Chapter 11: Suspicious Activity!
Shikamaru watched the group of Genin and Masakatsu talking when they suddenly broke up and started going their separate ways. Kazuki was getting dragged away while Takeo started walking away from the group by himself leaving Masakatsu looking both directions unsure of which to follow when he suddenly went after Ayaka and Kazuki.
"Man, what is that guy doing? Didn't Yuki ask him to keep an eye on Takeo?" Shikamaru thought watching when he slowly started to follow Takeo. "No one noticed this as being suspicious? This guy just walks away from the group and that doesn't seem the least bit odd?" He thought starting to get annoyed.
Takeo turned the corner ahead of Shikamaru and stepped into a building – it was the post office. Shikamaru stood outside the door glancing into the window noticing he had pulled out two letters and put them on the desk.
"I have two letters for drop off." Takeo said looking up at the clerk behind the desk.
"Oh? Is this a letter for a girlfriend?" The female clerk asked looking at Takeo picking up an amaranth colored envelope from the desk with her left hand; she appeared to be roughly around Takeo's age.
The clerk had long blonde hair down to the middle of her back, with amber colored eyes, and wearing a cobalt blue apron with a black blouse underneath and a lemon colored bandana covering the top of her head.
"No, it's a letter for my mother." Takeo replied looking at her a little annoyed.
"Hm? Then you're free? My name is Kosuke Miyoshi, a pleasure to meet you." Kosuke said with a smile extending her right hand.
"Yes… nice to meet you. My name is Takeo Furukawa – now can you send out these letters or not?" Takeo asked looking at Kosuke with a mundane look on his face looking at Kosuke's hand.
Of course I can, darling." Kosuke said turning around about to put them on the shelf when she stopped and turned back around. "I guess he doesn't like handshakes?" She thought shrugging.
"What? Don't tell me you suddenly can't send it out…" Takeo said sighing.
"No, I've decided to take them out myself. My relief should be here soon enough anyway." Kosuke said jumping over the counter energetically with a smile on her face when the door opened and a guy that looked to be in his forties walked in.
He had short salt and pepper hair, brown eyes, and a thin mustache that outlined his upper lip from side to side. He was wearing the same uniform Kosuke had on but instead of wearing black sweat pants like Kosuke, he had blue jean-like pants.
"Oh, Kosuke, are you on your way out?" The man asked noticing Kosuke.
"Yep! I have some mail to deliver to our carriers." Kosuke said with a smile while he walked past her towards the counter.
"Delivering some mail personally to one of the carriers? That's rare… though you've only been working here a few weeks…" The man said stepping behind the counter.
"Well, this one is first class, see? Karou, I leave the place up to you!" Kosuke stated rushing towards the door.
"Okay, take care!" Karou shouted waving to Kosuke as she grabbed Takeo's hand.
"I better get back!" Shikamaru thought quickly ducking behind a wall nearby.
"And why is it that you're dragging me along…?" Takeo asked confused while Kosuke was dragging him out of the post office and down the street.
"What are you talking about? I can sense how hungry you are so we'll be going out to eat of course!" Kosuke stated cheerfully while Takeo just went along with her still confused.
"Hungry? Who said I was…?" Takeo started to ask when his stomach started to growl. "…I guess you were right. How…?"
"Did I guess? Not sure really, I'm just good at these things. I can just tell so much about you from just looking into your eyes – which I guess you can call my talent." Kosuke said giggling dragging Takeo towards a restaurant where Ayaka, Kazuki, and Masakatsu were just minutes before.
"I better be careful around this girl. She seems to be good at reading people… could it be a Ninjutsu?" Takeo thought when he noticed Kosuke staring him in the eyes. "…what is it now?"
"I see… you're trying to figure out if I can do Ninjutsu, right?" Kosuke asked with her right index finger on her lips with an innocent smile.
"Who are you trying to fool? That innocent look is just a mask for something more devious – just what are you up to, Kosuke?" Takeo asked with a mundane look on his face.
