Miyo's Chunin Exams, part 3 or Unwanted Information
A/N: I fudged the dates a bit. I wanted Miyo's being temporarily out of the chunin exams and Naruto returning to the Leaf after chasing Sasuke to line up so that information could be properly passed on.
Miyo
I won't go into how the third phase went. It isn't important. My twin teammates had been paired off against each other, and as they knew each other's moves too well for one to knock out the other…they deliberately bonked heads hard enough to rule the match a draw. We were left with about eight people. And I was one of them.
I went home feeling on top of the world. I hadn't even been expecting to win, and yet I'd taken my opponent down like he was nothing! And in a month, I was going to fight the second match of the day. Nothing would bring my mood down!
Then I opened the door to my room and stopped cold.
Little Sasuke was sitting on the desk, untied, with a paintbrush sitting on his lap.
I glanced up at the Teacher Shelf. The dolls he'd been sitting between had been knocked over, as if by sheer force.
"Naruto, Gaara, flank him."
The two leaped from my sleeves and positioned themselves on either side of Little Sasuke. Only then did I close the door and approach the desk.
Once I was closer, I saw what Little Sasuke had done. He'd drawn a picture…well, two: himself, front and back, wearing new clothes.
"You want a new outfit?"
He nodded, the first time he moved while I was looking at him.
"Fine. This will be easier than trying to quiz Naruto anyway." I picked up the drawing and studied it. The only thing that I wouldn't have to change about him was…he'd ditched the Leaf headband a long time ago.
Black pants…a drape of fabric about his waist – that took trial and error, as he helped me find what color it actually was (a kind of grayish-blue)…a white shirt with an open front, long sleeves and the Uchiha clan mark on the back…and a purple cord around his waist securing the gray-blue fabric in a complicated knot. Finding that color was another trial-and-error moment. Also stuck in the purple cord was…
I glared at Little Sasuke. "Just how dumb do you think I am?"
He cocked his head at me.
"You're not getting a sword!"
I stitched up the outfit, and helped him put it on. "Well? Does that work?"
He stood up. Then he twisted to look over first one shoulder, and then the other. After setting his little hands on his waist and giving the yarn standing in for that cord a tug as if testing how well it would stay where it was tied (I'm an expert at making sure something stays where I want it to), he looked up at me and nodded.
"Good."
That was the signal for me to chase Little Sasuke all around the room trying to catch him. He must have sensed that the next step was for me to imprison him again. I was just glad I'd shut the door and hadn't opened the window, or I'd never have managed to catch him. I was also glad that I never gave him a weapon and that apparently it took certain circumstances for Little Sasuke to use any jutsu at all, or he'd have been fighting more than running.
This would be a bad time for Naruto to come home. Come on, Sasuke, give up already!
Finally I took a chance and stopped moving.
Little Sasuke danced all around the room, all but taunting me.
I've got to hand it to Sasuke: when he doesn't want to be caught…
Then I heard a step outside the door.
Oh no…
Little Sasuke had heard it, too. He stopped moving entirely.
I slowly backed up towards the door, arms outstretched and keeping my eyes on the rogue doll. I have to judge his movements absolutely right if I'm going to catch him. He's too soft to break the window, so the only way he can leave is past me. He has four ways out if that door opens: between my feet, to my right, to my left, and over my head. And I can only cover three of those points at once. If I guess wrong…
"Gaara, get over here."
Little Gaara read my intention and appeared balancing on my head.
Better. Now I can cover all four ways out. I wouldn't be all that fast catching him if he went for the low path, so that would be the most likely route he'd…
The door opened and Little Sasuke sprang.
I deliberately kicked my feet out from under me, fell backwards in an all-or-nothing gamble and landed flat on my back. And I felt Little Sasuke start squirming underneath me at about shoulderblade-level.
That was close – he almost got out.
Then I opened my eyes.
Naruto was standing there staring down at me as if he thought I'd gone completely off my rocker. Sai was just behind him.
"Sis?"
"Hey, Naruto! What's up?" Then I took in everything else and asked, "I take it the mission didn't go quite as planned?"
"No kidding." He held out a hand for me.
"Uh, before I take that, um…could you, um, get something for me?"
"Huh?"
