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Not Your Average Konoha Academy Graduate
Chapter 5: Dark Tracking, Part One
By DireSquirrel
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It ends up that Mikoto-Sensei is a lot cooler than I knew. She takes her work very, very seriously. While she hadn't been an active ninja since her marriage after the last shinobi war, she was only slightly out of practice when it came to police procedure and was quick to study up since she was the de facto head of the police department. And for two hours every week day, I was her apprentice/minion. I say minion because the majority of my training was fetching the right form for the right thing.
I know I'm not alone at this, but I HATE paperwork. It just had to be said.
It started out simple enough. We walked out of the tower and down the road to the nearest police office, which was just a ways down the road. Once there she ushered me into the office and sat me down.
"My name is Mikoto Uchiha, you may call me Uchiha-sama," she began, not realizing who she was talking to. I think I called her that once, if that. "While you are my student, you are not to prank the offices, disobey my orders or undermine my authority. This job is perhaps the most demanding in all of ninja life."
"But I'm not a ninja," I said, interrupting her. She scowled.
"And pray tell," she growled out, "what are you planning to be?"
"I'm a wizard," I said, as if it was completely obvious.
"What?" she said, clearly not expecting the answer.
"A Wizard," I replied.
"Not a ninja?" she asked.
"Nope. Shouldn't you have been told this already?"
"What, you wave your little wand around and cast spells?" she asked snidely.
"Hey! Just because you've got penis envy doesn't mean you can take it out on me!" I replied stupidly, point towards the katana strapped to her back. In hindsight, Bob should have delayed those talks about Freudian psychology until I was actually old enough to actually understand what I was talking about. I fully admit I've made mistakes in my time and telling the scariest woman in Fire Country that she had penis envy was one of my biggest up to that point in my life. Especially since I really didn't have the slightest clue as to what "penis envy" was, I'd just heard Bob use the term. Since then I've taken to reading up on any unfamiliar phrase Bob spouts before I use it. Anyway, do you remembering me talking about how lucky I was? Well, slipping on that shield bracelet is something I'd consider lucky.
It was powered and up in time for a dragon of fire to smash into it, followed by a distinct clang as her sword, thankfully still sheathed, clanged against the magical force protecting my sorry ass.
This was when I made my second mistake: Counterattacking.
Now, I'm not a precision based combatant. My spells are about energy, generally lots of energy. I put energy into things or take energy away. And it's important that all energy has to come from somewhere. Ninjas take spiritual and physical energy and combine it into chakra for ninjutsu, genjutsu and other techniques. Plants take energy from the sun and covert it into forms of energy that help them grow. Animals get energy from eating other things and breaking it down chemically. Energy is never destroyed, only converted. I work by using my spiritual energy to convert and guide energy from my surroundings into the effects I want.
I took the energy from the fire dragon jutsu and converted it to energy I could use and fired it right back as raw force.
"Forzare!" I screamed, thrusting out a hand back at her. Once again, I'm not precise. The wall of force caught the desk and threw it at her. The desk smashed through the wall and narrowly missed the prisoner in the cell on the other side of the stone wall that now had a very large hole in it.
"OKAY, OKAY! I ADMIT IT! I DID IT!" the prisoner screamed as he curled up in the corner of the cell. "I'LL TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO KNOW!"
That was when I realized that Mikoto Uchiha was not smashed. This would prove to be both good and bad luck. Good, because I hadn't killed anyone; Bad because my sensei, who had Replaced herself and placed the raw blade of her Katana to my neck, now hated my guts.
"Um...sorry?" I said, glancing directly down at the very shiny and reflective blade at my neck. "Maybe we could start over?"
"You are very lucky that was not my husband's desk," she hissed in my ear.
"I'm getting that," I agreed. I glanced to the desk in question just in time to see a chunk of stone fall from the ceiling to smash it flat, eliciting a squeal of surprise and horror from the prisoner. "Just out of curiosity, what is he in for?"
"Tax evasion," she replied a moment before she removed the blade from my neck. "Now are you going to behave?"
I nodded very, very eagerly to the very, very scary woman with the sword.
"Are you going to interrupt me again?" she asked.
I shook my head from side to side very, very seriously.
"Good," she said.
