Alright guys this is chapter two. You know the drill. I don't own Naruto. If I did I would be rich. Now on to the story *Points dramatically*
"I have read the report you sent with Talon. It seems you handled the situation well and though you recovered no useful information on the Akatsuki you still found the man who sent the word to us even if it was just to get a faster and stronger response from us." She knitted her hands together in front of her face and Tsume along with her team bowed their heads understanding the silence. They had lost one of the village of trees' young shinobi in the battle when the black haired man had jumped in the path of the bosses jutsu to protect one of her teammates. "Do you have anything else to report?" she asked breaking the silence.
"No that is all I have to report." Tsume answered
"Then you are dismissed. Tsume stay behind please." Tsunade said unlacing her fingers and leaning back in her chair.
Haiku and Kakashi, who had been standing at the back of the group, lingered slightly longer than the rest a look of curiosity crossing their faces but they slowly left as well.
Tsume stood at attention her eyes never leaving Tsunade's face fearing she had done something wrong and was about to get reprimanded. Tsunade sighed pulling open a drawer of her desk and reaching inside. What she pulled out almost made Tsume fall over in surprise. It was a white porcelain mask made roughly in the form of a hawk's face, with turquoise striped branching out from the features on the right half, on top of a standard ANBU uniform.
"Y-your kidding right?" Tsume stuttered. She had always wanted to be part of the elite group of ninja called ANBU, but she had never considered herself skilled enough.
"I'm not. Your surveillance skills are top notch and you adapted well to an unexpected change in your last mission." Tsunade informed the kunoichi. "Take the rest of the day off and report to ANBU headquarters in the morning. Your dismissed" Tsunade finished, breaking eye contact and glaring at the paperwork stacked next to her.
Tsume quickly took the uniform and mask, wrapped it in the baggy ANBU cloak and stuffed it in the backpack she still had on from the mission she had just completed. Once she finished that she was faced with the dilemma of hiding the sword she had received.
Figuring Haiku would be waiting outside the Hokage's door she quickly made the decision to go out the window once talon had confirmed there was no one outside. She grabbed the sword and leapt through the window behind lady Tsunade's head. She would play stupid and go with the 'I just bought this awesome sword' approach.
Luckily the trip back to her apartment was mostly uneventful, though she narrowly avoided a conversation with Iruka. She was classmates with that kid for one year and already that kid could read her like an open book. He would have noticed right away that she was hiding something.
Once inside she partially unzipped her rest revealing the shin tight short sleeved shirt underneath and opened the window, allowing Talon to fly in and land on one of the many perches set up throughout her small one bedroom apartment. He chirped in delight before she kneeled down to open a secret compartment she had made in the wall in between her bed and a small bookcase that doubled as her nightstand. Inside sat the few things she had emotional attachment to. One was a torn up robe with the Hosaki clan symbol on it. The only other object was a small golden bracelet with her own clan symbol, an upside down image of a diving hawk, hanging from it. She couldn't help but smile reflexively as she thought about her parents' most recent attempt at convincing her to return home. It's not that she didn't love them, she just couldn't put up with their tendency to express their disapproval a little too openly. Her clan had never joined the regular forces; they had mostly kept to the messenger section, dealing solely with sending and delivering info (mostly mission request or letters). But Tsume had decided to stay in the regular forces, which meant she got sent on regular missions. She had to sigh, okay maybe she saw their side of it now, but she enjoyed the work.
"I wonder what they would say. If they found out about this Talon." She mumbled to her companion closing the door to the compartment just before she heard a second flutter of feathers, and in irritated screech. "Hello, Hitonakase (literally translates to annoyance)." That earned her an angry screech and a hard peck to the top of her head. "Yeah, yeah I'll go." She grumbled, waving her parents bird away before getting up and making her way to the door.
Once outside she spun around digging out her keys and locking the door, not paying attention to her surroundings (she was too busy grumbling about her parents' impractical methods of getting her to visit). So she was caught completely off guard when she saw Kakashi at the end of the hallway.
"We need to talk." His expression was impossible to read and that was never a good sign when it came to the silver haired jounin.
Yup this story has a slow start and I STILL managed to leave you with a cliff hanger.
Will Kakashi find out? Will her parents? you will have to wait to find out.
Muahahaha!