hundreds of shelves containing thousands of thick files containing all that you need to know about everyone in the building. At the end of the room there was desktop setup with four monitors, two keyboards and their respective desktop parts, paired with a large screen on the wall.
"There is the reports room." Came Tsunade's annoyed voice as she went towards the computers to open them with another scanning of fingerprints and password. How did Neji even get through all this?
"See what you want to. I need to go, I've got work to do." Tsunade turned away from the boys and made her way for the door with a last remark.
"I'll send Izumo and Kotetsu here to keep an eye on you. Ask them for help if you need."
Tsunade shut the door with a thud before releasing a heavy sigh. She knows exactly what they're here for. It doesn't take a genius to figure out their true intentions.
She needed a drink like, right now.
The clicks of her heels echoed through the hallway as she made her way back to the elevator towards the underground facility.
Through her long journey, her mind wandered back to the presumed reason for the young Uchiha's visit. And a particular memory brough up by it.
"Did we find the perpetrator?"
"No, Ma'am."
A frustrated sigh went past Tsunade's lips as her hazel eyes still searched for any type of missing piece in the report. A blast has gone off in one of the arsenal bases. And other than the loss of high-tech weapons and firearms of great monetary value, what was more frustrating was that it was also used as an undercover data storage, and to have all that precious information just go 'poof' in her face was going to give her an aneurism.
"Have we been able to recover any of the security footages?" The blonde asked in vain even though she knew what the answer was going to be. This is useless. They are going to get nowhere with this.
"I'm afraid not, ma'am." And there it is.
Tsunade released a heavy and exhausted sigh as she threw the thick report of the incident on her desk and leaned back in her chair. "I need a drink…"
With a wave of her hand, she swiftly dismissed the agent standing guiltily in front of her. And as she was considering popping another bottle of alcohol open, this time whisky, a bright glint from a projectile heading her way caught her eye and she ducked just in time to avoid getting nicked in the face.
"What the fuck!"
As she looked at the senbon needle stuck on the wall, a loud bang again caught her attention. It wasn't a blast, but something crashing down somewhere in the east side of the building.
"Dr Tsunade!"
Tsunade whipped around to see her assistant, Shizune running towards her in urgency, her eyes panicked and steps clumsy.
"What the hell happened?!"
Shizune halted to a stop and panted for a moment, taking in short breaths before she tried to explain the situation.
"Agent Weasel caught the perpetrator."
…
When Tsunade heard that the sneaky weasel found the one responsible for all this, she expected someone big and burly, obviously scarred from the years of blood-filled experience if she were to assume.
Not this slip of a girl who looked barely sixteen.
But there she was sitting, looking small and, if she didn't know any better, harmless enough wrapped in ropes, her pink hair undone and still having the audacity to glare at her with her green eyes.
But even her soft features didn't distract from the black leather assassin suit and guns strapped on her belt and thigh.
"So…" Tsunade started, still a little puzzled, "this is the mouse responsible for all this commotion." When Weasel nodded at her, Tsunade turned her eyes to the pinkette sitting in front of her.
"Say, girl, what is your name?"
This girl had nothing if not audacity, for her glare darkened even more.
And in turn, Tsunade had no problem sharpening her own eyes. Her heels clicked against the tiles as she crouched down in front of the pinkette and leveled her eyes with the girl.
"I won't ask you again," When she tried to turn away her face, Tsunade was quick to harshly grab the girl's face and make her look into her own eyes.
"What. Is. Your. Name?"
The girl still kept quite for a few painful moments before figuring out that she won't be escaping anytime soon. Relenting for the time being, she closed her eyes and gave away her identity.
"Silver Hillman."
"Damn Grandma is scary."
Naruto's comment was swiftly met with a smack to his head, courtesy of Sasuke. The Uchiha cast him an annoyed glance before motioning for Shikamaru.