My training continued. I learned about chain of evidence, police procedure, arrest procedure and all that. I learned about much, much more about doing my job in those few hours each week than I did during all those ninjutsu lessons that did nothing for me. Sure, being about to burn someone with a few wiggling fingers does have some appeal to the average person, but ninjas shouldn't be too proud of these chakra channeling terrors they've constructed. The power to channel chakra pales in comparison to the power of Arcane Arts.
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Too Darth Vader?
I know, but it's true. They might not have a Death Star orbiting the planet (unless that's what the moon is, which would be AWESOME), but they've got little wiggling fingers and they get little results. They have surprisingly little discipline in their work. Anything goes, anything is permitted. Not me, however. I have enough ability and power now to take out Konoha if I wanted to, but I've got the discipline to keep myself in check. I have rules that I must live by because my power is so much greater.
It's like Bob often quotes: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.
I'm not sure what it has to do with spiders, like Bob says, but it applies to me and I think it should apply to everyone. We're not islands; we're not alone, as much as it might feel that way at times. We have responsibilities to those around us. The more power we have, the greater the responsibility.
There's also that other thing that Bob says often: If you look into the Abyss, the Abyss looks into you. Don't play with monsters too often, or else you might become one. That's what some people think about guys like Itachi and Orochimaru, that something broke in them, twisted them.
I don't totally agree, (although an argument about them breaking the Laws could be made), but they haven't used their power responsibly in the past and I doubt they've changed their ways since.
Now that my rant's over, when it came to my training, not everyone was happy that I was being specially picked out for the Police. Most of those were the faceless villagers who don't even have names if you read the end credits. The other one was Sasuke.
Sasuke, the new "clan head" of the Uchiha (chosen because of some outdated clan rule that the clan head had to be male), was really jealous of me for training with his Mom. Bob described this as an Oedipus Complex; I didn't understand what he meant then, but I do now, and boy it was a big one. While I was learning how to track and report my investigations in hard copy triplicate, he was upset that I was getting the "attention" he thought he deserved. He started showing up begging for attention from his mother. He'd give me glares as I was filing a report about a shinobi practicing in a home sector late at night when all the pretty little civilians were sleeping. He'd follow me around the streets, glaring at my back and pretending he wasn't when I turned around. He did all this, growing more and more petulant and infantile as time went on. In short, Sasuke was turning into a whiny, needy little bitch.
About five weeks after the new training schedule had started, Sasuke confronted me before I could leave Academy grounds.
"You stay away from my Mommy!" he said, pointing at me.
I paused. I gawked at him.
"Seriously?" I asked incredulously. "You're about two months older than me and you're calling Mikoto-sensei 'Mommy'? What, do you think I'm going to sweep in and marry her or some nonsense? And you're jealous? Seriously? I'll see you later, Oedipus, but I'm not your daddy."
And then he punched me. He's been kind of a douche ever since his brother killed his father and most of the rest of his clan. Now, granted, that does give him some leeway, but there's a limit. He's been trying to be the "big boy" ever since he was elevated to "clan head" even though his mother does all the real work and no one respects the kid. Oh, sure, they'll pretend to, but behind closed doors, they just snicker and laugh at the little putz trying to act all grown up. Most of the Uchiha still remember the kid who just a year before was stalking Itachi and bugging him for training only to get poked in the forehead with a finger. Come to think of it, Sasuke might be the reason Itachi snapped. I should look into that.
So, Sasuke Uchiha threw a punch at my head. I'd taken to wearing my shield bracelet all the time, so it was easy for me to just activate it, blocking the strike with a thought. That made him a little angry. He kicked and punched and growled at me, all (save for the growl, but that wasn't a threatening attack) were blocked by my shield. Then the idiot wiggled his fingers and spat a fireball at me.
There's this thing that we police inspectors like to call a chain of events.
Action: Sasuke confronts me outside of the Academy.
Action: I'm not at training on time, so Mikoto-Sensei comes looking for me.
Action: Mikoto-Sensei sees her son attack me after I called him Oedipus.
Action: I block defensively and state that I need to leave.
Action: Sasuke the putz spat a fireball at me when I had my shield up. It went against my shield, spread out along the edges and torched the very dry roof of the Academy.
Action: The fireball sets the dry, wooden shingles of the roof on fire.
Action: Mikoto-Sensei flushes the wood with a water jutsu so it only smolders instead of bursts into flames again.
Action: Sasuke gets a beat down from his own mum for having the situational awareness of a dead rat.