"What a drag… that girl has the letters. I have to check them out, my bet is one of those letters contains a report to the Village Hidden in the Clouds but the other… the one to his mother sounds a little odd." Shikamaru thought taking his eyes off the two of them only for a second.
In that second that Shikamaru took his eyes off the two of them, Kosuke, dropped something on the ground just before they walked into the restaurant. Shikamaru noticed the item and carefully made his way over to it while trying to avoid being seen by either Kosuke or Takeo. From a window seat – Kosuke was in view of where Shikamaru but Takeo had his back towards the area so he was unable to stop him. She slightly glanced over with a slight grin as the waiter came up to ask for their order, it had been the same waiter that Ayaka had knocked out earlier and he had a black eye.
"I wonder what happened to this guy…" Takeo thought when the waiter suddenly put four dishes on the table: one plate with an Okonomiyaki with everything on it and the other three were filled with Takoyaki.
"You must really like Takoyaki…" Kosuke said staring at the three plates of Takoyaki the waiter had put in front of him.
"Not really… why are you giving us these plates? We haven't even ordered yet and you're already delivering food to our table?" Takeo asked looking towards the waiter a little angry but mostly confused.
"This table ordered the food, I have the order right here." The Waiter said pulling out a paper matching the table number. "Though… there were three of them before but someone has to eat the food and you two were here so it's on the house. I'll take your order now then." The Waiter said pulling out a notepad and a pencil.
"I can live with that. You can't beat free food!" Kosuke shouted happily as she popped one ball of the Takoyaki into her mouth.
"This woman… she is really annoying – nearly worse than that Kazuki idiot." Takeo thought when they started ordering.
Outside, Shikamaru had picked up the paper and opened it up. Inside was a note: "I know you are following us. Give it up or else I won't go easy on you. P.S.: Look at us over at the window."
"When did she even have enough time to write this note!?" Shikamaru thought surprised turning towards the window as it instructed to see Kosuke smiling at him followed by a wave. "I'm caught…? Just who is this girl – there is no way she is just normal girl working at a post office!" He thought jumping back behind a building nearby.
Inside, Takeo noticed Kosuke's strange behavior and turned around and looked outside to see nothing out there where she had been looking.
"Did something happen out there?" Takeo asked oblivious to what had just happened.
"No, just saw a rat out there and decided to wave to him. He ran away before we got to have any fun with him though but I bet he's not far off." Kosuke said with a grin on her face.
"Uh-huh… well, if you want to go play with that rat so bad, why not while the food is being cooked. I mean you already ate all the Takoyaki and I only got half of the Okonomiyaki!" Takeo said sarcastically.
"Really? Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes!" Kosuke stated excitedly before running out of the restaurant.
"She really took that seriously…?" Takeo asked sitting in his seat dumbfounded by Kosuke's reaction. "I hope she at least washes her hands after playing with that rat… what strange girl though…" He thought looking out the window as Kosuke ran behind the building Shikamaru had dodged behind.
Shikamaru was leaning against the wall still behind the same building trying to figure out where she had spotted him or where he had messed up. Even when he thought back about how he was trailing him he could only think that he was spotted back at the post office but the chances were slim from the position he had been looking in from.
"Yahoo! Hello, there!" Kosuke shouted cheerfully popping out from around the corner in front of Shikamaru making him jump back a bit.
"Whoa, just who are you?" Shikamaru asked suspicious of Kosuke still.
"The name is Kosuke Miyoshi, nice to meet you!" Kosuke said full of cheer as she bowed slightly. "Who might you be? I see you're a shinobi from the Leaf village." She said noticing Shikamaru's headband on his arm.
"Man, what a drag. Getting caught off guard so easily, she makes my stealth ability look like it was nothing more than a children's game." Shikamaru thought while coming up with a backup plan. "Shikamaru, you're no ordinary post office worker – are you?"