"Which file was it stored in?" Shikamaru asked Neji with a bored expression while searching all the possible files for the specific name.
Neji muddled over the questions for a few moments before answering, "You wouldn't find it with the regular employees. You need to go much deeper." After a minute of consideration, he added, "Your father is in the intelligence department, you must've learned something."
That was strange. How did he get the data if he didn't even know how to get in? And Sasuke asked exactly that.
"How did you find all that then? You don't even have the access right."
That earned him a glare from the Hyuuga who crossed him arm over his chest haughtily. "Hinata did. She came here to check the database and Uncle gave her the access to the confidential files. She didn't see the Silver Hillman one though."
'Wait, what?' Sasuke turned to look at Naruto who suddenly looked very interested in the design of the very regular keypad.
Sasuke growled at the blonde, "Dobe…" When he didn't get any answer, Sasuke continued anyway, "You said you had the fingerprints."
That got Neji's attention, "What fingerprints?"
"This idiot here said that he has you Uncle's fingerprints for the system access."
"I was just kidding alright." Naruto decided that he needed to defend himself from all the unfair accusations. Really, it was only a harmless joke.
Sasuke groaned at the implication as everyone just went silent for a minute, before Shikamaru asked the bubbling question.
"So… how are we going to get in?".
The question was just met with more silence as no one had the answer, only for a light bulb to go off in Naruto's head in one of his rare moments of smartness.
"Hey why don't we just check the employees in the last few years. We already know who we're looking for."
'That actually… makes sense.' Sasuke thought in wonder as he mentally patted his best friend for getting at least something right.
Neji elaborated further on their current plan of action, "Right, Sakura may be what… 19? She couldn't have been brought her more than 5 years ago. Check the employees in the last 5 years."
Shikamaru followed the command as he took out the report status for the last 4 years… with over a thousand employees. "There are so many of them…"
"Narrow it down to the females."
"Six hundred and forty six employees."
"Sort it by the ages."
After a minute of sorting, Shikamaru slumped down with a tired breath and turned to the Uchiha. "There is neither any Sakura Haruno, nor a Silver Hillman."
Sasuke only frowned in response before sighing as he ran a hand through his hair. "Figures, these are the regular files." But he still hoped that they would find some lead here.
As another silence descended over the group, Sasuke suddenly thought of something. "Hey, how many reports do you think are on the shelves?"
Shikamaru though it over as his eyes roved over the nearest shelf of reports before standing on top of the chair to count the shelves in a row.
"There are about twenty-seven files on each shelf, fourteen rows in case, twenty shelves in a row in the room and sixteen rows in total, so that's about…" pausing to do the math in his head, he answered "One hundred and twenty thousand nine hundred and sixty."
Sasuke took a moment to mentally applaud Shikamaru's calculating skills before asking the next question, "And how many employee marks are there in the computer?"
Shikamaru paused before checking the index in the computer, and muttering out his answer, his eyes never leaving the screen, "Exactly the number that is in the room…"
Realization dawned on everyone except one. "So… that means?" Naruto helplessly looked at each of their faces, searching for some answers, that got provided by Shikamaru. "It means that all the confidential files got removed from here."
"They must've relocatedall those data from here after my visit with Hinata."
"We've been looking at the wrong system." A sight left Sasuke as he looked angrily at the innocent electronic device. "But then, where are they?"
That is a question none of them had an answer to. They know that the files have been removed from this particular system, but the new whereabouts were unknown and no amount of thought putting or searching co relations could help them at this point.
A defeated sigh from Neji cut through Sasuke's thoughts, "This is hopeless. We should just give up and go home."
They probably should. This is getting nowhere and the longer Sasuke had to stay in this building, the more he was frustratedly getting reminded of his incoming doom in about six months.
"I'm going. You all can do what you want." Sasuke turned around to walk out of the stuffy room only to be stopped by the annoying blonde.
"What! Come on man! We can look around a bit more! We can find something."