Action: Sasuke blames it all on me.
That was the chain of events that lead to Sasuke becoming an even bigger douche than he was before. Though it was entertaining to see Sasuke get his handed to him by his own mom.
Which was AWESOME.
And so my training continued and I became well versed in the sealing arts, the detective arts and the arcane arts. I was one hell of an artist. Years past and I was harassed frequently by Sasuke, ignored by most of the teachers and many of the students, but I did my thing and I was happy.
Then it came time to graduate.
"Naruto, do a Clone Technique," Iruka said. Now, I can't do precisely a Bushin, like most other kids can, once again that's the hand wiggly problem. However, after Bob's years of forcing me to practice, I can do some passably good Veils, magical illusions, and have them walk around according to my thoughts and Will. I made a few copies of myself and had them walk around.
Pass, with flying colors!
Literally. There were magical fireworks going off in celebration. I'm a ham like that.
"Naruto, do a Transformation Technique," Iruka said. Pretty much asking me to joke off, especially when he didn't tell me who to transform into like he did all the other students. Suppressing a smirk, I called on my power with my Will. I brought out a burst of light and held my fist up into the air as I struck a pose.
"Henshin!" I declared in a loud voice as the bright light seemed to vanish my clothes and replace my form with that of a very buxom young lady with long blonde pigtails. I gave a V for Victory as my clothes were replaced by strategically placed clouds.
Iruka voiced his displeasure, although I could tell by the blood dripping from his nose that not-so-deep inside he was impressed. Fridge logic reveals that to bit scary, but I didn't realize my mistake at the time. But really, with teachers like Bob and Jiraiya, what would you expect of me?
Grudgingly, Iruka passed me on that one, but here came the final bit: The Dreaded Replacement Technique!
"Naruto, do a Replacement Technique," Iruka said. Well, that wasn't happening. It must have been how I channel my power, but I just cannot seem to get the hand wigglies to work, and this was no exception. The log placed on the other side of the room stayed firmly where it was as did I on my side of the room. No matter how I wiggled my fingers, or how I focused my Will, I could never manage to get that technique to work. There was no near-instantaneous movement, no me vanishing to be replaced by a log or a chair or the idiot assistant teacher. Yep, this pretty much sealed my fate.
Funny how I have all this Great Cosmic Power and I can't manage something that most civilians who flunked out of the Ninja program could manage. But on the other hand, we all knew this was going to happen. No matter what Mikoto-sensei or the old pervert tried, I was never able to get the hand wigglies to work. Sure, what I can do no ninja has been able to figure out, so I'm thinking it's all about how things worked out in the early days of training. Lots of power, but early training sets me on a very different path from your average jutsu chucking ninja.
Iruka let loose with a blatant and overly hostile "Fail!" with extra exclamation. It was all a bit excessive, really.
This did not come to me as a surprise. Luckily for others involved, I'd done well enough on all my other tests to get a pretty damn good score. Really damn good score, actually, but there was one little problem with this: A failure at an Academy Technique was an automatic failure except in extreme circumstances. You could be a friggin seal master, but you mess up one of those hand wigglies, it's back to the Academy with you. The basic idea is that if you can't do those, you probably can't do others in the field, ergo, you're going to get somebody killed.
So I failed the first time. Big whoop. Knew it was going to happen. But still, it royally pissed me off when the douchebags paraded their shiny headbands around me like it was a big surprise. And low and behold, about two thirds of the douchebags were back in class a week later, having failed the secondary examination. Yeah, that's right, I knew all about the stupid tests. Good for me that I had an in with the Hokage.
"Hey, Old Man," I said as I stormed into his office without knocking. Standing in front of the desk was a tall guy with his forhead protector over one eye and a mass of spiky gray hair shooting up from his scalp. "I failed the exam."
"I know, Naruto," the Hokage said. "However, so long as you pass Mikoto Uchiha's test, you'll pass. Are you ready?"
"Hell yeah!"
"Very well, head over to her office and hopefully you will be ready," he told me.
"I was born ready!" I said with a thumbs up. "Believe it!"
To this day, I really don't know why I say that. A nervous tick, a genetic disposition, something like that. I'm not going to ponder it too much. Hasn't changed in all the years I've lived (even when I tried to stamp it out), so it probably won't matter now. Whatever it was, it sparked an inkling of amusement in the silver haired cyclops.