"A sharp eye you have there but you haven't impressed me enough for me to tell you about myself just yet." Kosuke said with a grin. "Though it may not be fair but I already know full well who you are – Shikamaru of the Nara clan, I.Q. said to be over 200, rank: Chunin, Age: 15, Date of Birth: September 22, and you are the leader of the current team 10 along with Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi. That sound about right?" Kosuke asked looking at Shikamaru with an even wider grin on her face.
"Man, why do I always run into such troublesome girls? Is this some kind of curse or something?" Shikamaru thought annoyed with his situation. "Sounds about right but you just revealed you are a shinobi. Which village are you from and what exactly are you plotting?"
"So you do have a sharp mind after all. What a dangerous guy – interested in a little sparring?" Kosuke asked with an innocent smile on her face.
"'A little sparring'? Don't you mean a fight?" Shikamaru asked keeping a close eye on Kosuke.
"No, I mean as it as I said it – just a little fun." Kosuke said still smiling while getting into a fighting stance.
"Man, why do I always end up fighting girls?" Shikamaru thought shaking his head. "Fine, whatever but if I win I want to see those letters." He said pointing at Kosuke's pocket.
"Letters? Oh, you mean Takeo's letters? Hmm... I don't know... it's kind of against policy to let anyone other than the sender or the intended recipient to look at the letters." Kosuke said with her right index finger on her lip thinking about it. "Though, if they happen to fall out during the sparring it's fair game I guess. Is that good enough?"
"That'll do just fine." Shikamaru said keeping a close eye on her. "Something is different about this girl – I'll just have to watch her moves closely."
"What is this guy doing? Didn't he just accept my challenge?" Kosuke thought confused looking at Shikamaru unsure if he was going to attack or not. "Maybe he wants me to start this game off...? If that's the case, I'll gladly start us off." She thought putting her hands together. "Ninja Art – Clairvoyance!" She thought making the hand seals: Rabbit, Boar, Horse, Bird, Rabbit, Ox, and Tiger aiming the little opening between her fingers directly at Shikamaru as if it was a requirement for the jutsu. "With this, we should have a lot of fun." She thought with a grin while Shikamaru looked on confused.
"She just did a jutsu but I don't see anything happening. Man, just like a girl – always have to keep things hidden. It's such a pain." Shikamaru thought glancing around while still trying to watch Kosuke.
"Still not doing anything, huh? I see, you're the kind of boy that likes to have the girls make the move first. Then I'll gladly oblige you." Kosuke said with smile charging directly at Shikamaru slipping a kunai into her hand from her sleeve and throwing it forward.
Shikamaru moved to his left but just before he even moved, Kosuke was already aiming directly at the spot with another kunai in her left hand cutting his left arm as she rushed by. Shikamaru jumped back leaving a concealed in the ground beneath him an exploding tag in his stead after seeing Kosuke charge at him once again. Kosuke shifted to the left just avoiding the explosion's reach while still charging at Shikamaru at full speed with no hesitation.
"What is with this girl? It's almost like she knows all my moves before I even make them." Shikamaru thought reaching into his vest while Kosuke was charging at him with the kunai still in her left hand.
"Good, he hasn't figured it out yet or this fight wouldn't be much fun anymore." Kosuke thought when Shikamaru pulled out Asuma's trench knives and moved his left hand up to block Kosuke's attack but she quickly moved it just in time to lightly cut his left hand while jumping back from Shikamaru's right hand.
"Damn, how is she doing this unless…!" Shikamaru thought pulling out a kunai from his pouch with a string attached to it leading into the pouch and tossed it at Kosuke.
"This again? You're not…! It's not a normal exploding tag!" Kosuke shouted before it even landed as the kunai with a small bag attacked to it flew towards the ground where Kosuke had been just a few seconds earlier.
The kunai hit the ground and exploded sending small needles flying every direction as Shikamaru ducked behind a wall. Some needles stuck into Kosuke's legs as she dove behind a wall to shield herself from anymore damage.
"Just as I thought – this girl really is a pain after all." Shikamaru thought squatting behind a building nearby.