Sasuke glared at Naruto before resuming his walk "Unless you think of where to look, I suggest you keep quite."
…
The ride down the elevator was curtained in silence as each of them stewed in their own thought regarding the situation, only to come up empty handed. As they reached the lobby, ready to walk out of the doors and forget about the whole shenanigan, when suddenly, Shikamaru remembered something.
"Hey, wait a minute." The rest of them looked at Shikamaru as he looked around the lobby in search of something.
"What is it Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru pulled out his phone and searched through the device for a long minute before finding the desired material. "I need to see the building map."
"What?"
"Yes," The young Nara went up to the info screen on the furthest wall and the group was greeted by an AI lady on the screen, welcoming the visitors and guiding on how to get help in the building. Following the steps, Shikamaru managed to pull up the buildings map, marked with their function and everything and that's all Shikamaru needed to know.
"I got it."
Sasuke looked at him funny, "What did you get?"
Shikamaru took a deep breath and pulling out his phone with an image on it, that looked much like another map, "My dad sent me this blueprint so that I know what areas are in the building, and we also have this map, provided by the system, for the building. But there is one thing that doesn't add up."
Sasuke looked more impatient the more the Nara stalled in his explanation. "Get to the point."
"There is a section of the building that is present in the blueprint, but not in the map."
Sasuke felt himself freeze at the revelation. "That has to be the confidential area."
One glance at each other sent the whole group running into the second elevator and press the button to the basement in a rush. The whole three minutes that it took for them to reach their desired floor was filled with impatient foot tapping and buzzing thoughts. The second the door opened, the boys spilled into the underground floor.
The floor was surprisingly empty considering there are always people buzzing around on every floor of the building and every building in the firm ground. The floor was filled with what looked like technicians and researchers running around in lab coats and construction gear and from the place they were standing, behind a large stack of heavy metal cases, no one seemed to noticed their arrival.
Perfect.
With silent and sneaky footsteps, the group made their way to what was supposed to be the confidential records room. Only to come face to face with a heavy metal door, complete with fingerprint scanner, retina scan and voice command password. A smooth screen on the center of the door.
'Perfect' Sasuke thought grimly while staring at the closed door with dismay. All that to get to nothing. How the hell are they going to get through this gate?
"Hey teme." Naruto whispered, "Your father taught you how get the access right? You should know how to open it."
Sasuke gave the blond a glare before turning back to the door. "That'll only work if my access has been fed into the system. And if it's not and I try to open it, it'll alert the whole building." And he doesn't even know what the passwords are, but Naruto doesn't need to know that specific piece pf information.
The information seeped into the group as everyone silently stared at the closed gate in consideration. They were working with a gamble of a chance. It might open or it might not, but the chances of the later happening were only too high and the cons of the risk of taking the toss severely outweighed the pros.
Naruto mulled over his thoughts before lightning up like a Christmas tree and turned to Shikamaru. "Hey, lazy ass, you know how to hack the system, don't you?"
All eyes turned towards Shikamaru. He looked at all their faces, before determining that this is too much work. He was just about to decline, when he was interrupted again. "And don't even think about lying or else I'll steal away all your napping pillows." Naruto declared without missing a beat.
Shikamaru glared at the posse for a minute more before sighing in weak resignation. "Yeah, I know." Better get all this over with than being on the receiving end of Naruto's nagging for the days henceforth.
"Great! Then he can tell us what the password is!" Naruto was so loud in his gleeful voice, they would've been found on the spot had Sasuke not slapped a hand on his mouth and loudly shushed him.
Naruto sheepishly rubbed his head but snapped to attention when he heard Neji speaking.
"I don't think we should do this." Neji mumbled somberly. And his mentality was apparently not very appreciated by Naruto.
"What?! You are chickening out now? Come on man!"