So I headed over to the KPD HQ. That's Konoha Police Department Head Quarters, if you were wondering. As I said, I'd been spending my afternoons there for a while, now. I knew the basic routs from the Academy and my apartment and the Tower, but it always took me longer than people expected. I'm not a ninja so I'm not a roof hopper like most of them. I've come up with my own half-assed free running talent, but I'm not that great, nor as fast. Although, if I ever get that flying spell to work, I'll be faster than any of them.
If I get it to work.
So I arrived soon enough, only a half hour later than I usually did, but that was fine since I normally didn't have lessons in the afternoon. I didn't really have a problem with not being a ninja, and I haven't since. Besides, pulling off a Gandalf or a Merlin is so much more satisfying.
You should know that pretty much all my popular culture references are based on stories and illusions from Bob. Bob, as an intellect spirit, remembers everything that ever happened around him. Everything. So whenever someone the next floor up was watching TV, Bob remembers is. When someone was reading a book out loud, Bob remembers it. When someone used him to help them with their magic, Bob remembers the whole process. And he's something of a free agent. There is no loyalty to him, as I think I've said before. He works for whoever has his bony home and right now that's me, although the Old Man does sort of have partial ownership for safety sake. So when I needed stories and things when I was a kid, Bob was there to help me out. I know all about the Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars and other things. Actually, I probably owe my sanity to the guy.
Mikoto-Sensei, I never actually called her Uchiha-sama except those few random times, was waiting for me with an aggravated expression. Showing up and rubbing the back of my head, I apologized for being late. This has only made her patience with me shorter and shorter, not that I did anything too bad. I followed the rules...mostly. But this was to be my graduation exam.
"Sit down!" she hissed the instant I appeared in her doorway. She pointed to a seat in a corner and no sooner had I planted my bum on the cold metal seat, three other investigators walked in. "What do you have for me?"
"It isn't much," said the first investigator, a woman with dark blonde hair that almost looked brown. "We do know the parents weren't the ones to call in the child missing, that was the grandfather. He's 66, former shinobi and sharp as a tack even if he isn't as physically sound as he once was. He has a minor bloodline that lets him sense ferrous minerals, something that got passed down to his daughter and believed to have been passed to his granddaughter. He's got a serious limp he claims is from the 2nd War, made Chunin and then retired to in-village guard duty after getting his knee almost blown off with a Wind enhanced arrow. He said the girl was supposed to be staying with him for a weekend. When she didn't show up after school on Thursday, he asked his daughter, who seemed fidgety, yet claimed to be unconcerned about the daughter's disappearance. He gave the girl a few more hours and then called us."
"We went to the Academy, she's a first year, good scores, just barely not in the top quarter," the second said. "Seems she'd had some training with her grandfather. She was excited about visiting her grandfather. Left for home the way she usually did and hasn't been seen since. I asked all her friends and they said nothing was out of the ordinary. Seems she often spends weekends with her grandfather."
"And the parents?" Mikoto-sensei asked.
"We investigated the parents, they're heavily in debt, gambling on merchant trips," said the first investigator. "They're both civilians. The Father's an immigrant whose parents arrived after the 2nd War, we don't have much on him other than the basic investigation for traveling merchants. The mother's from a family going back to the beginning of Konoha, allies of the Hyuga back pre-village, though they haven't the same kind of reputation. Like I said before, her father's a former chunin, retired after his leg wound, but his record notes that he had exemplary service for his time. Saved his squad several times due to his bloodline, allowing them to escape ambushes and was on the fast track to Jonin until his accident. The mother married the father not long after the 3rd War but didn't have children until after the Nine-Tails attack." Her eyes glanced at me quickly, but snapped back to Mikoto-sensei when she let out a brief cough. I don't know why he looked at me, must have been nervous. "The family business was started by the paternal grandfather who worked hard getting supplies shipped in and the son married the missing girl's mother because of her bloodline. They mostly work moving iron and chakra metal bars in from the mountain mining communities which are then sold to Konoha blacksmiths."
"And the Gambling?" Mikoto-sensei inquired.
"Both of them in debt up to their eyeballs," the second replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if they'd sold the girl."
My eyes hardened at that. "They did what?" I asked.