Shikamaru rested his arms on his thighs while putting his hands together in the form of an "O" with his hands pointing towards the ground – which is basically his planning pose. While this was going on, Kosuke was carefully pulling out some of the needles taking a closer look at them.
"Good, they're not poisoned but that was too close. If I hadn't used the Clairvoyance ability I would have been in a lot of trouble." Kosuke said looking at her leg to assess the damage but there wasn't much so she tried standing up. "Okay, nothing's wrong with my leg. Let's get back out there!" She stated happily giving to peace sign for victory before turning the corner to see Shikamaru standing across the street at her.
"Now, let's see how long it is." Shikamaru thought throwing a kunai at Kosuke but she moved about five seconds before he had thrown it. "Five seconds, huh?" He thought with a grin when Kosuke dove away from the kunai five seconds before it exploded since it had an explosive tag wrapped around the grip.
"You're getting pretty repetitive, you know?" Kosuke asked annoyed by the repetitive exploding tags he had been throwing at her.
"You don't have to worry about repetition anymore. I've already figured out your secret." Shikamaru said with a smirk.
"Did you now – then what might it be?" Kosuke asked curious if he had really figured it out or not.
"You can see around five seconds ahead of time as to what I'm going to do next and that is why I haven't really been able to touch you during all this time – of course excluding the needles just now since I only used them to confirm my theory." Shikamaru said putting his hands together getting ready for a jutsu.
"Congratulations on finding out my jutsu but that alone doesn't make you victorious." Kosuke said boasting when she suddenly looked surprised as Shikamaru made the hand seal: Rat. "I couldn't move, just what…? The shadow!" She shouted looking down to see Shikamaru's shadow coming towards her when she jumped around avoiding it.
"Not bad, it takes a lot of skill to be able to react to something ahead of time but you might want to work on your mind a little more." Shikamaru said as he watched Kosuke jump back towards a large building. "Ninja Art – Shadow Sewing!" He thought making the hand seals: Rat and a half ram as one of his shadows came out from the shadow of the building.
"Huh!? There's no way to dodge – he trapped me in the center of the building!" Kosuke shouted surprised when the shadow turned into a hand and grabbed her and held her in place.
"Looks like I win." Shikamaru said when Kosuke exploded turning into a water pot and shattered. "A substitution jutsu?" He asked surprised slowly starting to turn around.
"How…? I can't move!" Kosuke shouted running towards Shikamaru and suddenly stopping in place just behind him with her kunai just at his throat.
"By now you should already know I had my shadow attached to you a long time ago, right?" Shikamaru asked ducking under her right hand and taking a few steps back away from her.
"Damn you! It was just after the time you took that cut on your left hand, wasn't it?" Kosuke asked angry that she had been trapped even though she had the Clairvoyance jutsu.
"Yeah, that's about right. You had too much confidence in your jutsu. As long as I didn't use my shadow within five seconds of attaching it to you – I could activate it at any point afterwards and there was nothing you would be able to do about it." Shikamaru said reaching into his vest pocket and pulling out an amaranth colored envelope.
"No way, when did you get it!?" Kosuke asked surprised looking at Shikamaru surprised he had slipped it out of her pocket.
"Let's see, that would be about the same time I got you with the shadow. I had another slip it out of your pocket." Shikamaru explained as he started to open the envelope.
"Hey! Are you sure you should be looking through people's letters to their mothers?" Kosuke asked struggling to break free of the hold the shadow had on her.
"His mother, huh? I don't believe that one bit." Shikamaru said opening the letter.
Shikamaru lifted the top of the slip slowly making sure there were no traps and picked out the paper and started to unfold it and started to read the message:
Dear Mom,
Yuki Takashi is a great teacher, however he is currently in bed due to a little cold he had so we are postponing the training for now. How is everyone doing over there?
