To tell you the truth, I was getting sick and tired of all the short chapters I've put out lately so I tried to make this as long as I could. The structure is a bit messed up because I rushed a bit of it towards the end, but I wanted to include a sense of panic in there anyway so whatever works, right? Oh and the end of this chapter should give you guys a bit of what you've been waiting for. (I just hope the next chapter won't be as bad as this one). But otherwise enjoy, and I hope you guys had a great easter holiday. Or whatever holiday it is for you guys… If you even had a holiday… -.- That was bad…
Thanks for reviewing; Sauru Tsukiyomi Sanbi's Faeble, Tsubaki Takara, RuTakasheryuu and Riku-sia.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters. I only own Vaskar, Shane and the story. Riku belongs to Riku-sia, Shiro belongs to Sauru Tsukiyomi Sanbi's Faeble, Koto belongs to RuTakasheryuu, Hibiki belongs to Tsubaki Takara and Mitsukai belongs to Yumi loves the darkness. Other OC's belong to their respective owners.
The group stood in silence in the middle of Kirigakure. The mist village was shrouded in the famous hidden mist technique so not much could be seen. The only sound that could be heard in village was the squawk of stray crows, and the scratching of the occasional hungry rodent looking for a meal on top of a house. Ok, that's a bit creepy…
Riku stood with her hands behind her head, leaning against the side of a random small house. She barely listened as Shiro droned on about where they should spend the night. Everyone, baring Shiro and Vaskar, was indifferent to finding a place to sleep. Mostly because the mist village was known for it's nightly murders and robberies. It was a widely known fact among the worlds ninja that it was safer to sleep in the woodlands than in the village itself… but why tell those two that…
Riku smiled to herself knowingly. It would give her a chance to assess the power of those who wished to stay in the village for the night. If they survived until morning, then they were worthy of this mission they had given to themselves. If not however…
Riku giggled suddenly, alerting the others' attention. Shiro stopped her rant, clearly irritated, and placed her hands on her hips. "Something wrong Riku?" Vaskar also seemed a bit irritated. But that could easily be put down to being a bit tired. Both Shane and Koto on the other hand seemed to be smirking at her somewhat. What gives, they act like Shiro's the leader or something.
She smiled sweetly at the self proclaimed leader. "Nothing wrong here Shiro. I was just wondering why whoever wanted to stay in the village could stay in the village and whoever wanted to sleep elsewhere couldn't."
Koto sneered at the other girl, "You idiot, she explained that already. I think you must be missing something in that thing you call a head!"
Riku lazily glared at Koto, "I'll kill you in your sleep…" That apparently, caught both Shiro and Koto off guard. But at least it got her hidden message across.
Shiro quirked an eyebrow at the girl, but otherwise ignored what she said. She turned to look at both Vaskar and Shane who were both sitting on the roof of another small house nearby.
"What do you two think?"
Vaskar shifted uncomfortably for a second before answering, "I wanna sleep indoors." Shane jumped off the house, landed on the ground and walked away, placing his hands in his pockets.
"Outside." He responded, leaving no room for argument as he left. "I'll find you guys in the morning."
Vaskar sadly reached a hand out to his retreating friend and opened his mouth to say something but he soon realised the cyan-haired boy probably wouldn't hear him anymore anyway, so he left it. Shiro looked curiously at Vaskar for a second, but didn't comment.
Riku followed Shane's example and left for the forest outskirts in silence, not looking back. Koto silently watched Riku leave before turning to Shiro and Vaskar. "What now, Shiro?" Koto asked.
"Why me?" Shiro pouted playfully, running a hand through Vaskar's hair to comfort him.
Koto played along, "'Cause you're the ANBU shinobi in our little group. I'm not sure, but I think you've got the highest rank out of all of us." The Genin kid next to Shiro gasped, eyes wide, and pointed a finger in Shiro's direction.
"Y-you're ANBU rank!" Shiro raised an eyebrow at the boy but nodded nonetheless. "S-so, when we met… were you…were you holding back?"