Neji gave Naruto a glare before sighing. "Do you even understand what you are saying right now. What you want to do might as well be classified as a federal crime. If the leaders got even a sniff of what we're doing, we're all fucked. It's astounding that we aren't being escorted out right now."
And Sasuke knows that. He knows that this is possibly the worst idea they've had since when he decided to replace his uncle's shampoo with his mother's hair removal cream when he was five. One little stumble and they alert the whole system and he could only imagine the look his father would give him when he finds out what his son has been doing without his knowledge.
Naruto was apparently too dumb to understand that concern. "But Shikamaru knows how to get through the system. We will be fine. And don't you want to know what the leaders have been up to behind our backs. God knows what we are going to find."
Sasuke couldn't deny that statement. The curiosity was only too much. Too much to the point where it plagued almost all his thoughts while awake and still managed to creep its way into his dreams. He imagined what looking at the care face of the mystery agent will be like. What thoughts he might have when he connects the rosy hair and the jade eyes to his assistant. Every time he thought about that happening, for some reason, his heart would beat a little faster and his hands would feel a little clammy. He's also not sure why that happens.
And that curiosity is the only reason why he still hasn't strongly rebuffed Naruto on his plan.
Before Neji could respond, Naruto continued on, "For all we know, we could find a secret organization building under the company. You all are going to be leading the association, wouldn't it be a better help if we know what is going on by ourselves before being shoved into it head first in like six months. Worst case scenario, we find nothing-"
"Worst case scenario, we get caught and get screwed." Sasuke murmured under his breath.
Naruto pretended not to hear him, "but best case scenario, we find what we are looking for. We find who Silver Hillman is. And if we're luckier, we find more people like her. Secret agents."
After a moment of contemplation after Naruto's passionate speech, they all collectively sighed and Shikamaru quietly pulled out a chair set beside door and turned on the blackened screen on the door. He could only think about what his father would think if he found out what his father's computer and intelligence teaching were being used for.
The screen lit up and a blue screen greeted them. 'Enter password', it read. Shikamaru slid out the sleek keyboard from under the screen. He pressed what looked like random buttons to Sasuke, and suddenly, they were met with a dark screen with cyan numbers and codes just flying by in lines at the speed of light. And after a minute of coding, they were met with another screen that still looked much like the first one. Shikamaru did his thing again, and again, and again. After what seemed like an eternity, Shikamaru finally did it one last time and they were met with something that actually looked different
"Fucking finally." Shikamaru whispered frustrated. "These fuckers put up like a bazillion layers of firewall security. Bare minimum if you're leading world security, but a little annoying for us."
That makes sense.
After the longest while of doing nothing but standing around and looking out of the space cautiously while Shikamaru furiously typed away on the keypad, they finally got somewhere. When Sasuke checked his watch, he almost cursed at seeing that it has been two hours since they've been in front of this door. He wanted to punch something but Shikamaru's comment made him pause.
"Okay. So, they certainly have installed the identity specific passcodes, and that includes Sasuke."
"But when?" That was the question. He doesn't remember his father telling him anything about getting his access fed into the system.
Suddenly, a certain memory surfaced on his mind. "But my father did scan me." Seeing the confused looks his friends were giving him, he explained further, "He took me to his office a few weeks ago, before the announcement of heirs. He scanned my retina and fingerprint, and made me say a bunch of stuff that I don't even remember." It was frustrating for something so crucial to already have been done and for him to not even be aware of it.
"He must've done so that no one could misuse your access until you're crowned as the next leader. If no one knows that you have access, then no one can get to you to open the safe for them, that includes yourself." Neji tried to answer the floating unvoiced question. A little voice in Sasuke's head whispered that they were doing exactly what his father took precaution against.
"So we could get past the scan. That's a good thing." Naruto piped in. "but what about the passcode and speech lock? What are those?"
Shikamaru pondered for a moment before he sighed in exhaustion. For someone who is as lazy as Shikamaru, he must be the most frustrated one out of all of them. "I can get the password. It will take time, but I can get it. The speech lock however, is a remarkably harder one to get. Especially because the specific words aren't fed into the system."
