Forty minutes and fifty three seconds.
That was how long he had been waiting on top of this unfinished construction. After the gym he had no time to drop everything he was carrying, they handed him the tools he needed for the job and told him to carry his ass to some construction site, which was the one he was on currently.
The fifteenth floor of an unfinished building was pretty high and he would surely break more than one bone if he was to fall; if he did not worry about dying first.
Thinly gloved fingers began meticulously tinkering with the Gen II Schmidt Bender PMII scope, adjusting it according to their owner's zeroing needs. But with only a hundred yard to work with, he was pretty much golden. He fiddled around with the rest of the gun, eyeing every detail carefully.
"Seriously... how did they get this gun?" He wondered in a hushed voice, hoping that the microphone would not pick up his voice.
He was expecting a standard issue Remington 700 with stock specifications, not a fully customized one with a TAC-21 chassis system and extended ten rounds magazine (1). Maybe his friends from Parabellum was not as unprepared as he thought...
"CQ, this is CP, do you read me?"
The earpiece buzzed, causing vibrations to tingle down his neck. He brushed off the feeling, reminded of how inter-comms work once again after being off the field for so long.
"CP, this is CQ. I hear you loud and clear." He responded, hands still strained on the sniper.
"Good, we read you loud and clear from over here too. Man, this is news for me..."
Naruto's eyes blinked. "You've never handled a mission before?" He thought Shikamaru had previous agents he was in charge of?
"No, I've handled several, but not like this. It's usually Asuma's job to handle huge operations like this one... but since I'm your official handler while you're still with us, they let me do the honors... still doesn't sit right with me, though." Naruto could hear the boy grumbling from the other side of the comms.
Bringing one of his eye close to the scope, he surveyed the location before him.
A total of sixty thousand square feet warehouse compound, almost a half larger than a football field, was under the control and authority of LeafCorp. They purchased the entire compound to be used as their own personal warehouse to store the shipments they receive. With how business savvy his previous employers were, he assumed that the government had no power at whatever was happening inside that compound. Parabellum, however, dared the bastards.
"Alright, let me go through this again." Shikamaru's voice bled through the earpiece, serious and devoid of his usual slothful antics. "We sent an agent to infiltrate the compound and gather intel of what's inside. Intel consisting specific wares, or whatever it is that they have hidden under the cover of 'heavy machinery'."
Heavy machinery... yeah, even he wouldn't buy it.
"Unfortunately, we lost contact with our person and haven't managed to reestablish any link for the past four hours. We assumed the worst and have sent a four men team to search the compound."
"Is this mission time sensitive?" Naruto asked, voice as listless as ever.
"For you? No. For them, yes." Shikamaru sighed. "Your job is to provide sniper fire when necessary, I will queue you in with the squad leader for this mission." there was a slight pause. "Okay, patching you to him now."
"Hello? Can you read me?" This time, a deeper and rougher sounding voice bled through his comms. An older man, someone he had never heard before... probably in his mid forties.
"Crystal." Naruto replied frostily.
"Good. We're about to infiltrate the compound to retrieve our agent. They go by the code name Sunshine, and you will refer to us as Ghost one through four, understood?"
"Understood."
"Excellent."
There was a switch in intermission. "CQ, we will hereby refer to you as Kilo for the duration of the operation, follow Ghost One's instructions and remember, failure is not an option."
"Roger." came both reply from Naruto and Ghost One.
'When has it ever been...' He was used to being under pressure like this, though he had to admit, things were different this time. He rarely did rescue missions like this one back at LeafCorp, mostly because he was often tasked with spearheading invasions on countries somewhere in Eastern Europe or razing rebel militia bases to the ground in the deserts of the Middle East.
Urban combat was no problem for him, but this would be his first time being support for a response team.
Through his scope, he had a clear view of the entire compound. He might have to relocate and climb up a few levels above if he wanted to get a better view, but he'd stick to where he was at the moment. There were two entry points to the compound, the front and back gate. The front gate was tightly guard with LeafCorp guards, lightly armed with pistols but they could easily trigger the alarm if the Ghosts were spotted.
"Ghosts, what's your entry plan?"
"We're cutting our way in," replied the older man and from the sound of it, it seemed that they were on the move. "We'll find a different exit though."
Naruto – or Kilo now – did not reply. The back gate had more guards, but there were no vehicles coming in or out. No way for the Ghosts to slip through those unnoticed. "Kilo, can you spot us on your scope?"
"Where are you?"
"East side of the fence, near the cars parked at the side of the road." The night was still young but Chiba was strangely quiet, almost as if everyone knew that they were going to do something like this. At Ghost One's information, he managed to spot them but barely. They were at the part of the street where there were no civilians, which was good because there was a very high civilian activity two blocks away from their AO.
LeafCorp chose the worst place to store their wares, at least, when spoken from a logistical point of view. It'd be more cost effective to purchase a warehouse near the harbor or port, as transport fee would be tremendously cut. But they had to choose one that was located in the middle of the city where civilian activity was the highest. Tactically speaking, they chose the correct place. It'd be hard for people like him and Parabellum to do anything, but with the correct timing and props, they should be able to send a few guys in there.
"I see you, Ghosts. Be advised that the fake construction roadblocks won't last longer, prop team was tasked to clean up and evacuate the location for the mission's duration." Shikamaru had teams of Parabellum operatives set up fake construction roadblocks around the perimeter, he was also smart enough to make it subtle, so that LeafCorp wouldn't caught on.
"Copy that, Kilo."
From his scope, he watched as the Ghosts made their way into the compound. They had to climb up the walls which was not a big deal seeing as they made it through, with the help of a ladder they specifically brought for the insertion, and they managed to cut through the wired fence using the help of bolt cutters. Once they were inside, they found cover behind some metal shipping containers; looked like they made it inside clean.
"CP, we are in the compound. Proceeding with the objective now."
"Good work Ghosts." Shikamaru's voice was heard once again. "Now, we don't have a clear position, but if Sunshine's previous records are consistent, we'd say that she managed to leave something behind as clue. Try searching warehouses one through three, those were her primary objectives and should narrow down your range of search."
Whilst the Ghosts were busy searching through the warehouses, Naruto was scouting for possible exit points. The mission was sensitive, the Ghosts would need a quick exfil out of there without anything hindering them. Surprisingly, alarms were allowed. LeafCorp, despite being a huge company with/ recognizable identity, was very secretive. Everything that went wrong with them have been kept out of the public's eyes. Reporters were bribed and government officials could live off the bribes that LeafCorp gave them.
This was no different. Should anything happen, LeafCorp would try to contain the situation on their own, despite intervention from local officials. His previous employer was everything if not convincing, and politicians were all the same no matter where. Still, Parabellum wouldn't want to have LeafCorp sniffing them out so soon, so it was stressed by command that stealth is a must.
But, if you ask him, seeing as how they were about to rescue one of their agents from LeafCorp, LeafCorp had probably learned a few things about Parabellum.