Shiro paused. The boy's question was curious. Curious in the sense that if she said the wrong thing, then she might upset him. But she didn't want to lie either. Friendships break easily because there is no foundation; in this case, trust. Or in most cases for that matter. Question is… how could she get out of this one?
Koto took that as her queue to step in. "Vaskar, kiddo, aren't you tired? We really need to find someplace to stay." It took only a second for this to sink in, but…
Shiro blinked. The boy was snoozing against her shoulder. "What the hell!!!" Koto cried, gesturing to Vaskar. Shiro blinked again then started laughing. When she'd finished, she picked the boy up.
"Come on Koto, we'll get a room in that hotel over there." She stated, walking deeper into the village. Koto sighed but followed. She needed sleep too, anyway.
Although it was pretty early in the morning, no light could get through the thick blanket of mist constantly swirling around the mist village. Villagers say it has something to do with the fact that they are constantly surrounded by water. But the ninja know the truth…
Shane slowly opened his eyes and let them adjust to the light… or lack there of. The undergrowth he was surrounded in seemed to have a greyish texture to it. The first thing he noticed, was that he had decided to sleep in the forest's canopy. He gathered this from the branch he was sitting on and the leaves that were gently brushing against his cheeks.
The cyan-haired boy wrinkled his nose in disgust at the second thing he noticed. Just opposite of him was the purple haired girl, snoring her head off like there was no tomorrow. How did she find him here anyway? And more importantly, why did she decide that opposite him was the best place to sleep? This forest was definitely bigger than the both of them. He rolled his eyes. No need to get himself worked up over nothing.
He jumped down from his tree, landing with a soft thud on the ground and walked over to the base of her tree. He stared up at her for a few seconds in silence before a smirk slowly spread across his face. He focused his chakra until it had covered his entire body like a bubble of smog. He split apart this smog bubble until there was nothing but balls of chakra around him the size of his fist. He concentrated, the words thin and sharp ran through his mind subconsciously as the blobs began to take on a more advanced shape.
Finally, the blobs were now more or less in the form of blades. Daggers to be precise as the blades were too short to be of sword resemblance. Once he was finished, Shane's smirk grew tenfold.
"Blades art: 1000 daggers!"
He immediately fired all of these chakra daggers at the tree's base, each dagger causing a noticeable amount of damage, and eventually…
Riku's first thought when she woke up, was along the lines of, 'Why is the tree shaking?' The disorientated girl looked around until she spotted Shane staring calmly at her from the bottom of her tree.
Just as the tree began to tip itself over, Riku shouted, "Oh my god!!! You did this!!!"
"See you later…" He smirked, walking in the opposite direction, hands in his pockets.
It wasn't the common wild bird that woke everyone in the mist that morning. It was Riku.
"Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!!!"
Koto jerked awake as a scream echoed through her mind. She sat up and looked around. She appeared to be in a shabby hotel room with three beds. She, herself, was settled in the bed closest to the window. Vaskar was in the next bed over, face buried in his pillow. He could kill himself like that. And in the last bed, the sheets were neatly done and no one was occupying it. Koto didn't worry herself over it though, she knew Shiro was an early riser through and through. Koto got out of bed and trudged straight into the bathroom, bringing a towel with her.
When she got out, she was fairly surprised to see Vaskar waiting outside the bathroom door, towel in hand, and Shiro making the beds. She shrugged and moved aside so the boy could enter then went straight to her bed to get her clothes. She silently noted that her clothes were clean and folded neatly on her bed. She looked questioningly at Shiro. Shiro glanced at Koto out of the corner of her eyes as she gathered Vaskar's coat and trousers.
"I took them to get them washed." She stated, walking out the door with Vaskar's clothes. Koto shrugged and put on her green shirt and her black shorts and went to get herself something to eat in the kitchen. When she was finished, she grabbed her stuff and calmly waited by the door. Shiro came back (nearly swinging the door in Koto's face) and placed Vaskar's clothes on his bed, then also waited by the door. When the boy was finished in the bathroom, he put on his clothes on and stepped next to the two with a wide smile on his face.
