13. Intruder Alert!
"So that's the Akatsuki base." Naruto whispered. "It looks…elaborate."
Yuki nodded. He had hoped never to be here again, but if it was to save Yuri and Jongo, he must. This place had too many bad memories.
Not to mention his lungs felt a little bad and it was harder to breathe than normal. Probably one of the starts of his asthma attacks. Yuki knew he shouldn't be here, and prayed that one of his attacks wouldn't come out. Not to mention he forgot to take his asthma medicine for the last two weeks. (Bad move, Yuki.)
But who else knew the way around the base? Well, there was Christo, but it would be much more useful if there were two instead of one.
Speaking of Christo, he was looking around. "Where's my uncle?"
Yuki wasn't particularly close to Sasuke, even though he was a nephew, too. Christo and Sasuke got along, Yuki and Sasuke just didn't. Besides, he wasn't around very much, and even then, it was mostly with Christo.
Christo had changed, for the worse or the better Yuki did not know. It was subtle, but still there. Christo now used his nickname most of the time. In the past, only family members called him "Christo." Now, everyone else called him that. "Christopher" was gone. Yuki didn't say anything about that small change, though.
"He's not here." Yuki snapped. "Let's go in."
But that stupid guy, Naruto, was holding him back. "Hold it! Aren't you a little too young to be here? I mean, this is dangerous and all."
Yuki bit him. Hard.
Naruto yelled in surprise. Yuki smiled. Biting people had been a habit of Yuri's, but it always looked fun to do. Still, Yuki didn't like losing his temper like Yuri did.
"Teeth as sharp as Yuri's." Naruto gritted his teeth and used all his willpower not to strangle the brat. But his fingers twitched.
Then, surprisingly, Christo bit his other hand.
"YEOW!" Naruto yelled, waving both of his bleeding hands. "What the hell did you do that for?"
Christo and Yuki smirked in unison. This frustrated Naruto so much that this time he did try to strangle them. Fortunately for the two smiling boys, Naruto was held back by Sakura.
After Naruto had calmed down, he washed off the blood, all the while plotting his revenge. Then he snapped out of his anger, and thought about Yuri. Time to save her from the hands of Itachi.
When he got back from the stream, everyone was impatient and ready to go, especially Yuki. Christo seemed worried that his uncle wasn't here.
"So what's the plan?" Naruto asked, glaring at Yuki, who merely ignored it.
"Split up into pairs. Simple and effective." Sakura told him. "Okay, that's Sai and me, Kakashi and Christo, and then Yuki and Naruto."
"NO!" Naruto yelled. "Please, please, please don't put me in with Yuki! Or Christo!"
Sai patted Naruto's back. "That's all right, Naruto. You can go with me instead."
Naruto shuddered. "Never mind. I'm fine with Yuki."
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Where the hell was Jongo?
When Yuri had woken up, he was nowhere to be seen. She searched every inch of the nursery, but he was gone. Now her brother had disappeared, for some strange reason. Did he wander off or did Father do something to him.
If it was the latter, she hoped it was quick and painless.
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Sakura and Sai had been invisible, although they knew it would wear off soon. What they didn't expect was it to wear off so quickly.
Five minutes after they had separated from everyone else, Sakura could see a faint outline of Sai. Ten minutes later, the effect wore off from both of them.
"This sucks!" Sakura yelled and kicked a nearby wall. (It didn't break, she knew better than to make too much noise and commotion.) "Why did we have to have the weak one!"
"Let's just disguise ourselves." Sai suggested.
Sakura was still glum. "Even if we disguise ourselves, that's a little bit of chakra we have to use. And is we bump into anyone, they'll know we're intruders because we don't know any passwords and stuff!"
"So what do we do?" Sai asked.
"Get out and abort the mission." Sakura replied. "It's our only option."
"Hey, who're you!" a guy in a Venus-flytrap (Zetsu) said. He had just entered this hallway when he saw two intruders.
"We're dead." Sai said.
"For once, I agree with you."
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Naruto and Yuki's justsu also wore off quickly, but in twenty minutes.
Not only that, they heard the loudspeaker scream, "Intruder in the Akatsuki has been caught! Intruder in the Akatsuki has been caught! Be on the lookout for other intruders!"
"Intruder in the Akatsuki?" Naruto whispered harshly to Yuki. "One of the others have been caught."
"Well, duh." Yuki whispered right back. "We need to be more careful."
Yuki closed his eyes and thought for a minute. What to do, what to do.
Options (by Yuki Uchiha)
Turn back and abandon the mission
Attempt to find out/rescue who has been captured
Proceed with the mission (finding Yuri and potentially Jongo)
Both 2 and 3
Well, the answer was obviously 4. Still, Yuki Uchiha like making things organized.