A hard exfil should be possible, even if he should be prioritizing a quiet one. The front gate had lightly armed guard; the Ghosts could bust through them in a car and rendezvous with a pick up team in the highway, even he knew that LeafCorp wouldn't be crazy enough to engage in a high speed car chase all the way out of Wakaba Ward and on to the next one.
While he was in deep thought, his radio buzzed.
"Kilo, we're in warehouse three we checked one and two and found nothing except for legitimate heavy construction machinery." From the sound of it, Ghost One was tired.
"Nothing? Not even clues from Sunshine?"
"No. They did a good job of covering their operations here, those inspections the government did gave them the clear after all."
"What about your exfil, what do you plan to do?"
"We will make our way opposite of where we came from and cut our way out of here along with our objective." responded the man. "Why? Any better alternatives?"
"None that doesn't involve killing."
"We'll stick with our initial plan, if you can't give any better ideas then don't say anything." Ghost One cut the line aggressively. From the sound alone, it was obvious that he was sensitive with the thought of taking lives.
Seeing as there was nothing for him to say, Naruto remained on watch.
"..."
"Still not talking, huh? Guess we'll just have to do this the hard way then."
She did not know why she picked up this job.
Two months ago, she was just a normal high school girl attending one of Japan's most prestigious women's high school. Not only was she the top of her school, she was also a model student to her classmates. She received so many trophies and awards from winning nationals competitions that have had anything to do with academics and the likes...
...but now, she's being interrogated in one of the most secured places in Japan.
It's not even a prison too.
"I-I... don't know anything else..."
Her answer only served as fuel for her questioner's rage. She felt him pick up the clipboard from the table, before eventually feeling the damn thing as it was used to slap her right across her face. Despite the blindfold, she could tell that the man was making a face that would make children cry, hell, she knew she did.
He saw her fell on the floor from the hit he delivered, yelping and screaming, followed by sniffling and whimpers. He clicked his tongue. In a fit, he kicked away his chair, causing it to crash to the nearby wall, drawing out a terrified scream from the girl.
He stomped towards her, kneeling down, roughly pulling down the folds covering her eyes. He sneered at her, looking straight at her eyes.
"Now that I think about it... you don't look like you're in your eighteens yet." He pointed out with crass. "Sure your tits and bums might've worked on the jarheads outside but they won't work on me."
"Kyaa!"
He pulled his feet back, letting it loose to connect the edge of his shoe to her chin, causing the girl to whip her head back. The smell of iron filled the air, causing the man to grin. "Heh, but you bitches sure do bleed the same." He crouched once again, cornering her to the wall.
"Last question... who sent you? And I want names."
No words could describe how afraid she was. She was captured, hurt and currently in the process of being interrogated. Despite it all, she knew the risk of this whole operation and now, she had only herself to blame. Her disheveled locks were making a mess of her otherwise sweet looking face and said face was only showing one expression, fear.
"I... I..." her words and body would not stop quivering. It took her so long to give an answer, she feared he might try and hit her again. But despite it, she kept a firm grasp of her objective. "I won't... tell."
"Oho?" A vein pulsed on the interrogator's forehead and the way his eyes widened showed nothing but amused annoyance.
"Finally have the guts to talk to me, don't we? Say, why don't we go back to what really matters here, huh? Obviously, I wanna know who sent you. And you – or your people – wanna know more about us. But obviously, I can't let the second thing happen, SO YOU HAVE NO FUCKING CHOICE BUT TO TELL ME WHO SENT YOU, YOU USELESS IMBECILE BITCH!"
His knee connected to her face, causing it to whiplash against the wall. Once her face made contact, it made a sound similar to brick being dropped down from a two storied building for it to crash on a cement pavement. Her face slid down the wall, bleeding and she was no longer conscious.
After realizing what he had done, and getting the whole thing out of his system, he let out one bellowing scream that vented nothing but his bottled frustrations and anger that had been pent up for weeks. He trashed the table, letting papers and files scatter everywhere in the room leaving almost no hint of the floor left. It was a fist to the wall that ended his fury, only because the pain did it for him.
"Damn that bastard Minato... I told him that we should've bagged Fox months ago... now there's no doubt that he's in cahoots with whoever this bitch's working for." He spat, clicking his teeth, before sending another slam to the wall. "Fucking hell!"
In a slight fit, he opened the door to the room. "Hey, you three get over here!" He practically commanded with his booming voice. Quickly enough, three armed LeafCorp guards appeared before him, fully geared with load bearing vests, utility belts, automatic weapons and communication pieces on their persons. "I want the three of you to guard this room and make sure that she doesn't get out. And put that bitch back on the chair, for the love of god."
"Yes, Koyama-san."
After ordering those men on what to do, he walked off the scene, irritation still evident on his face. He made his way out of the sector and upstairs, a level higher. The entire compound had been refurbished with a completely functional underground sector enough to make it a small base, which it kind of was at the moment.
Their official headquarters may be a place for the pencil pushers to do their jobs and get paid their monthly salary, but this place was where they run their field operations. Everything from undercover work, spying for intel and the similar sorts were relayed over here rather than their main HQ.
He would have liked it if that bastard Minato would've given him more authority, but he had to deal with monitoring everything that goes in and out of this damned compound. On the topside, it may look like a very large warehouse compound with pretty tight security, but it was actually a cover for LeafCorps's base of operations.
The government did not ask much because they made it clear that everything looked perfectly normal up there.
And they intend to keep it that way.
"We found something."
Naruto's eyes snapped from being listless to watchful attention when he heard Ghost One's voice exclaim quietly from the other end of the communication. He had his scope on the warehouse the Ghosts were in currently, watching for wandering guards that may stumble upon the place in the middle of their patrol.
"What is it?" Shikamaru had connected them to the same frequency, this way, it would make communication much easier for all of them.
"An audio player playing at a very low frequency... Ghost three just barely caught it playing."
Naruto narrowed his eyes.'These guys operate more complexly than I thought...'
"Very good, does it relay anything about Sunshine's current situation?"
"Wait, hold on a moment... it's taking a while for our guy to set it right to the correct frequency." Exactly eight seconds later, Ghost One replied again, "We've got something."
"Patch it through us, we'll hear it."
"Roger."
The familiar sound of audio getting clipped and repasted was heard, there was nothing but silence for several seconds, but everyone heard something after it.
"...if... you... lack... heaven... find... earth..."
Naruto could only wait for his Parabellum friends to speak since he had no clue what that was about. It was in Japanese, he knew that much.
"This code..." Ghost One sounded hopeful.
"Yeah... she's alive." Shikamaru, on the other hand, was openly relieved judging by the sigh he let out. "Ghosts, Sunshine is still alive, we have confirmation. All that's left now is to-
"Contact, door."
Naruto's sudden interruption caused the Ghosts inside the warehouse to snap into attention. From his scope, he could see a patrolling guard approaching the warehouse the Ghosts were currently in. The guard, unfortunately, was curious enough to step into the unknowingly occupied warehouse. From his spot, Naruto did what he had to do.