"It's, um, that doll I told you about. The one…um…" Then I decided to explain to Sai. "A choice few of my little ninja dolls move on their own. My copy of Sasuke is one of them." My attention returned to Naruto. "And at the moment, Sasuke's right between my shoulders. He tried to get out."
Naruto sighed. "Well, at least this Sasuke is easier to bring back where he belongs." He knelt down and took hold of my right shoulder.
"Easy…we don't want him getting into the living room, or we'll never catch him."
"I know, I know! …Hey, Sai, help me out a little!"
Sai knelt down and gripped my left shoulder. Slowly they eased me up, Sai reaching with his right and Naruto with his left.
I knew exactly when Little Sasuke had been freed from my weight – I'd been looking at Sai at the time, but Naruto let out a startled exclamation and Sai's eyes widened.
I heaved myself up the rest of the way and turned to look.
If I had to guess what had happened, their hands had almost touched when Sasuke had moved, and Naruto's surprised reaction was to make sure his fingers had interlocked with Sai's right in front of the little doll. At least they both made sure to grip him with their thumbs. And Sai was getting a demonstration about how I hadn't been kidding: Little Sasuke was kicking his feet and pounding his soft little hands on their index fingers trying to make them let go.
"Keep a hold of him for now. I'm going to get a box or something to put him in."
"Okay – whoa, hey, knock it off!"
I glanced back at the two to see what could have gotten that reaction from Naruto. Apparently Little Sasuke had started trying to squirm backwards, because both boys had reached up and made sure he couldn't.
I found a box with a hinged lid that was about the right size and came out again.
Little Sasuke was still kicking like mad. He knew what was coming and didn't want any of it.
"Okay, you two, here's how this is going to work. You're going to lower your hands and the doll in, and make sure you're putting it in back first or you'll have trouble getting your hands back out."
Carefully they did as I directed.
"Slide your hands out from underneath him…" I watched as both boys got their hands clear, "and now Sai, you're going to keep holding the doll down while Naruto gets his other hand out."
That last direction got Naruto blinking. "Huh? How come Sai's last?"
"Because if I'm judging his fighting style right, he's quicker on the draw than you. You don't want to get your hand slapped by the lid of the box, do you?"
"Okay…" I leaned over to watch as Naruto carefully worked his fingers from between Sai's, and Sai eased his newly-freed fingers to the job of pinning Little Sasuke. Plus, now that he knew the strategy, he was making sure only his fingers were holding the doll down.
"I'm closing the box right on three, Sai. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
"One…two…three!"
Sai's hand left the box just an instant before the lid slammed shut. Soft thumps started sounding inside the box as the little doll started bouncing around furiously.
Holding the lid down, I wrote a seal on a paper and slapped it across the join, effectively trapping the doll in the box. "I should have done that a long time ago."
"He got loose, didn't he?"
I looked at Naruto. "Yeah. At least he didn't try to free my Orochimaru doll this time: he just drew a picture of what he was wearing nowadays so that he could be updated like everyone else."
"I wondered about that."
Sai suddenly interrupted. "Miyo. You'd asked us to gather information from Sasuke if we ever crossed paths with him. We crossed paths with him, and I got the information." And he handed me an envelope.
Sai
I studied her as she took the envelope from me. She looked…if I was reading her expression right…nervous. She slowly opened the envelope, pulled the paper out and started reading.
Then the most interesting change came over her. Her eyes got wider, her mouth opened a little as she started breathing faster, and – most interesting of all – she started shaking.
And she wasn't just shaking a little, she was shaking a lot. In fact…
Naruto suddenly shouted at me as the envelope fell from her hands. "Sai, catch her!"
I moved, and she fell into my arms as her legs suddenly refused to hold her up. Even with my holding her up, she was still shaking, so hard that I could feel it. She grabbed at my collar, I think to try to pull herself back up to her feet, but she could only manage to get the grip details of that particular move.
I looked at Naruto. "What emotion is this? I've never seen anything like it before."
"Uh…shock. I've never seen Miyo like this either, but I think that's shock. Miyo, sis, what did that say?"
I've heard people speak with emotion, especially Naruto. What Miyo said next was shaky as she was still shivering, but aside from that, it was oddly…unemotional, and it sounded like she was quoting the paper.
"Koga Diatra has been faithfully serving Lord Orochimaru for ten years now."