"Let's proceed." Yuki told Naruto, who nodded. They were both extremely careful to be quiet. Once, Naruto breathed too loud, and a guard swiveled around. Luckily, he dismissed that as his nerves, so Yuki and Naruto got off free.
They tiptoed. They tried their best not to breathe too loud. They walked slowly.
In the end, their efforts paid off. Because they got lead to the end of a hall with a door stuck to it.
Naruto wished that Hinata or Neji or someone with Byakugan was here. Then it would be much, much easier finding Yuri and (possibly) Jongo and Jooyeon.
Yuki had a strange feeling that someone was in this room, someone important. And his intuition was usually right. Without consulting Naruto, he barged right in the room, knocking the door down (since it was locked).
There was his brother, Jongo.
Jongo looked terrible. First, he looked pale and sickly, which was unusual, because it was Yuki who was the unhealthy one. Secondly, he looked pretty damned tired, like he hadn't slept in a long time. Thirdly, he was in straitjacket inside a padded room. (Itachi is a little extreme parent, no?)
"Jongo!" Yuki yelled. He rushed to his brother's side. "You all right?"
"Do I look like I'm all right." Jongo replied in a weak voice, gritting his teeth. "I'm hungry, I'm tired, I'm sleepy, I'm thirsty, and I need to go to the bathroom."
"Fair point, little bro." Yuki gave a rare affectionate smile.
"I am not your little brother. We're the same age." Jongo said, and there was a hint of amusement in his voice now. "How many times do I have to tell you?"
"I'm still older." Yuki said. "How do you undo straitjackets?"
Yuki fumbled with the jacket, but couldn't do anything. Naruto came over and tried to help. In the end, they slashed it open with some handy kunai.
Jongo felt odd after he had been freed, but he had spent the last 24 hours or so not moving. So it was perfectly natural that the blond guy carry him, right?
"W-What are you doing here?" Jongo asked, and it felt like there was some cotton in his mouth and down his throat. (He hasn't drank either.) "Who's blondie?"
"We're here on a rescue mission. Blondie's name is Naruto Uzumaki. He's idiotic, but he had good intentions." Yuki told him.
Naruto was about to raise his voice when the last part of the sentence soaked in. That was the first compliment Yuki had ever paid him. Even though it was just "he has good intention." Hmm, Yuki didn't look down on him as much as he thought.
"Hey, ugly, when're you gonna help? Get your lazy ass down here." Yuki snapped.
Or maybe not.
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Kakashi and Christo's wore off in two minutes, but since it was Kakashi who did the jutsu in the first place, he was able to do a longer one. But then Kakashi realized he made a mistake, and accidentally made the others' jutsu short wearing too. And he knew it was a big mistake when the loudspeaker started yelling about intruders.
But Christo ignored it. "Hey, I know this place! It's the way to the nursery! Follow me!"
Christo then sped off into a certain direction. Kakashi sighed and followed.
After a few twists and turns, they stopped by the door of the "nursery." Christo smiled and opened it.
In there were three little girls, Yuri, Jooyeon, and Ann.
All three of them jumped at the sound of the opening door, but there wasn't anyone there. Or so it seemed.
"Doors just don't open like that." Yuri said suspiciously.
"They don't." Christo said. "Yuri, are you actually talking?"
Yuri blinked in astonishment. "Christo! Is that you!"
Ann jumped up and down. "Christo! Christo! Christo! Christo!"
"Hi, Ann." Christo said.
"Um, we can't see you." Jooyeon snapped.
Kakashi looked at the girl. She had the usual dark hair and pale skin, but she had a bit of a difference. For one, her eyes were more brown than black, or maybe it was because she had a more distinct face structure.
"I'm invisible, obviously." Christo said with an air of superiority. "C'mon, let's go."
It wasn't a good day for Jooyeon so she started a mini-rant. "Have you forgotten about Father and the rest of the Akatsuki! They'd capture us before we took a step out, which is probably what happened to Jongo! Not to mention we're a bunch of little kids with no chance of escaping!"
"But I'm here." Kakashi said.
"Kakashi?" Yuri asked. "Is that you?"
"Yes."
Yuri turned to Jooyeon smugly. "See, there." Then she grabbed Ann's hand and walked out the door. Everyone else followed.
So that's it. Sigh. Not a really good chapter, but I might come back and change it later. I also spent a long time on it, but no inspiration or ideas came to me.
Still have a bit of a writer's block, but I'll still work on this.
I've been working on two other stories besides this one. So I'll finish this, then finish others, and then make a part 2.