His finger squeezed lightly on the trigger, causing a reaction within the mechanism of the gun. A .338 Lapua Magnum was not a small bullet. In fact, it's one of the biggest calibers one could fit into a sniper rifle. Following simple logic, and physics, the bigger the bullet, the bigger the damage. But in the end, it all boiled down to the marksman's skill in using the gun.
And Naruto was one hell of a marksman.
The bullet soared the air, aerodynamics taking work and all. He took into account every variables that could affect his shot; wind, distance, height... all that was left was to wait for the impact itself to happen. And it did.
"Heart shot." His voice whispered through the open communication channel.
He cocked the cocking handle of the rifle back, before pushing it forward to load another bullet into the chamber. From his scope, he watched the result of his handy work. The guard he shot was not wearing any form of body protection, so the bullet went cleanly through the back of his chest, causing blood to burst from the exit wound. The body of the soon-to-be dead man fell down to his knees, just the usual charade before his body went limp, and when he did go limp, he was already dead.
"Target neutralized." The blonde's voiced droned monotonously.
"...kill confirmed." Ghost One's voice echoed through the earpiece. Naruto saw the Ghosts dragging the corpse away, hiding them behind an unused shipping container. "This will be the only kill we make, Kilo."
"...noted."
"Ghosts? How's the situation?"
"Everything is clear.. one hostile neutralized. We're going to trace Sunshine's emergency locator now."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "You have chips installed into your men?"
"We do. But it's all conditional, I assure you..." Shikamaru said.
Naruto shook his head, as if Shikamaru could see him. "No, what I meant was, why not do that from the beginning?"
"We can't. If we do that, we're afraid that LeafCorp will find out about it. The tech we're using is one of the older stuffs, could easily be picked up with normal day to day electronics... if we activated Sunshine's locator before confirming her presence, then we'll risk of being traced back."
LeafCorp was certainly capable of doing that... trust him, he had seen crazier things on the field. Opening car doors via remote control satellite, tapping into phone lines using SIGINT, hijacking a commercial plane's auto-pilot remotely... now those were sci-fi, except for that last one, that's just plain scary.
Or should he say... plane scary?
Naruto saw the Ghosts disappearing behind a small building. The building was two stories tall, light up and looked like a command post if the guards patrolling the perimeter were any indicator.
"Ghost be advised, I have zero visuals on you."
"Copy that, Ghost is following the signal into the building."
Hearing that, Naruto felt something. Something uncomfortable. Call him paranoid or something but that was too easy. They couldn't have possibly locked her up in a measly building like that, right? There had got to be something...
Taking his eyes from the scope of his rifle, Naruto said to himself,
"I need higher ground."
"Mister Chairman sir, how are you over there?"
The interior of his office had not changed much, aside from the additional projector machine peeking out from a mechanism installed on the ceiling. The lighting was minimized, allowing only the dimmest of line to shine so that the live feed could be projected clearly on the wall-screen. He stood in front of his desk, his height barely tall enough to hinder the projection, it could if his hair was any spikier and longer.
The projected feed showed nothing aside from a blank, black screen with a featureless avatar. The words 'sound only' were shown below the avatar in brackets.
"Minato... I thought we agreed on a more... reasonable time?" An older, gruffer and clearly annoyed voice was heard speaking through the speakers placed strategically around the room. "Dubai is not New York, son."
Minato laughed, his hand rubbing the back of his head in a sheepish manner. "My apologies, Chairman, it seems that matters here have proceeded far quicker than I expected." His eyes glazed over the digital clock display on the corner of the screen.
01:45.
Or 8:45 in Dubai.
'Old man needs his sleep...' Minato's thought was only for his knowledge.
"Is that so? Very well, I'll excuse it for now."
"Thank you, Chairman, sir." The blonde said in a grateful and thankful manner. "It's regarding Kakashi, sir."
"Hatake? What about him? I thought that everything regarding that man would take at least three more months to dig out?"
"Not quite, sir. We have word about an activity in the South East of Asia that involved the kidnapping of one of their countries' upper echelons member."
"And you think that Hatake is involved how?"
Minato sucked in air. "The person kidnapped was one of LeafCorp's few contacts in the South East of Asia, sir." The blonde haired Branch Director momentarily pulled out three pronged dagger-like knife from his suit's inner pocket. He proceeded to play around with the dagger, twirling it by the O-ring and such.
"His name is Reza Ferdinand, he works... or worked in the Indonesian Ministry of Defense and was our informant within the force. His disappearance was suspicious because it was done exactly a week before our planned meeting with the Indonesians. I have looked at the police reports myself and everything reeked of Kakashi's handiwork."
"...I trust that you have mobilized men for investigation?" the question came delayed, but the importance was there.
"Of course." He threw the dagger into the air, turning his body ninety degree to the right, before he caught the dagger by the ring using the same pointer finger he used to spin it. "I have sent operatives to sniff for Kakashi's whereabouts... they'll search the entire country for clues. I'll even have them search the entire S.E.A area if it's necessary."
"Good. Though I hope that you have the necessary resources planned and ready."
"Certainly." Minato smiled, his pearly whites showing despite no one being there to see it.
"This news will change our involvement in Asia, Minato. If Kakashi is allowed time and room, he'll be leaving behind death traps for our men to step on, please be careful on handling him. The last thing I want is chaos in those countries, which we have little to no influence at, and have us discovered."
"Of course, sir."
"...is that all for tonight, Minato?"
He opened his mouth.
"There is... one more thing, sir."
"What is it?"
"...it's about Kakashi's protege."
"Him? What about him?"
"...it seems that he's made a few friends with the locals here." His lips was as thin as paper. "For now, they are not a huge threat. But if allowed more time..."
"You know what to do, Minato. I leave Japan into your capable hands."
"...yes, of course."
The projector turned off, rising back up to its storage compartment inside the ceiling. The lights returned, lighting up the room once more, bringing visibility back seeing as how it was pitch black outside. The blonde man released a long sigh, as he walked to his chair. Having pocketed the knife back inside his coat, he took a seat on the leather swivel chair with his back fully resting on the back rest.
His eyes were fixed to the ceiling, but staring at nothing in particular. He had been in this business for a very long time... longer than Kakashi himself. But... no matter how long it had been, he could never get used to the things he deal with on the daily. The managerial tasks and politics he could handle. But when things went haywire like Kakashi and Naruto's case? That's when he started hitting the pills.
Especially Naruto.
He was Kakashi's protege, his student and only pupil. He inherited Kakashi's skills, knowledge and even personality to some degree. Minato was no stranger to seeing children taking up arms; he'd seen one too many, but when they took Naruto into the company, he knew that something was different with that boy.
He had never seen someone so quick to learn. LeafCorp tried doing the mentorship approach to training, but all of Kakashi's previous students, who were around Minato's age, either gave up or broke before they could even be considered mission ready. But, one day, a kid no older than six or seven managed to keep up with the man himself.
It was horrifying to watch, honestly.
Military tradition always implement a 'make or break' kind of mindset into the recruits' mind. Either they become skilled soldiers, or broken failures. If that's the case, then the kid known as Naruto was a skilled soldier.