"Well then Shika, work your magic." Naruto's cheerful reply really set them up for the ride ahead.
After another two hours, they finally had something to work with.
Sasuke could sense that a migraine was not much far away. His legs hurt, his back hurt, his shoulders felt like the weight of the world was resting on them and the soles of his feet felt like shit. All this better be worth whatever they were getting beyond that door.
"We have the password." Sasuke and the rest went to look at the screen to see the said password, and the confusion was palpable. Naruto was the first one to voice the collective thoughts, "YO1832TFAR0W5WE- what even is this?"
"We don't know, and we don't need to care. Write it down somewhere and let's move on." God he sounded tired.
After another hour, Shikamaru gave them the answer to the final mystery. "I have a hint for the speech command." He paused to gather everyone's attention.
"I don't know what the exact words are, but we have a second trial statement that might give us the answer." He looked Sasuke square in the eye. Sasuke cocked his eyebrow at the Nara as a silent command to continue.
"Fifth grade introductory."
For a moment, everything was silent. Sasuke's brows furrowed as he wracked his mind for what that could mean. He was about to voice his question, when his thoughts stumbled upon a very particular memory.
Little Sasuke, first day of fifth grade, first period teacher who has given the command to give introduction in front of the whole class. Little Sasuke, refusing to give out his hobbies or favorite color. Instead opting for giving the class just his name and a very specific detail.
As soon as he figured out what the password is, his mind lit on fire and rage was the only emotion he could feel. That was what his father wanted to get him to say. Even after knowing what happened, Fugaku Uchiha still settled on hitting him a low blow.
Without another word, he turned around to head out of the space. "We're going. There's nothing interesting to look for anyway."
Naruto's eyes widened and he rushed to stop the Uchiha. "Hey, hey, what are you saying man? We got uptill here, you're going to chicken out now? What happened?"
Sasuke didn't answer, instead choosing to glare harshly at Naruto. "You don't need to know. What is happening is that we are getting out of here." And as Sasuke was about to push past his way, he heard a sound unlike one he has ever heard before.
"No." It was Shikamaru. He tone deathly calm and stone cold. He stood up from the chair and slowly turned around to face the group. "You are going to enter the password and open the gate and we're going to see what is inside." A dark shadow was cast on Shikamaru's eyes as his whole being radiated malice.
"Shika-" Neji tried to reason.
Shikamaru was having none of it as his anger irritation boiled over. "I've spent FIVE FUCKING HOURS on this goddamn code. I had to do all this work because YOU wanted. And we are NOT going to throw all that work away NOW just because you don't feel like it. So you either open the damn door or I tell Fugaku what we've been doing here. And I wouldn't care where that puts me."
The rest of them stared at Shikamaru in astonishment. This might've been the first time they've seen Shikamaru this irritated. Irritated enough to be so loud and vocal about it. Sasuke sighed heavily before reluctantly trudging his way over to the screen.
Better to not anger the Nara more or they're all screwed.
Shikamaru reran the computer, and the very first screen popped up. The same blue screen, asking for a password. YO1832TFAR0W5WE, he entered. As soon as the screen loaded, the answer was accepted and they all breathed a colled breath of relief.
As the answer was accepted, it took them to the next screen with the scanning feature. The hidden handprint scanner slid out from the door and Sasuke put his right hand over the scanner screen. The scan was accepted and a retina scanner popped out from the top of the screen. After a moment, after the scan of his left eyes was complete, came the hardest part.
The group held their breaths as a voice from the screen told Sasuke to enter speech command. Sasuke stared at the blue screen for a moment more, as a memory replayed in his mind.
...
"Sasuke Uchiha. Dear, please introduce yourself to your classmates."
Young Sasuke looked at the class full of fifth graders, deciding whether or not to hare any relevant information with them.