The other two annoyances on the team just keep slowing us down but they have their times where they prove themselves. The kid, Kazuki Saki has a few issues to deal with and becomes burden since he can't do a hand seal to save his life. The kid is completely hopeless you know? The only time he comes in handy is when he uses his sword and gets in the way of the enemy attacks – if it weren't for that I might have kicked him out of the group a long time ago… though that is just boasting because I would rather just leave the group if that happened. Hopefully we'll learn some useful moves soon from Yuki. I need to work on my Taijutsu a little more than what I know now. Then I might be able to surpass even father and when that happens, I will return to the village and challenge my old Master and hopefully Sensei will have to acknowledge me as his equal, just watch. Well, that is all for now, I will send you another letter once we reach the next village.
Love,
Takeo Furukawa
"This is the letter? There's nothing really strange about anything in this letter. There has to be something here though…" Shikamaru thought turning the paper around to see: 1-11, 12-13, 38-51, 73-106, 73-76, 86, 92, 112, 120, 129, 137, 810-814, 236-245, 290-291, 596, 667, 852, 748, 721, 744, 857, 858, 642-645, 290-291, 478, 597-598, 606, 710, 652-653, 642-643, 87-89, 225-226, 303-304. 307-308, 434-435, 80-81, 394, 401, 751-756, 772-774, 810-811. "What is with these numbers?" He thought confused looking at the paper.
"Satisfied enough that I can hand the letters over to the currier? Also, plan on releasing me anytime soon since the sparring match is over?" Kosuke asked still stuck in place.
"Tch, fine." Shikamaru said flicking his tongue in annoyance with the fact he wasn't able to find anything significant enough to keep the letter. "If you try anything funny I won't go easy on you next time." He said releasing the shadow while putting Asuma's trench knives back into his vest.
"Don't worry. I always keep my word and I only wanted a little sparring match so I'm satisfied." Kosuke said with a smile snatching the letter back and placing it back inside its envelope.
"Looks like we're both done here then – hopefully we won't run into each other again." Shikamaru said turning around while putting his hands in his pockets as he started to walk away in the opposite direction.
"What an interesting guy… can't let him be underestimated in the future." Kosuke said making a mental note while spotting a currier running by. "Oh! Here, two special high priority letters!" She shouted chasing after the guy in the russet colored uniform with matching hat.
Back at the Full Moon Inn, Yuki slipped off the covers of his bed and sat up while swinging his feet over to his right setting them on the ground. On his back was a large scar the size of a hand just below his left shoulder blade in the shape of an asterisk. The wound appeared to have healed a long time ago but looked as though it was a bad one when it had been inflicted. He looked around the room spotting his clothes on a chair nearby since he was only wearing some gray trunks. He put all his weight down on his feet and stood up stumbling a bit before regaining his balance.
"I must've used up too much chakra when I summoned Yukio. That was only the third time I've summoned that Ice Golem – maybe I should've worked on it a little more before actually using it in a real battle. So while Masakatsu is with the Genin, I'll train with Yukio until I've perfected the summoning as well as our fighting ability together!" Yuki stated confidently taking a step forward and falling forward towards the ground until he hit. "…not enough energy yet, huh? How unfortunate but no matter, I will force myself to move!" He shouted determined as he slowly lifted himself off the ground with his arms crawling over to his clothes.
After about five minutes he finally reached the clothes and put them on as quick as he was able to in his condition, which turned out to be another ten minutes. After he had all his clothes on once again he stood up from his bed and took a step towards the door struggling to keep his balance.
"This is nothing, I can do this!" Yuki thought has he forced himself to walk to the door while shaking the entire way. "Even though my body doesn't want to move – it must so I can defeat Toyotomi once and for all for all that he has done!" He shouted angrily turning the door knob and opening the door outward with his body now cooperating with his mind due to his determination to kill his little brother.
"Hey." Shikamaru said leaning against a wall across the hallway from the room looking at Yuki.
"Shouldn't you be tailing Takeo?" Yuki asked surprised to see Shikamaru there.