At an age countable only with his two hands, he'd seen the boy charged through the bloodiest of battlefields that have broke men three times the boy's age. The way he fought... the way he decimated enemy fighters... was systematic to say the least; exactly like Kakashi. Naruto dispatched his foes quickly without second thoughts and only did necessary things. He, along with his master, rarely called for back up and always chose to act first before the rest.
Years ago when they were still very active in the Middle East, months after Naruto's mentorship with Kakashi began, a bloody battle happened between LeafCorp operatives and the local insurgent forces. They weren't Taliban or any part of radical religious organization, but their desire to kill those who weren't them was as clear as crystal.
The insurgents had attacked LeafCorp's many operational bases in the area and he was there supervising activities. One day, the base he was on was attacked by numerous insurgents. They were armed with weapons too advanced for them and maybe some they managed to scour from the bases they destroyed. Bottom line was, Minato felt like he was going to die that very day. Defenses were crumbling and LeafCorp's air group was not there to give air support. Reinforcements could not mobilize in time and, honestly speaking, he was ready to die there and then.
But from the east, a lone heli flew right into the assault, dropping off two men, one shorter than the other. The chopper didn't even landed, they basically jumped off the damned bird while it was ten feet in the air.
And the moment they touched the desert sand, the battle changed.
To Minato, it was like watching two identical clones mowing a field of grass, only the grass was enemy soldiers.
Every shot fired caused collateral damage that could only be done by a group of at least five regular men or so.
They turned armored vehicles into useless heeps of junk.
And for every enemy Kakashi fell, more were fell by Naruto.
Needless to say, the insurgent forces were decimated; none were left alive. Being the only superior officer... alive during that time, those two reported back to him. Kakashi apologized for being late, making up an excuse about having to help a LeafCorp freighter ship fend off pirates armed with a Little Bird and rocket launchers while Naruto was quiet through the whole thing.
Cleaning up was easy, and before he knew it, LeafCorp had already made a firm standing in the Middle East. Minato watched as Kakashi trained the smaller blonde in the scorching heat of the desert, put the kid through things that could rival any spec ops training and things got harder by the day after.
Naruto was a natural in the desert. It was as if he was in his 'element'. If he recalled correctly, even Kakashi himself said the kid knew more than him when it comes to desert warfare.
Then when they brought him to Siberia, things only got bloodier. And before they knew it, he was already leading a squad of his own and considered to be the second deadliest man alive on earth next to Kakashi.
Funny thing was, he wasn't even a man yet during that time.
"I need to stop reminiscing about these things..." Minato pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling pain aching on his head.
BEEP BEEP
The locally made intercom receiver sitting on the middle edge corner of his desk went off, making beeping noises which he found insufferable and annoying.
Weakly, his finger pressed the flashing red button in the intercom.
"Yes?" his voice called out, reflecting the way he pushed the button.
"Sir, they've made their move."
"...execute plan E."
"Roger that, sir."
In a lazy but efficient manner, Minato swiveled his chair so that he could face the window behind him, taking on the view of the pitch dark night lighted up by the tall and gleaming skyscrapers of Chiba.
"Let's see how you deal with domestic adversity, Naruto-kun." Using his other hand, he reached into his pants' pocket, pulling out a thin smartphone.
Pressing quick dial, he began engaging in a phone call.
"Koyama, bring her out... don't question me, Koyama. It's time for the plan. Take her up topside and make sure that everything's in place... no, stay away from Fox, we still have plans for him... I do not tolerate insubordination, Koyama."
His tone gradually showed a threatening edge as the conversation was going on, however, his feature remained neutral.
"I'll leave everything in your care over there, Koyama. And remember, no compromise."
With a tap of the screen, the conversation ended just like that.
"CP, we've yet to find Sunshine despite following her chip's signal."
Shikamaru did not reply instantly, as a hum could be heard from the discreet line. "Where is your exact position, Ghost?"
"We're in a building adjacent to the warehouses. We've tracked Sunshine's locator signal all the way inside, but we're not seeing anyone or anything but empty office rooms."
"Suspicious. Ghosts, are you sure that the signal's from over there?"
"Positive CP."
Throughout all this time, Naruto had been quiet. He was overseeing the rest of the activities throughout the compound. So far, no sudden shift in patrol from the guards. No vehicles coming in or going out of the compound. Everything seemed untouched, almost as if they did not know that they were there. He hovered his vision over to the building that the Ghosts entered and he noticed that the lights were on. Which made it even more suspicious, naturally.
Literally no one had been there or nearby for the past long minutes. Not even patrol. This all was giving him a bad vibe... a red herring bad kind of vibe.
"CP, this is Ghost." Naruto perked up.
"Come in, Ghost."
"We've found something in one of the rooms... Ghost Three thought it looked important and insisted on checking it out." From their place, both Naruto and Shikamaru were metaphorically at the edge of their seats.
"What is it?" asked Shikamaru.
"It's a-"
It was very sudden. He could not even anticipate it, but the thought of something bad happening did occur before. He was sure that Shikamaru suspected something too; he must've. What they both didn't expect, however, was for the entire dang building to explode. Windows were blast open from the inside, bringing out sharpnel of glass and debris outside. It took no more than mere seconds for the small office building to collapse; bringing up dust into the air.
LeafCorp operatives scattered throughout the compound were already bustling towards the incident. Naruto did not know whether they knew that was supposed to happen or what, but he knew that he had to do soemthing.
"Ghosts? Ghosts! Do you read me?!"
"Shikamaru, they exploded the building." Naruto spoke through the comms, while eyes fixed to his scope. "We lost Ghosts."
"Dammit! Extract ASAP, Naruto. We can't lose you."
"What about Sunshine?" His crosshairs were fixed to the leg of a LeafCorp operative posted nearby the wreck, currently shouting orders for his subordinates to follow.
"...shit, you're more important. We'll do something about it tomorrow, for no-"
"Hold it."
His switched his sights, aimed at something else entirely.
Peerless, long black hair glistened underneath the moonlight. His eyes might be playing tricks on him, so he double checked to make sure that that was not the case. After making sure, he was now certain that they were not playing tricks on him. Behind warehouse three, was a female figure dressed in a messy office attire, and her state of clothing was what drew Naruto's attention.
She was making hasty peeks behind the corner of the warehouse, amateurly waiting and watching with fear of being caught.
In his trance of discovering the a flower in a midst of chaos, he broke the glass of silence.
"CP, is Sunshine a black haired female?"
"Yes! You found her? How?"
"I see her." He kept her under his sight. "I'll watch over her, CP, she's trying to make an escape."
"Do it! I'll dispatch the pick up crew at our exfil point! You'll need to make sure that Sunshine finds the safest and quickest way as soon as possible, cops will be swarming the place very soon!"
That was the moment Naruto tuned out Shikamaru's orders. He breathed in, releasing the breath afterwards. He aimed his sights over to his objective, finger hovering around the trigger. He muttered,
"...I ain't no guardian angel... so you better know what you're doing." (2)
"Haa... haa... I don't know what I'm doing..."