"My name is Sasuke Uchiha."
When he added nothing else, his teacher said, "Tell them more about yourself."
"They don't need to know anything more. They just need to know that-"
"I'm Sasuke Uchiha and I want be like my big brother."
The voice in the computer loaded for a second before a low hissing sound was heard.
"Welcome, Sasuke Uchiha."
Sasuke grasped the metal door and slowly pushed it open. "Holy shit." He heard Naruto's astonished whisper, "it actually worked." Sasuke would have to admit, he was quite shocked too.
They went into the dark room, and the lights automatically switched on. The room was surprisingly smaller than the last one. With less bookshelves, less files, but much thicker and heavier than the last ones. There was again a desktop setup and a register for filing.
Shikamaru went to the desktop and quickly searched for the female agents. And agents with initials S. They found three of those. But the location of those files was missing.
"It says that one of them is an ANBU agent." The young Nara whispered. Even though the door was closed and there was no one present there, it felt like even the wall could hear.
"ANBU." Sasuke pondered on that thought. "Then their files will be where exactly?"
Shikamaru thought for a moment. "Hard to reach places. So top shelves and end rows, most likely." Naruto groaned in exhaustion at the thought of having to look at all the top shelves. "Buckled up cause we are in for a ride."
Minato sat in his office, looking over some document about a land dispute and whatnot. He checked his watch and gave another sigh, Naruto has been gone for quite a while now. He only got a text from his son an hour ago saying that he was with Sasuke, but other than that, nothing.
He sighed again, the young Uzumaki must be causing trouble again.
A knock on his office door brought him out of his thoughts. "Come in."
But the figure that entered through the door was unexpected and he would recognize that mass of long white hair anywhere. "Leader Jiraiya?" Minato asked in confusion, "How may I help you?"
Jiraiya grinned a bright smile and he looked around the room in wonder, "Quite an interior remodeling you've done here. This office used to look so bland during my time."
Minato also gave the room a once over before nodding at the white haired man, "Yes. It was actually Naruto's idea." He paused for a moment before continuing, "Please have a seat."
Minato and Jiraiya sat down in opposite each other. Minato motioned for his secretary to get the pair some coffee and looked at the man in front him still looking around the space.
"So…" he started, "What's the matter?"
Jiraiya, satisfied with his tour of the room, looked at the man in front of him. "How is Naruto?"
Minato looked rightfully confused,' "He's okay?" That came out more as a question, "He's not causing any trouble, is he?"
Jiraiya got this strange glint in his eyes that just confused Minato even more, "That subject is something we shall discuss later. Tell me though, what does Naruto plan on doing in the future?"
Minato sighed at the question. Naruto, as admirable as his determination and optimism is, his goal is a bit more, hard to reach. "He doesn't have an exact goal in his mind. He seems to be wanting to do something in the political field."
Jiraiya gave a fond chuckle, "I remember when he was little. He would go on and on about him being a WSL. What an adorable troublemaker he was."
Minato lightly flushed in embarrassment at the memory of little Naruto announcing it to all the guests on his sixth birthday to count on him being a WSL. "Yeah, he was quite peppy about that. Not going to lie, he still says that now." But without the training required to be in the position, it was next to impossible to be a WSL.
Jiraiya seemed to have a different process of thought, "That brings me to my original intentions for this meeting." Minato straightened at the serious look Jiraiya had in his eyes.
"Minato," The second leader addressed Minato, "I want to train Naruto as my successor."
"Hey guys, I found something." Neji addressed the rest of the group from his position on the high ladder on the last row. They have been looking through the files for the last half an hour, almost about to give up again, when they saw a ray of hope. The ray being Neji finding some clue.
"What did you get?" Naruto asked excitably, almost tripping over in his rush to get to Neji's ladder. He was getting so bored looking over files of people he doesn't know and doesn't care about.