"About that, he made a drop off at the post office not long ago. One was mission report to the Village Hidden in the Clouds while the other was supposedly to his mother but…" Shikamaru said still trying to figure out what the numbers where about on the back.
"'But'…? But what? I would understand the mission report but now you say but about the supposed letter to his mother – what about the letter?" Yuki asked now even more confused.
"There was a strange sequence of numbers on the back of the letter I couldn't figure out and there was this strange girl named Kosuke Miyoshi with him that had some kind of clairvoyance ability – something just wasn't right about her no matter how I looked at her and she really seemed protective over the letters, though she did work at the post office. But I am positive she is a ninja from a ninja village – which I am 100 positive about." Shikamaru said filling Yuki in on the details of what he had found out about Takeo.
"Numbers on the back of the letter you say? Do you still have the letter with you?" Yuki asked stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him.
"No, I gave it back to her after our sparring match. That letter definitely had some kind of code written in it and I'm sure those numbers are some kind of decipher to it but you would have to be familiar with their system to even understand the decipher." Shikamaru said still annoyed with not being able to decipher the decipher.
"We'll have to keep a closer eye on him then. Do you still remember what was written in the letter as well as the decipher?" Yuki asked while adjusting his cloak.
"I wrote it all down the minute I was out of view of that girl. I'm going back to the Leaf Village so I can get this deciphered – leave me with a trail to follow you and I will return once I get the results. I'm sure we have at least one person that will be able to decipher this back at the village. One more thing… that girl, she is not to be taken lightly. I was only able to gather a little bit of information on her since she only used that one jutsu but I could tell she wasn't really trying to fight me in that sparring match, so keep a close eye on her as well if you run into her." Shikamaru said starting to walk away down the hall.
"Don't worry about the bread crumbs – I will make sure to leave them for you. As for that girl, I'll make sure to keep an eye on her. For now, I must return to my training before the three Genin return with Masakatsu." Yuki said walking with Shikamaru until they reached the outside.
"Until then, take care. I'm not sure who the second letter was too but this might be bad if the wrong information was passed on to the wrong people." Shikamaru said ready to take off back towards the Leaf Village.
"Yeah, that is why I don't plan on training in front of any of them. I will be very careful of what I say around Takeo - until we meet again then." Yuki said turning to his left as Shikamaru headed in the opposite direction.
Back in the woods, where Masakatsu, Ayaka, and Kazuki were training, the three of them were still on the ground relaxing when two shadows approached the area. Masakatsu quickly looked around after hearing a twig snap and noticed the two figures coming closer so he jumped to his feet ready for a fight but suddenly relaxed after the figures got closer.
"Oh, it's just you." Masakatsu said sighing in relief.
"Just who?" Ayaka asked getting up and looking around before noticing the two figures.
"Oh, Takeo, who is this girl?" Kazuki asked noticing the two figures where Takeo and Kosuke. "Is she you're girlfri…!?" He started to say when Takeo quickly hit him in the gut.
"She is just an annoying little girl following me around everywhere I go even though she has done her job." Takeo said obviously annoyed and angry.
"Hello everyone! Nice to meet you all, I'm Kosuke Miyoshi! It will be a pleasure to work with all of you!" Kosuke said cheerfully bowing to the three of them.
"Eh?" Takeo asked surprised by what she had said.
"Did she just say…?" Kazuki asked looking up after bending forward from the gut shot.
"…'it will be a pleasure to'…" Ayaka continued also in disbelief.
"…'work with you'…? What do you mean by that?" Masakatsu asked confused.
"I heard Takeo has a great Sensei so I decided to join you all since I've only had a little ninja training before this. Please take good care of me." Kosuke said cheerfully bowing to the group again with a big smile on her face leaving everyone there dumbfounded.
Author notes:
Took longer than expected to produce due to the code I had to come up with as well as setting up the decipher correctly but it is out now. If anything seemed a little off or there is anything that needs improvement, leave a review and I'll work on that for the next chapter.
Steve Masters