She did not know what happened. Being bound to a chair with her entire body hurting all over tend to make people miss all the important thing. Like, why were the guards suddenly running or why was there a siren going off? She did not eve know how she managed to escape. Perhaps her 'questioner's' treatment on her caused the rope to go loose at some point...
Either way, that was no longer important.
She got her chance; and she had better use it well. Now.
"Uuu... I should have taken Asuma-taichou's field awareness training more seriously..." despite not cursing, she showed her frustration rather visibly. It was obvious, really.
The ragged clothing, looks and just overall appearance in general screamed of plight. Whatever faint hint of makeup she wore was no longer visible, leaving behind messy aftermaths that would even irk the most simple of women. She ditched her high heels the moment they dragged her to that room; she should not have worn them tonight.
Despite the chaotic situation around her, she soldiered through the mass confusion. She bravely crossed over to the warehouse opposite of her, the same one where she dropped her distress call beacon (it was more like a micro-chip) and the place where they apprehended her.
It was supposed to be an easy mission.
She were to infiltrate the compound as a government's inspection officer. They had everything set up. The paperwork, countermeasures for being exposed, alibis... everything, but due to a small and very minor mistake from her, the whole plan was ruined.
"Check the perimeter! And tell the others to proceed as planned!" A squad of guards ran past the road before her; thankfully, she was outside of their focus and the situation helped her by a lot. Once they were gone, she moved quickly to change location, advancing at one direction, taking in the routes with most covers.
'Plan? They knew this would happen?!' She felt her stomach sink in. 'Oh no... the organization...!'
In the midst of her running and worrying, she was clumsy and careless enough to not look around her surrounding. The sound of her bare feet hitting the damp ground attracted the attention of a guard who was nearby scouting the perimeter.
"Who's there!?" He twisted his body, a handgun in his hands. Said gun was now pointed at the escapee, who had a 'deer on headlights' dilemma brought down upon her. "You're the damn spy we caught! How did you escape?!"
Without even waiting for her to answer, he rushed forward to apprehend her. She could not move, for she knew that bullets move faster than humans do.
This was it, she thought to herself. She was going to get captured again. With both hands in the air, she could not do anything as the man moved to arrest her. On a normal day, she could deal with an offender; but after what she had been through, she lacked both the will and stamina needed to fight back.
"Don't move an inch you spying bi-GAAAH!"
About two feet before her, the man dropped to the ground; blood gushing out of his legs.
"Leg shot confirmed."
"GAAAAH! W...Wha...?! W-Who...?"
Then, his chest erupted sideways, as if a miniature bomb was detonated from within his body.
"Heart shot confirmed."
And as if that was not enough, his head, finally, exploded.
"Head shot. Confirmed."
The man's... corpse fell limp to the ground, bleeding all over. The ground was like a pond made of blood... everything was red and chunks of flesh and tissue matter were scattered all around. She was frozen stiff, as if she was still being held at gun point. Her body went cold and she could not look at anything else other than the mess in front of her. She saw the way his face contort from anger and surprise into hellish pain and then the brutal end he had received!
Her stiff body shivered, but at the same time, she still could not move.
"Hey! I heard sounds from over there, check that out!"
The screaming of orders was what gave life back to her paralyzed limbs. She limped forward, clumsily avoiding the aftermath left behind by her guardian angel, before running straight on, far away from everything behind her.
'W-Who...?! D-Did HQ sent backup?!' She ran as fast as her feet could carry her, stopping carefully when she thought that she was about to stumble into unwanted company.
That was definitely a sniper fire. No mistakes. The aftermath of those shots were devastating.
'Bullets must be a .338... no mistake.' Now determined after knowing that she had sniper support, she quickened her pace. From where she was at, she could see the compound's wall. But she was not anywhere near an exit and it seemed that she was in a busier section of the compound, judging by the sound of people shouting. Then, she heard something.
"Police sirens..." She mentally cursed. Now she needed to escape. She could not afford to be caught in any of this, much less here.
Peeking, she had her form stuck behind a park Toyota Hilux; one of the vehicles used to transport materials. From where she was at, the front entrance was closer, but that was not an option.
"The walls looked low enough for me too climb..." with a strategy in mind, she began to move. Carefully, she made her way to the wall. She had no idea at which cardinal direction she was in, but as long as she could find something to help her climb the wall, she should be able to escape to the streets outside.
"C'mon... c'mon... yes this might work...!"
A trolley filled with empty wooden crates was placed next to a white LeafCorp van. From that point, she let logic do its work. Carefully removing the first two crates on the trolley, she used them to aid her climb on top of the van. With slight struggling, she managed to get on the van.
"Hey! There she is!"
"Where?!"
"Over there! On top of that van!"
"Don't let her get away!"
"Shit!" She cursed, dropping flat on the roof of the van. 'Someone...! Please!'
He saw at least five LeafCorp guards and they were less then sixty meters from Sunshine.
"Shit." Despite cursing, he quickly acted.
Ten rounds inside his magazine, he had twice the bullets necessary to drop down his ally's offenders. But he could only shoot three of them before the rest scamper off to find cover and retaliate. He should not worry about them shooting her, since they were not armed with long ranged weapons, but he still needed to make his shot count.
So, he began with the first. He squeezed the trigger, letting his gun went off, launching a bullet at high velocity. The guy at the other end of his scope had a portion of his shoulder blasted off, effectively putting him down. In the same breath, he set off the second person, this time hitting him square on the chest. The bullet ripped through him, spraying blood on the ground. Then the final one was a little bit more anticlimactic, with how it landed in the same manner as the person before.
"Haaah...!" He released the breath he hold after making those three consecutive shots. Like he predicted, the remaining two scampered off to cover but the time he had bought for the lady was used wisely, as she was already jumping over the wall.
"Shikamaru! Sunshine's out of the compound!" Naruto made the call as soon as he saw her land on the streets outside. Thankfully, the police were crowding the front and back entrance of the compound.
"Really?! Where is she heading?!"
"She's heading towards the alley." He squinted his eyes. "Looks like she's trying to make it towards the city."
"Great! We'll have our team search around for her later. Sunshine's smart, she'll find a way to contact us while staying out of trouble! Now get your ass out of there, Kilo!"
Naruto's focus was not applied to Shikamaru's order. His eyes were drawn to the single, speeding pick up truck driving away to the side of the road where Sunshine escaped from.
"Shit, they have a truck after her!"
"Do something, Kilo!" Shikamaru's voice screamed through his earpiece.
But Shikamaru did not need to scream, because he was already on it. With his good eye fixed to the scope, he watched as the truck's speed climbed. He had his scope sighted on the general area of the driver's window, then he pulled the trigger. From his spot, he watched as the truck swerve and screeched out of control, hitting a curb, before tumbling on the walkway, creating one hell of a mess for the street cleaners to clean later today. Smoke started to appear from within the hood of the truck; the authorities were definitely going to be there within seconds.
"...truck disabled." Naruto voiced to Shikamaru, relieved himself.
