Ink's Notes:
...~
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Once Perona had been filled in on their cover story, and considering her attraction to Bepo on account of finding him adorable (which Bepo still had no idea how to react to), the group decided to update said cover story with Bepo being Perona's summon animal. This had the added bonus of helping to avoid any confusion about why a Princess would have a summon animal and why she would need to hire a shinobi bodyguard in the first place. Perona had also contributed an element to their cover story herself, which was that she and Sakura were long-lost siblings who had been separated at birth. That was why she, a non-shinobi, was traveling with a shinobi who had been hired for a job – they were using it as a way of bonding with one another after so many years of being apart. Perona had come up with this largely on account of the fact that both of them had pink hair, which amused her to no end for some reason, and it wasn't exactly a common hair color in the world of shinobi.
In fact, abnormal hair colors were very unusual in the world of shinobi, and Vivi had gotten a few awkward glances and picked up on a few muttered questions and insults because of her blue hair. Upon telling the others, they informed her that some people were just stupid like that, and they all knew that odd hair colors were commonplace in the Grand Line so it didn't matter that her hair was blue. Upon learning this information, Sakura had jokingly stated that a possible way of figuring out who else was from the Grand Line was to look for or ask about people with unusual hair colors. Much to her surprise, Vivi thought it was a plausible idea, and it was this logic that led them to ask if anyone had seen or heard about people with unusual hair colors while they were in Iwagakure.
The group was shocked when they were told about a group of five people who had stopped in the village briefly for supplies, most of them having unusual hair colors. Apparently, aside from one young man with black hair, they all had strange hair colors – there were two other men, one with white hair and one with orange hair, and two women, one who had red hair and one who had dark blue hair.
Sakura decided that this was as good of a lead as any, and asked which way they had gone. The one who had told them informed the group that they had headed East towards Takigakure and had left sometime early that morning, so if they moved quickly they might be able to catch up to them. After thanking the people profusely, the group had quickly made sure they had everything they needed before leaving the village as quickly as they could.
Their method of fast travel had been slightly updated – Vivi still rode on Carue's back while Sakura rode on Marco's back at least fifty feet above them to keep an eye out for anything suspicious – but now Perona was riding on Bepo's back while the bear ran on all fours alongside Vivi and Carue. During these times, Bepo would give the girls some pointers on Haki, while Marco did the same for Sakura up in the sky.
"Marco," Sakura began as she scanned the forest below them. "You've been awfully quiet in regards to things involving the Grand Line lately, and I've caught you looking around when we talk about it in private. Is something wrong?"
Marco frowned. "Yoi… you're rather observant, Sakura."
"Shinobi always have to be alert of their surroundings, in case of an ambush or a trap. It's ground into us from day one of our training at the academy," Sakura practically recited, stroking his back gently.
Marco nodded, flapping his wings to maintain their altitude and speed. "Since we left Konoha, I've periodically picked up a few people with my Haki. Far away enough to not be able to hear us, so it wasn't a problem for us before… but ever since we left Amekagure, I've felt someone else in addition to the earlier ones, with this one being less careful as far as distance goes, but…" he hummed in quiet contemplation. "It's almost like they're part of the environment, like they can become part of it, or they're made of it. Like a Logia or something similar." He glanced down somewhere to their right, then frowned and moved his eyes back to their route. "Someone's following us, yoi. At least two groups, working independently of one another. We need to be more careful."
Sakura frowned, then nodded. "I understand." She paused when she saw Bepo and Carue pulling to a halt below them. "Marco-"
"I know," he nodded, gliding down before gently landing and letting Sakura off of his back, but remaining in phoenix form. "What's up, yoi?"
"We were practicing Haki," Bepo explained, lifting his paw and pointing to a part of the surrounding forest, "When we picked up on something in that direction. Perona's about to send some of her negative hollows to investigate." As he spoke, Perona lifted her hands, the strange cartoon-like ghosts forming around her and flying off in the direction Bepo had pointed, moving through the trees to remain hidden.
"While we wait, why don't we try and feel it out?" Sakura offered, closing her eyes to try and practice her Haki. She slowly felt things become more clear, even so much as ducking when Marco gently swung his wing at the back of her head to make sure she was still alert towards her surroundings. Before long, she'd picked up on a few things – five people about fifty feet away in the direction that Bepo had pointed, and something about twenty feet back that felt like nature but not quite. Sakura frowned and focused in on the five people, trying to see what she could figure out. She quickly noticed that while one of them felt somewhat similar to her companions, the other four felt more like home, one even more so than the rest. They each had a unique feel about them – one felt like the calm before the storm, one felt like the ocean waves, one felt like a calm beast, and the fourth felt warm and comforting.
She paused at the fourth, noticing that it seemed to be feeling her out as well, and quickly broke her focus with her Haki, opening her eyes and shooting a quick glare at Marco for his earlier stunt. "You should learn to use your Haki with your eyes open, yoi," he explained. "More useful in combat that way."
At that moment, Perona's negative hollows returned. "Five people hiding in the undergrowth of the forest in the direction we thought," she smiled cheekily as the ghosts vanished. "Black hair, white hair, orange hair, red hair, and dark blue hair. Sounds like who we're looking for."
"Anything else?" Vivi asked, and Perona shook her head.
"The red head seemed to notice my ghosts, so I called them back before they could get caught. I didn't want to risk them being seen." Perona smiled. "But why don't we go and say hello?"
The group nodded, and Marco shrunk himself down so he could perch on Sakura's shoulder for easier travel through the trees. The group began making their way through them, moving carefully and cautiously.
"Be ready for a fight, yoi," Marco spoke with a low voice, but loudly enough so that the group could hear him. "I'm sensing some hostile intent."
Vivi nodded, moving her hand to where she stored her peacock slashers, while Sakura moved a hand to her kunai pouch. Bepo, Carue and Perona didn't use weapons, so they simply readied themselves for anything that might come at them.
When they emerged from the trees that they'd been moving through into a small clearing hidden from sight by the thickness of the forest around them, they were greeted by the sight of five people, each of them looking ready for some kind of battle. Sakura ran her eyes over the group, scanning them both for threat level and potential clues as to if they were from the Grand Line. In order, she noted a red-haired woman with glasses who appeared to be about her age, a rather tall and broad man with spiky orange hair whose features were largely covered by a heavy cloak but she could still feel something wasn't quite right about him, a shark-like man with white hair who had what Sakura recognized as Zabuza's sword on his back, a woman with dark blue hair tied into a ponytail, wearing glasses and a long pink coat with some sort of foreign-looking embellishment, and…
Sakura froze as her eyes fell on the last member of the group. A person who she had spent many precious moments with, who she had pined over for years, trained for the sake of getting strong enough not only to protect her precious people, but to be able to bring him back home. A person who, last she had seen him, had attempted to kill her and her teammates, despite that he himself used to be one of them…
Sakura opened her mouth to say something, anything. When she managed to speak, she was only able to say one thing.
"Sasuke-Kun…?"
Mfufufufufufufu~
Krazyfanfiction1: ...I'm not entirely sure that's something that I want to think about.
rainwolf024: here is updoot, sorry for the delay~
Allykrau: Yeah, Dragonball was basically the 'starting point' of shonen manga from what I understand, so lots of elements are similar.
The Keeper of Worlds: Well, we have some hints in here~
Skipper917: Well, we'll just have to wait and see what happens, won't we~?
That's about all for this chapter! The next few... well... I imagine things are going to get hectic fast. Until next time~ -Ink