Neji pulled out a thick file and descended down the ladder to where the rest of the group were standing. He opened the file to the page he was looking at previously. "This file lists all the ANBU operatives and their file locker."
"Wait, locker?" Naruto asked. Sasuke looked at him in annoyance at his interruption. "Yes, locker. There is a safe locker at the end of the room."
After a moment of silence at Naruto's ignorance, Shikamaru sighed, "What a drag…"
Neji cleared his throat before continuing, "Anyway, as I was saying. There are total of six original ANBU agents. This is the list." Neji showed them the file with a grid of agents with a number in front of them. "Agent 001, agent 002, agent 003, agent 004, agent005 and agent 006."
They flipped to agent 001, someone from Sunagakure, a man. The next were a man and a woman, both from Kirigakure. The next was a man, from Konohagakure. That was a shock to them.
"There is someone from Konoha in ANBU?" Naruto asked in surprise. Sasuke grunted before responding with the most probable answer, "Makes sense. There must be operatives from the major places of headquarters.
The group nodded before flipping to the next page, and the contents made them hold their breath.
Agent 006: White Viper
Origin: Otogakure
Year of record: 20XX
"That has to be her." Sasuke whispered, his breath suddenly knocked out of his lungs. "Locker OAB 006, Password- YO2OISAN8UWE" As soon as he finished reading the access details, he dashed towards the lockers.
He fumbled along the lockers until he came face to face with the incriminated one. He distantly felt the rest of them sliding beside him but he still hesitated in reaching for the codelock.
He suddenly felt hyperaware of the situation. He suddenly felt hit by the gravity of the situation. They were in the confidential record room of AROWS, (illegally, he was sure), sniffing through what could only be unreachable to almost every person on the planet. And he suddenly felt nervous for what he might find. If Silver Hillman is not who he thinks she is, then its fine. Nothing will change between him and Sakura. She would work for him like she always did, and he would continue to annoy her like he always did.
But if she is who he suspects she is… He wasn't even sure what he was supposed to feel in that situation.
"Teme, open it." Sasuke heard Naruto say and he took a deep breath and punched in the passcode. The lock beeped and then deactivated. Sasuke could feel his heart beating faster and faster until he could practically hear it in the quite room.
He slowly pulled the door and was met with… an almost empty locker. No thick file with big, red 'confidential' stamped on it, but just a small, unassuming pen drive sitting in the middle.
Shikamaru took out the device and trudged towards the desktop setup. He turned the computer on and plugged in the pendrive, and as soon as the pendrive loaded, the whole room and the computer turned dark.
"Did we fuck up, teme?" Naruto's panicked voice reached Sasuke. He could've almost agreed, when suddenly the hologram projector on the computer lit up and a hologram slide of biodata floated in the air.
Sasuke turned to the projection, only to feel his heart actually stop for a second.
There, on the screen of particles, was everything they have been looking for.
A younger girl, perhaps a picture from a couple years ago. Soft, pink hair in a choppy bob, peachy skin glowing on the holographic screen and sharp, green eyes, seemingly staring through him.
Next to the picture were the frontal info.
Silver Hillman (Agent White Viper)
AKA – Sakura Haruno
Age – 16
Previous affiliation – Mist Viper Ops, Otogakure
Hair: Pink/ Salmon
Eyes: Green
Sasuke couldn't even read anything past that slide as his brain started short-circuiting, his breath hastened, skin felt sheen with sweat, his heart palpitations increased almost dangerously, his knees felt weak, his hands felt clammy and all around, he just felt like passing out.
"Holy shit." Naruto exclaimed in absolute shock, the rest of his friends in a similar state of astonishment. Shikamaru rushed to the screen and swiped his finger for the next slide.
Silver Hillman, age 15 was captured after an unsuccessful attempt of dismembering the database of AROWS Konohagakura headquarters in year 20XX.
Below that statement were a pair of pictures showing an almost destroyed building and beside that a rose- haired girl trying to swing away from the scene.