"Good work, now go. Go to the designated regroup zone."
"Alright."
He lifted his rifle, and began to pack away, leaving nothing behind as if he was never there to begin with.
This was so going to be on the news later today...
"Where is she?"
"She's in the medical ward, receiving treatment from Haruno, ma'am."
"Good."
If one was to thinks he was relieved after releasing a sigh like that, then they were right. She was relieved. What happened earlier this morning could have been way messier, but things were manageable and her people were already working on altering the media.
"She's okay, Hime, no need to look so worried."
She fought back the urge to slug her long time friend and business partner on the face, introducing him to the wall. "I just can't calm down after what had just happened this morning, Jiraiya. We lost one of our assault teams. Ghosts, to be exact."
Her friend sighed. "I know, Hime. But if we're all stressed out, then who will be there to think when shit finally gets out of hand?" He was accompanying her to the medical ward, explaining why he was tagging around. "Anyway, just cool down and keep a level head."
"I'll level your head to the ground, you oaf."
They reached the medical ward, a sizable room with enough facilities to cater to what agents encounter in the fields. A familiar form of pink hair came into view, after the two most important people of Parabellum entered the room.
"Shishou, we managed to treat her wounds." Sakura reported tot he blonde woman, who was already by Sunshine's bedside. "She was... interrogated, Shishou."
"Explains the bruises then... and there's a fracture on her nose area, judging from the swelling." Tsunade muttered, taking a good look at the younger girl. Way younger girl. "Kid, talk to me. How do you feel?"
A pair of blank... eyes open, revealing not even a single pupil or irises to be seen. But the bags underneath those eyes told of her condition, so do the bruises. "Tired... Tsunade-sama... and..."
She winced, causing Tsunade and Sakura to react.
"Don't move, you have multiple swelling on you."
Tsunade hummed, the thinking look not disappearing from her face. "How did they discover you?"
"...the locator... it..." she could not say anymore, having been holding back the pain from all the bruises inflicted upon her; she fainted.
"Sakura, stabilize her!" Tsunade practically screamed out, closing whatever distance between her and the injured girl.
"On it!"
As the two medics began to work on the girl's condition, Jiraiya watched with mirth. LeafCorp knew they were coming. Meaning that they could no longer stick to the shadows anymore. There would come a time when they would have to engage them head on.
Being deep in thought caused him a delayed reaction when the door to the medical ward opened. A tall, bearded man walked in; dressed in business attire and he was followed by a sloppily dressed teenager in a pineapple hairdo who was followed by a tall blue eyed blonde teenager.
"She's unconscious? I thought she was-"
Asuma was not able to finish his words. "She passed out seconds ago. Tough girl; she went through all of that all by herself." Jiraiya muttered, eyes fixed on the scene of two trained medics attempting to stabilize their agent's condition along with the other medical staffs.
"Ahem," the two grown men turned to Shikamaru, who was standing near the door. "Don't forget our friend over here." He nudged his head to the blonde who was standing near him.
Jiraiya managed a small, gratuitous smirk. "Fine work there. They really trained you to be the best of the best huh? Just like Kakashi."
The blonde, who had his eyes closed all this time, finally opened them. "Correction." He started. "Kakashi trained me to be the best. Not LeafCorp."
Hearing that, Jiraiya shrugged. "Still, your skills did good for today, kid." He then looked somber, gaze shifting slightly to the floor. "It's unfortunate what happened to the Ghosts... but we can't always have good things happening to us all the time." He turned to look at the bedridden girl. "She's prove of that."
Shikamaru shook his head, scratching the back of his head with one of his hand. "Well, one thing's clear for sure. We're out of backstage now. LeafCorp will be expecting us on our future assignments, and they'll be more than ready next time."
"This situation cannot be repeated again." The normally smoking man said, tone heavy. "We need to train our agents even better from now on; prepare them for the worst. Hinata's case may be the first, but it certainly won't be the last for our agents."
Naruto's left eyebrow furrowed lightly. 'Hinata... so that's her name?' (3)
After minutes of professional medical work, Tsunade returned to join the men. She wiped a bead of sweat threatening to crash down one of her eyebrows with the sleeve of her blazer.
"She's okay... still unconscious, but okay." The woman stated. "The adrenaline must've went off and all the pain took one heck of a toll on her body." She sighed, before casting a look at her longtime friend. "Jiraiya, Hinata mentioned something about her locator being the reason she got made in there. Any conclusions why?"
"I don't know Hime." The kabuki-style man answered with nothing but clueless honesty. "Those things shouldn't be that easy to discover, despite being old tech-wise." The man directed his focus to the other blonde. "Kid, does LeafCorp posses any countermeasures for signal interference?"
Naruto shook his head as soon as he could. "None that I knew off. LeafCorp may be strict when it comes to security. But something like that would only interfere with some of the tech kept at our headquarters or bases." He then rolled his shoulders. "I don't know about now. Maybe they made a new set of doctrine after me and Master Kakashi left."
"That could be a possibility." Shikamaru drawled, stifling a huge yawn. "So that means our work is only gonna get harder from this point onwards. They know we're coming, that dwindles down our element of surprise."
"Not quite." Everyone talking before turned to Asuma. The chain smoker was scratching his chin, appearing in deep thought. "They won't know when or where we'll strike. That means we'll just have to find at the right place and time."
"Assuming they aren't prepared all the time?" Shikamaru asked, playing devil's advocate.
"Still worth the shot, Shikamaru. At this point, we gotta make sure that every cut we make is a deep one. One that'll leave one hell of a mark."
Tsunade crossed her arms, looking like she was about to issue one last order. "It's almost daylight and the rest of us are busy with covering our tracks after what happened this morning. If LeafCorp's smart, they'd make a believable cover story to mask out the ongoing police investigation. So all that we can do is plan out our next move."
She paused, letting the words sink in, before continuing. "Shikamaru, Naruto." Both boys perked up and being mentioned. "I trust that your assignment on the Yukinoshita heiress was still ongoing?" She saw both boys nod. "Good. Make sure that you keep me updated about this one, Shikamaru. And Naruto, try not to get attached to anyone."
All she received was a glare, nothing more.
"Now, you're all dismissed." Parabellum's acting Director said. "Sakura, I want you to stay and monitor Hinata's condition. Inform me when she's awake."
"Yes, Shishou!"
What happened earlier today could be seen as a declaration of war. With how dangerous the streets of Tokyo already are due to organized crime group and the Ninkyo Dantai, Tsunade really hoped that the upper echelons would send more help from this point onwards.
"Whoa, Naruto, you look totes terrible today! What happened?!"
He was tempted to chronologically recite the events that transpired this early morning to his pink haired classmate and clubmate, but his sense of reason prevented such stupidity from occurring. He knew that Yui was an expressive person, but did she have to say it out loud in the middle of class just before homeroom?
And, yes, she was correct, he looked terrible.
The bag underneath his eyes was a dead giveaway of his lack of sleep. It made his like all squinty and narrow, but despite it all, he still managed to keep himself awake.