"Ready to go?" Shiro asked. Both Vaskar and Koto nodded and they walked out the door with Shiro following. When they exited the building, Vaskar spotted Shane walking towards them with smirk on his face and ran over to him. Instantly questioning him about his devilish smirk.
"What now?" Koto asked.
"We wait for Riku." Shiro said, wiping some invisible dirt off of her white dress and crossed her arms. They didn't have to wait long, because Riku was bounding happily towards them. Okay, I lied. She was obviously furious, so Shiro immediately suggested they begin their journey back to Suna to find Mitsukai and Hibiki before any hostility broke out. And she couldn't say she was comfortable with the way both Riku and Shane were glaring at each other. It's as if the aggressiveness had shifted from Riku and Koto to Riku and Shane.
The five quickly left the hidden mist and headed straight for the hidden sand village. The journey was mostly in silence, save for both Koto and Vaskar's chattering and the stray ninja or two who'd decided getting their asses handed to them would be the highlight of their day. But otherwise they'd arrived at the sand without any problems.
They went straight to the north ridge (attracting even more attention than before along the way), only to find the area totally deserted.
"What gives? They never said anything about where we had to meet them, so you'd think they'd at least wait for us here." Koto grumbled, clearly not amused.
"Does it matter?" Shane said. Koto stared at him for a few seconds, unable to tell whether that was supposed to be an insult or something else.
"Why don't we just ask the guy that helped us last time?" Vaskar suggested. Just as he said this, a familiar figure walked over to the group, making themselves known instantly.
"Your that guy from before, aren't you?" Riku stated more than asked. The same man they'd spoken to before about Mitsukai and Hibiki stood in front of them. Hat, cloth, uniform and all.
"They said you might come here…" He muttered under his breath. "What?" Shiro asked. The man shook his head and took a couple of steps forward.
"Mitsukai and Hibiki asked me to say they've taken on a mission is Konoha and that you should rest here. We've made the necessary preparations-"
"Nah!" Riku interrupted, lazily waving a hand in the man's direction. "We'll find them ourselves. Come on you guys, let's get this over and done with!" She immediately dashed off in the direction of Konoha.
"Wait Riku!" Koto shouted, but Riku was long gone. "What the hell!?! Why the sudden enthusiasm!?"
Shiro, Vaskar and Shane shrugged. "I guess we have to follow her then?" Vaskar said, looking at Shiro and Shane. Shane rolled his eyes then shrugged. Shiro cracked a smile at that but nodded at Vaskar.
The four chased after Riku until they'd eventually lost her in a forest. With trees all around, there was no way to tell where she'd gone.
"Dammit, we lost her!" Koto shrieked, stamping a foot into the ground.
Shiro paused suddenly which made Koto and Vaskar curious. Koto was about to ask what the problem was but Shane stopped her.
"Don't interrupt her focus." He muttered to her. She gave him an odd look but he ignored it. Shiro suddenly darted off to the right. Before Koto could say anything, however, Shane dashed after her, followed by Vaskar and soon after, Koto herself.
It wasn't long before Shiro stopped at the edge of a path in the forest and crouched down behind some bushes. Vaskar crouched down besides Shiro, silently asking what's going on, Koto hid behind the trunk of a nearby tree and Shane ran up Koto's tree and hid among the various leaves and branches. Koto also spotted Riku in some bushes close by.
"Why are we hiding here?" Vaskar asked. Shiro put her finger to her lips and pointed further down the path.
Both Mitsukai and Hibiki could be seen down the path exchanging jutsu with a blue-fish guy in a black and red cloak. The guy had a huge sword that was wrapped in bandages.
"Who-?" Koto was interrupted before she could ask by a dark voice coming from behind them.
"Shiro… It's you…" Shiro, Vaskar, Koto and Shane turned around to see cold, red eyes staring back at them from the shadows of the trees.