The three full cops grimaced. Mikoto-sensei looked at me with a grim look. "It's illegal, though still common enough. Not so much in Konoha because we're very strict about such things especially with our bloodlines, but there are plenty of ways for them to pull it off."
"Did they leave? Don't you have to sign in and out?" I asked.
"True, that could help us limit the search a bit," Mikoto replied, flicking her eyes to the second inspector who nodded and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"Um," I said. "Do you have some hair or blood from the girl?"
"Why?" Mikoto-Sensei asked.
"If I've got either something from her or something very important to her, I could probably track her down, or at least where she's been," I told her. We didn't really go over my special abilities, but rather tactics and police procedures during my training since I wasn't really being trained for frontline combat, but as an investigator. That and according to the Old Man's order, I'm supposed to keep things quiet in case someone wants to lift Bob, who is considered too valuable to lose.
"Explain," she stated, clearly an order. I glanced to the other inspector who caught the look and nodded to the Chief.
"I've got some other leads," she said, stepping out, leaving me and the Chief of Konoha Police alone in her office.
"I can trace connections between things," I said. "You see, everything has energy, and connections with energy. I can follow the stronger connections, or in this case, a specific connection and trace her down. Hair is good, blood better. I could possibly work with the parents' blood, but that's a bit more iffy."
"How so?"
"Everyone's 1/2 of their father and 1/2 of their mother, but the other half of each could potentially confuse things," I said. "I'll need some tools from my apartment."
"What kind of jutsu is that?" she demanded, clearly wanting that kind of thing for her department.
"Sorry, it can't be copied," I replied, well, so far as I knew. "I guess if I had the right person, I could train them, but that's still iffy. Hand wigglies and Wizardry are non-mixy things."
She looked at me blankly for a moment. A loooooong moment. Then she shook her head and grabbed her vest. "I'm going with you after we get the hair sample. One from a brush enough?"
I nodded.
Chief Mikoto told the inspector to get the sample and meet us at my place. The next moment was a swirl as the Chief dragged me off into the distance. The next thing I knew, we were back at my place. I walked upstairs and opened the door before formally turning around.
"I welcome you into my home for today," I said and felt the threshold welcome Mikoto-sensei into the room. A Threshold is more than just a doorway, it's a mystical formation of the people who live there. Things with Power, capitol P, are weakened if they pass through without an invitation. As Thresholds go, mine was pretty crappy. I'm 10 and never had any family other than Bob and the Old Man, and neither one counts for strengthening the Threshold since Bob wasn't actually alive or possessed of a soul and the Old Man didn't live with me. If not for my Wards that Bob and I set up all over the place and the fact that I've lived in the place for quite a while, anything from the Woogity side of the street would pass through it and might have felt something like panting after a quick jog. Otherwise, my Threshold wouldn't do much against ninjas except weaken a few ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques. It does nothing to the physical side of things. Inviting my teacher in might have been just a formality, but it was one that Bob had drilled into my head. Not to mention that it also allows her to bypass my wards as well, which actually could be pretty nasty at times. I don't invite just anybody over to my place for that very reason.
She looked at me oddly, but stepped in. Whatever she was expecting, this wasn't it.
My place is clean. Really clean. And I don't do any of it. Taking some advice from Bob, I made a brownie contract. That would be the small time faerie, not the junior Girl Scout. Brownies, in exchange for a few things, food mostly, clean up the house. Key is that they never do it when someone can watch, so I make sure that I am out of the house at least 4 hours every day and fill a few bowls with instant Ramen (Food of the GAWDS) to pay my debt. As a result, my house is always squeaky clean.
It's also very organized. I have my bed and closet in one room, my kitchen and "living room" with the TV and such together, and the third room, originally more of a walk in closet, was my mojo room.
"What is this?" my teacher asked, squinting into the shadows of the windowless room. I pulled on the hanging cord and the florescent light flickered on, shining light on little Konoha. It's a bit more complete than it used to be.
"This is Little Konoha," I said. I've had the opportunity to fill in some of the blank spots in Little Konoha since the Hyuga and Uchiha compounds were a bit more open to me, or at least I opened them up. I still haven't had the opportunity to map out all the deeper parts. There are tunnels and hidden facilities all through the ground of the village and not even the Old Man knew what all of them were. I gave her a brief explanation of what I was doing but she was clearly still pretty skeptical. I was just finishing it up when there was a knock at my door.