Until lunch, at least.
"...not enough sleep." was the boy's only coherent reply. Anything more would be impossible, at least without yawning loudly and looking totally rude.
"Again?" the girl wondered. "If you really have problems sleeping, you should go see a doctor. Mama told me that it might inso... insomi... inso-"
"Insomnia." finished the blonde in a deadpanned manner.
"Yeah! That's the word! You might be having insomnia."
Intelligence and knowledge she might be lacking, but her concern was definitely present. Stretching his left arm sideways, Naruto shook his head. "Don't worry. This was all self inflicted... I don't have insomnia."
"Hm, self inflicted?"
"I was filling out paperwork." Naruto replied with perfect timing, making his words sound natural. "Since I'm an international student and all and my guardian is currently out of the country, I had to do them all by myself."
A look of understanding crossed Yui's face, her mouth forming an 'O'. "I see... j-just be sure to sleep properly, okay?" For some reason, she looked away, her hand cupping the lower part of her mouth.
Clueless, the blonde could only shrug his shoulders.
Class started like any other day. Homeroom was quick and brief, since their homeroom teacher got nothing important to say to them – assuming that woman even know what to say in the first place – and by the time lunch started, Naruto was already in the club room.
As usual, he was not alone when he reached the club room. Yukino was already there inside, busy with the tea brewer as he entered the room. Of course, their loudest member was not here yet because she had to tend to her circle of friends first; but like any other day, she would eventually come sooner or later.
"Good evening."
He could not reply to her greeting straight away, as he immediately plopped his upper body on the table before him as soon as he sat on his chair.
"Rough morning?" intoned the black haired club president, placing down a warm mug of freshly brewed tea in front of him for him to drink.
"You can say that." was his curt reply. Smelling the pleasant aroma of tea leaves near his vicinity, he raised his body and proceeded to grab a hold of the mug, taking small sips from it.
Tea helped in situations like this.
It's not too strong as coffee, but it was enough to keep him awake.
"Right. I take it that you like your tea?"
He nodded his head immediately. "Yes, I like it very much. It certainly helps me now."
He heard her giggle, hugging the tray she used to place the mugs on whenever she would serve tea. "I can see that."
The peaceful atmosphere was broken when the sliding door of the room was roughly opened. Both students' eyes were naturally drawn to the source of the disruption, but a pink haired girl with a yellow backpack was all they see.
"Yahallo!"
"Yuigahama-san, please knock." chided Yukino to the much, much louder girl.
"Ehehe... sorry about that, Yukinon." She had the decency to look sheepish as she walked into the room, after closing the door behind her. "Anyway, did you guys see the news this morning?"
Naruto felt himself getting less sleepy suddenly.
Placing a warm mug of tea on the table for Yui, Yukino replied, "Yes I did. It was surprising. An incident at a newly operated warehouse compound. It's not that far away from our school too."
"They say that it was a gas explosion." Yui said, taking her seat.
Gas explosion? That was the best they could've gone with?
"Indeed. It's worrying that incidents like this occurred, especially when the cause was something that could happen in a regular home." Yukino touched her chin, her head making that slight tilt whenever she was about to enter thinking mode. "I wonder what did they store in there..."
"Yeah..." Yui noticed the lack of response coming from the male of the group, causing her to focus on him. "So, did you see the news today, Naruto?"
The blonde's reply was delayed by several seconds. "Didn't see the news this morning... but some guys were talking about it on the lockers earlier." He did overhear two people talking about it on the way here.
Club activities pretty much went on like usual. And by that, he meant that Yui was running her mouth off to Yukinoshita who was stuck hearing everything she had to say. While the girls bond, he was busy looking things up in his laptop. He knew LeafCorp, which was why he wasn't going to read in too deep about them at the moment; he would let Parabellum deal with that. He was, however, searching an old privately kept database for anything related to his mentor.
Kakashi was a cryptic man. But his messages were even more cryptic. He was reading through past conversations that they had over e-mail (most of them were kept in a secured file inside his laptop) for clues. This was not reliable, since he could just be making a big deal of something minor, but anything goes at this point.
Before he knew it, club ended. He was about to pack and leave for the day, but their club president had other plans for today.
"Why don't we all go out and eat somewhere for today?"
"Oh! Great idea, Yukinon! There's this doughnut place that's pretty popular recently..."
Sighing, it seemed that he would have to sleep late again tonight. However he only had himself to blame, since he agreed to come with them. But what's the worse could happen? They were just going to get some doughnut, coffee and maybe help Yui review some (read:all) school works she did not get.
The trio made their way to the place Yui spoke of. Yui and Yukino were in front, chatting – with Yui doing most of the talking – while walking. The place was not far, as it was located in the shopping district a few blocks away from the school. He did not try to come to establishments like cafes or anything like that too much, since that would run him the risk of encountering unwanted company.
Yeah, eating with people certainly sounded better than eating alone in an empty house.
On their way there, they stopped by the edge of a curb, with a red light stopping all pedestrians from crossing as the road was heavy with incoming traffic. On the other side of the road, a group of middle school girls were also waiting for the light to turn green. It was not that hard to notice them, seeing as they were making a lot of noise.
They were laughing, chattering and giggling away as if they own the rights to the pavement they were on. There were around... five, seven girls? But out of all of them, one stood out the most. The one standing on the far right corner, near the edge of the curb carrying the most bags. Closer inspection would show that none of the seven girls were carrying any bags at all and that one girl was carrying eight bags in total.
Despite knowing what he was witnessing, Naruto kept silent. He watched the scene with listless eyes, as usual.
Honestly speaking, he could not really relate to the scene at all, seeing as he had never experienced something like that. But Yukino and Yui... their reaction was far more visible.
"Yukinon... she..."
"I know, Yuigahama-san." The way the words escaped Yukino's mouth surprised Naruto a little bit. Gone was the gentleness that was usually accompanied with witty remarks. She was angry, but she did not explode. Like a winter being contained inside a jar.
From where they were standing, they watched as one of the girls approached the lonesome girl, the pure definition of evil and wickedness plastered on her face as the rest of her troupe shared similar expressions. She approached her from behind, obviously making herself discreet by tip-toeing, before 'accidentally' bumping into her.
Let it be known that the girl was carrying quite a number of weight on her person, making her quite heavy. The bump was not a soft one, in fact, one might call it a straight out shove.
The light for pedestrian crossing was still red, which means that vehicles were still present on the road.
What happened next was simple physics. The girl carrying all those heavy bags fell to the road, fast.
Everyone watching, including the other middle school girls, had their heart at the edge of their tongue when they hear the loud, blaring horns of a large semi approaching from the road.
To the girl, she saw her life flashed before her very eyes. She could not recall anything worth recalling. All she saw were unwanted memories that caused her nothing but hardships.
To the bystanders, they were about to see a young girl get crushed by and incoming semi truck.
But for one blonde haired foreigner, he was already halfway across the street.