Sasuke didn't even bother to look at anything anymore. He turned away from the screen and swiftly started speed walking out of the scene. He didn't even hear Naruto calling after him or Shikamaru and Neji rushing to switch off the desktop and erase all evidences of them even being present on the scene at all.
Sasuke didn't pause once in his stride, his head bowed low and eyes blown wide. For all the anticipation he had for this moment, he didn't even know how to react to this news. Sure he had his suspicions, but that was nothing like getting solid, hard proof. At the moment, he didn't even care if his lack of caution in his departure might get them to get caught, he just wanted to get out of there.
He needs sone fresh air.
The sign that he was out of the facility was the noise of cars on the road. Even out of the building, he didn't stop. He briskly walked straight down the stairs, down the driveway, along the road and into a nearby alleyway. He could now distantly hear the breathless voices of his friends and rushed footsteps to catch up to him.
Once he was inside the alleyway, only then did he pause to catch his breath and process what he just saw. Sakura Haruno, his annoying and frustratingly familiar assistant is some super secret agent. What the hell!
"Teme!" Naruto shouted as they finally caught up to the Uchiha. Pausing for a moment to catch his breath, Naruto hiccupped before asking, "Why did you walk out like that?"
Sasuke remained silent as Naruto went on a rant about who knows what. After a long while, Sasuke finally found his tongue to talk.
"I can't believe it." Naruto silenced in his tirade and the rest of them also listened with attention, "I can't fucking believe it. Sakura Haruno, that annoying rosylocks, is Agent White Viper. Does she have like a secret mission to make me go INSANE?!"
"Teme…" Naruto asked in concern as he saw Sasuke started pacing back and forth, his hand in hair and the look on his face baffled.
Sasuke continued as if he never heard him, "As if plaguing my every fucking thought wasn't enough, he also has to be some SPY?! Why can't she just be normal! And not just someone working for AROWS but FREAKING ANBU?! Why is she doing this to me!"
Sasuke paused to heave after his outburst. He could his friends' eyes on him, staring at him in surprise. Even he was surprised at himself.
But before anyone could say anything, a dark chuckle reached them from a new presence.
"What a surprise! To have found the very person we've been looking for."
The boys turned toward the new presence in surprise, only to come face to face with a man in a dark cloak. His hair was hidden from the view, but from the escaped locks, they deduced that it was silver.
The man looked up, the streetlight in the dusky evening catching onto his round spectacles. "My dearies, has your quest for answers been successful." He said it more as a statement than a question.
"Who are you, you freak?!" Naruto shouted in alarm.
"Call me Kabuto. But you don't need to care about that." Sasuke felt two more presences at the other opening of the alleyway, successfully blocking the exit and trapping them in. Two more people jumped down from the rooftop of the surrounding houses and surrounding the group completely.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked in a careful voice and looking for any kind of exit. He found none.
Kabuto's chuckle brought his attention back to the man. Sasuke's skin crawled at the sound of the slimy laughter. It wished to never have to hear anything like that again.
Sasuke wanted to fight back as the people surrounding the group started encircling them even closer. The boys pressed their backs to each other when Kabuto's answer made Sasuke freeze.
"What I want, Sasuke-kun, is you."
That was all he heard, before a slight pressure on the back of his neck and his vision started blotting. He tried to fight the unconsciousness, fight that slimy bastard and run away to safety, but all too soon, he his vision went blank and he succumbed to darkness with one last leaving thought on his mind.
Sakura…
AN: Okay, so there is the chapter. How was it? Hope you liked it. Damn this one was long. 8K? phew!
Anyway, yeah, they know who our pinkette is. Wonder what's gonna become of their dynamic next. I originally planned on adding the start of the rescue mission in this chapter too, but then it got so long, I just couldn't bring myself to add anything more to it.
If you liked it, be sure to tell me about it.
Bye bye!