"Here it is, Chief," said the inspector, holding out the hair sample. "I took it from the brush in the girl's room."
"Great," I said, pulling it out of his hands. I didn't bother inviting him in and closed the door in his face. I'm pretty serious about who I do and do not invite in. I do not want to invite someone into my side of the wards if they are at all considering the thought of hurting me. Mikoto-sensei was one thing, but I didn't trust too many people. I turned and walked back to my Mojo Room and sat down in my circle in the room. My circle was very expensive. It was created by carving into the concrete floor and pouring molten silver into the runes and seals I incorporated into the circle. That is not cheap and I had to convert quite a bit of my Ryo to coins for the metal. That would technically be against Fire Country Law (The Fire Lord likes his money, he does), but melting coins was a lot cheaper than outright buying the same amount of silver on the open market. Doesn't make sense, but that's how it works. I tied the hair sample around a silver tuning fork I'd found somewhere. It was off key, but worked for what I needed it for.
Focusing my Will into the circle, the fork and the hair, I called up what I recognized as the lingering energies of the missing girl. This is a lot simpler said than done and involves a lot of things that just can't really be explained with words. Suffice to say, the hair was once part of the missing girl and that connection still existed. This was HER hair and I needed to trace that connection to where the rest of her energy existed. I grabbed a handful of iron filings and tossed them over Little Konoha, carefully keeping my inner focus on the girl. Somewhere, seemingly far away, I heard Mikoto-sensei gasp as the metal filings started to slither from the girl's home, where the hair had been separated from the girl, to the Academy where the filings seemed to slither all around as she went inside and out, up stairs and down. Continuing on they made their way half way to the grandfather's house and made a sharp turn west, over or threw buildings in a straight line, and then north, passing by the Hokage Tower before turning right and heading into a tunnel hidden by a secret door.
A tunnel I had yet to map.
I said a few words that were so not for children most kids would instantly grow to age 16 just so the universe wouldn't feel bad about letting them hear them. That line of talk was quickly shut off by a knife hand to the top of my head from a certain Uchiha Head of Police.
"What, pray tell, was that all about?" she demanded.
I pointed to where the iron filings stopped. "That's a hidden entrance. I don't know what's beyond there. I've tried multiple times, but ANBU always shows up and kicks me out."
"So where does that leave the case?" she asked, seemingly pleased that they at least had a lead.
"I actually have to be there, physically, to continue the search," I told her. "But at least we know where to start looking. And we know she was kidnapped by ninjas."
"Why do you think that?" she asked in her I'm-testing-you voice. I glanced up and realized that she had already spotted what I was about to explain. I pointed to where he path to her grandfather shifted.
"This goes right over or through buildings, but I'm betting over, considering there's no windows or doors on that side of the building so far as I can tell," I said pointing to the line of iron filings. "She's an Academy student, there's no way she could have done this on her own. And since we didn't lose the trail where she was grabbed, that means she was still on the surface up to that point."
"Why don't you just use your technique to map the tunnels?" Mikoto-sensei asked me.
"I don't have that kind of fine control," I said suppressing a shiver, "yet."
And it was true, sending your will out that far without a guiding tool was beyond me at this point, not to mention more than a little dangerous since my body would be separated to a certain degree from my body. Bob told me of a time Harry got nearly fried when his spirit took a walkabout and only having Little Chicago as a buffer saved him from being KFC extra crispy. That reminds me, I think it's time for chicken ramen. But I digress. The Old Man made it VERY clear that he did not want me separating my Will from my body except in the safest of conditions. He didn't explain why, but I get the impression he was worried about something filling in the empty space while I was gone.
"You haven't even graduated the Academy yet, I'm not letting you into a tunnel like that," she told me. "I'm getting a tracking team and searching them."
"Any trail down there is days old at this point," I said. "Who knows how many other people have passed through those tunnels by now? You need me. Believe it!"
She stared at me for a long while, her face expressionless and perfectly schooled. Lots of people used to talk about how Itachi used to wear two masks, but only one was from ANBU. Seeing Mikoto-sensei stare me down, I could tell that she'd taught her son how to wear that second mask. She was... cold, I guess. Most people have some kind of tell that gave away at least some of their inner emotions. Mikoto-sensei could just turn them off and on like a lightswitch.
"Fine, but I'm bringing a team with us," she said after a moment.