Chapter 16
When Clare deemed him well enough to travel, they slipped out of the city as unobtrusively as possible. Raito walked on one side of Gaara while Clare walked on the other. It would have been must faster for them to travel by jumping, but Raito trusted neither of them enough to stick her feet to each branch. The only reason they had gotten there so quickly in the first place was because time of of the essence, and she had been forced to trust Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke.
Now that it wasn't, Raito was going to walk. The extra day or two wouldn't matter, not at this point, and would allow Gaara a few more days to get his strength back as well as Clare's wrist to heal. It was almost better, but not quite yet. In a few days' time, Clare would be as good as new.
Clare adjusted Gaara's gourd on her back, she still wasn't used to it yet. The only reason it was there because it was heavy, and Clare wanted him to take it as easy as possible and not be tempted to use the sand to try and get them there faster. She was well aware that Gaara was impatient to get back to Suna. He probably thought that if he didn't, the city was going to fall apart, which actually was a sort of valid concern, as Kankuro was helping play the part of Kazekage...
Clare's thoughts took a turn when she realized Gaara had stopped, and had raised a hand to point at his gourd. He looked positively furious.
"Who is Itachi?" he seethed.
"Huh?" Raito asked, not getting what he was talking about for a second.
"My gourd," he elaborated. "It has his name on it. He will be one of the few to feel sand crush every inch of his body."
Written neatly on Gaara's gourd were the words, "Itachi was here", which was what he had been referring to. Raito decided to nip the second trip to the Akatsuki in the bud. "By all means, go try to fight one of the most key Akatsuki by yourself."
Gaara narrowed his eyes. "Clare would come with me."
Before Clare could answer, Raito cut in with, "not if I order you not to go. Technically you're dead, so I outrank you," she said with a smile.
Gaara grumbled, but didn't bring up the topic again. "The sooner we get back to Suna, the better."
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"Gaara, what were you thinking! You worried Kankuro and I sick! We thought you were dead!" Temari scolded as soon as she saw him. "I would have gone after you, but there were things going on here, so..."
Raito took this as her que to leave, before...
"Raito, whatever the hell your last name is."
...that happened. She sighed and turned around. Gaara did not look pleased. "Yes, Kazekage-sama?"
"You knew about the man terrorizing Suna, and didn't tell me about it. Why?"
"Well, you see, I would have told you about it, but seeing as there was nothing any of us could do anything about it as we were in Amekagure..."
Gaara pointed at the door. "Take care of it."
Raito bowed in a slightly mocking manner, and saw her own way out of the manor. Clare didn't quite understand the exchange. "Did something happen between you two when I wasn't there?"
Gaara answered while trying to remember if there were any cookies left in the house. "I'm the Kazekage, she's my subordinate. Besides, she pulled rank on me the other day. Which reminds me... go find me some cookies."
Clare smacked him over the back of the head. "Just because you're Kazekage doesn't mean you can order me around like that, unless you're going to pay me?"
"Oh he'll pay you alright," Kankuro said suggestively. Both Clare and Gaara smacked him upside the head.
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"Raito, I know you're pissed, don't kill him," Haku said as soon as he saw her coming. He wasn't surprised that she had found them, he hadn't exactly been subtle. Not that he was being subtle now, he might as well as painted a giant sign over Kurou's face saying, "this is the guy who pretended to kill you." Wonderful.
"Now why would I do a silly thing like that? It's not like the Kazekage just gave me the mission.. oh wait. He did." Raito crossed her arms and sunk her weight to one leg, but at least she hadn't gotten Head Cleaver off her back.
Kurou decided the girl was snooty and a stickler for the rules. Yet, Haku seemed to like her well enough, and she seemed to be the one that decided what happened to him, so... "I can pay you double whatever he wants, and I've seen the bounty posters."
For whatever reason, Raito started laughing at him. Kurou didn't look half as amused. He didn't see what was funny, sure it was a lot of money, but he was good. "If you think I can't get it..."
"Love, money is no issue, we don't take bribes. No, I'm wondering if you're really as good as I've heard."
Kurou looked at Haku, who smiled. "He is. I only caught up to him yesterday. Kurou is smart, we could really use him in Hidden Mist."
"Well... if Haku says so... if you want, take this to the Shino building in Hidden Mist, they'll supply you a job."
She handed him a blank card, whatever was written on it probably only showed up in the presence of a certain kind of jutsu. Kurou took it. "That's it? You're not going to turn me in or anything?"
"No, but if you give me reason too, I think I'll find it much easier to kill you and just get it over with. Coming, Haku?"
Raito held open the door, waiting for Haku. Kurou decided that he still didn't like her, but there was no harm in checking out the Shino building, as this girl was a legendary ninja. He did find it odd that Firefly himself never came to deal with the situation, though. He had almost been looking forward to matching wits with him, not that Haku hadn't presented a challenge. Inwardly, Kurou thought that Haku was better at this game than Firefly could possibly hope to be.
"I should have just killed him."
"But you didn't."
"I know." Raito sounded regretful of this fact. "I should have."
"Too late now," Haku replied, and he sounded almost amused. "You're getting soft."
"No kidding, it's kind of annoying. I think I need to go back to the philosophy of kill first, ask questions later."
"Does this mean we're going to go after a bounty?" Out of all the different kinds of missions they could do, Haku's favorite was bounties. "Sasuke, perhaps?"
"I've decided that I don't care what happens with Sasuke, none of my concern at this point." She neglected to mention that if she did go after Sasuke, she was going alone, and god help him when she caught up with him. "I heard there was a certain corrupt politician in Tea Country..."
"You are Raito, and you are Haku, correct?"
A woman with her hair in a tight bun and a pen pushed to her mouth who was holding a clipboard was the one addressing them. Behind her was a smaller, mousy looking woman who wore a pair of glasses.
"That would depend on who's asking."
Haku rolled his eyes. "Yes, we are. Who are you?"
"I'm Hoshi Cho, head of the CICOPandC. You assisted in the Kazekage's rescue and retrieval, correct?" As she spoke, she was consulting her piece of paper. She didn't look at them again until she was finished.
"You could say that," Haku said, at the same time Raito asked, "What is the CICOPandC?"
"That's wonderful, Kasume, schedule them in at 2:00, and the CICOPand C is the Commitee In Charge Of Parades and Celebrations, you two are going to be featured in our parade. I'm thinking rainbows... and maybe some glitter... are you writing that down?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Wonderful, we'll see you at 2:00."
"Yeah, um, not so much," Raito said. There was no way she was going to partake in a parade involving anything remotely rainbowish and glittery. "We've already made plans."
"Oh, then if that's the case..."
There was a slight sting, and everything went dark.