He practically leaped out of his earlier spot, dropping his bag. His legs covered great distances at the expense of the material of his pants. He reached out both hands, aimed towards the girl who was kneeling helplessly in the middle of the road. With all his strength, he wrapped his arms around the smaller girl and pushed the ground with his legs muscle, launching both himself and the girl away from harm's way. He managed to twist his body in mid-air, causing the both of them to skid and roll to the other side of the road.
"NARUTO!"
"NARUTO-KUN!"
He felt a very familiar sensation, heck, forget the pain, even the level of stupidity he felt was the same as back then!
He raised his head, arms still wrapped around the girl. The semi stopped, but the light already turned green. He saw two familiar form rushing towards him from the other side of the road, but the stinging sensation on the back of his head was making things harder for him.
"Ow, ow, ow... I can't believe this happened again..." he muttered. He seemed to have forgotten that he was not alone, because literally within his arms, was the girl he just rescued. "Are you okay?" He switched the way he presented himself, kneeling on one knee, with the girl in front of him. He felt something warm trickle down his forehead.
"Crap... better not stain my uniform..."
Komachi was confused. Why the hell was this guy complaining about staining his uniform after pulling a stunt like that?
"Naruto! Are you okay?!"
She saw a blur of pink and yellow rushing to the boy's side, she watched as the girl knelt down to the boy's level, examining his condition.
"Naruto-kun, I'm calling an amublance!"
To her right was another girl, this time, a true Japanese beauty with a black hair. She had her phone next to her ear, and it did not take long for her to request an ambulance.
She saw her friends were giving her fearful looks. Either they were afraid of what just happened or they were concerned about the amount of trouble they were seriously in now, she did not know.
"I'm fine, Yui." The blonde teen muttered, supporting his hand against the cement pavement to help him stand on his two feet.
"Y-Y-You're bleeding... no... t-this is..." To Komachi, the pink haired lady looked like she was about to have a nervous break down. Heck, she was bawling her eyes out already. "No... not again...!"
The blonde merely sighed, still with red liquid dripping from his head area. "I'm fine." He clasped both hands on the pink haired girl's shoulders. "See?" Then, he turned to look at her. "And she's fine too... right?"
Realizing that he was inquiring her, Komachi was snapped away from her confusion. "U-Uhm! Y-Yeah, I'm fine..." seeing him with blood still dripping from the back of his head made her worry. "B-But are you sure you're fine?"
He made a dry chuckle, one that emphasized the whisker-like markings on his cheeks. "Believe it... this wasn't the first time something like this happened to me..." Komachi saw his eyes subtly wander to the pink haired girl who... was now hugging him like a koala to a tree. "Hey, Yui, let me go, please, this is uncomfortable..."
"...yes... the street near the shopping district." it seemed that the other girl was done with the phone call. "Seriously! The emergency service these days... are you okay, Naruto-kun? You're still bleeding from your head, do you feel light headed?" Komachi could sense the worry in her words too. It wasn't as unrestrained as the pink haired girl's, but the way she immediately reached out to back of his head definitely proved otherwise.
"I'm fine." He said for like... the fourth time already? "And the ambulance wasn't necessary..."
"Nonsense." The black haired girl shouted in a contained voice. "You're hurt; bleeding. You need medical attention immediately. Something like that could cause an infection, contributing to more..."
"I'm fine." That was the fifth time now. "But..." he trailed off, obviously cluing to the girl who was clinging onto him as if her whole life depended on it. "Yeeeah, I could use some help with this."
Sighing, the black haired girl walked over, tapping the other girl on the shoulder. "Yuigahama-san, please let go of Naruto-kun. He needs to sit down."
But the girl wouldn't budge. Komachi watched in silent.
"Are ya' kids 'erkay o'er there?!" Their eyes, sans Yui, turned to the newcomer. A middle aged men dressed in an attire that practically screamed of his profession as a truck driver, made his way to them. Looking at the man, one could understand why he was sweating bullets. He nearly hit someone, after all.
"It's alright, sir." The bleeding blonde said to the truck driver, who was surprised that a foreigner could speak Japanese... if the widening of his eyes were any indication.
"'ah see... t'ank God... I thought 'mah job w's o'er..."
While the man was acting completely relieved that he was not about to lose his job, the injured blonde attempted to pry off the girl who was stuck to his body.
"Yui, let go, please..." he was uncomfortable, obviously. Komachi could see it on his face. "I need to treat my wounds..." his eyes wandered to the other side of the road. "Yukino-san, could you please retrieve my bag for me? I have a first aid kit inside..."
"Of course." while she ran off to retrieve his bag, he managed to get the pink haired girl to let go of him, though not completely.
He sat on the ground, and Komachi watched as the pink haired girl was still holding on to the sleeve of his blazer. Sniffing sounds were heard, and it took Komachi less than a second to figure out that it was the girl.
"Why are you crying, Yui?"
Komachi blinked. Did she hear him correctly?
"I... I... thought..." she hiccuped. "...that... y-you're..."
She saw no reaction coming from him! Why? His girlfriend was crying after seeing him get hurt for pulling a stunt – which did save her life – like that. Wasn't that obvious to him!?
"This... was careless of me." He admitted. "I could've made a safer landing, but I had to be careful of not hitting the other girls standing nearby."
Komachi was livid now. He was thinking about them? They almost killed her! And of course, they were not here anymore! Great!
"...j-j-just... don't... ever..." her voice was drowned in her tears; she was struggling to let the words out. "...ever..."
"Naruto-kun, I have your bag." Komachi made space for the black haired girl to join her friends. She watched as the blonde expertly treated his own injuries, applying alcohol swabs on the necessary locations. He offered her the same, but she told him that she wasn't injured.
Not long alter, the paramedics arrived. But seeing as the situation was already controlled, they had no choice but to return. Of course, she and the boy who saved her had to make a full report at the police station later. The two girls with the blonde boy were willing to act as witnesses.
Now all patched up, with a roll of gauze wrapped around his head, the blonde boy looked as good as new, despite the slight physical alteration.
"I-I'm sorry... I-I was careless and..." She was about to apologize, but someone stopped her.
It was the black haired Onee-san.
"Don't apologize." She said firmly, almost making her flinch. "We saw what happened. Those other girls were to blame."
Seeing where the topic of conversation was heading, Komachi felt uncomfortable. "N-No... it was my fau-"
"Hey, kid!" The outburst came from the pink haired girl who was in tears moments ago. "Y-You obviously got pushed by one of those girls! It's not your fault! Don't say that it's your fault... it isn't and don't you dare... blame yourself!"
Her surprise was shared by both the blonde Onii-san and the black haired Onee-san. This was their first time seeing the pink haired girl explode like this.
With eyes still teary and red from her earlier sobbing, she was clutching on Komachi's shoulders, eyes looking straight into her own as if she was daring her to say that it was fault again.
Overwhelmed, Komachi could not say anything.
Naruto watched as Yui exploded into a verbal fit in front of them. This was the first time he saw her like this. It was... shocking to him, to say the least. Seeing as things were beginning to clear now that everything was resolved, he felt the need to take the scene elsewhere.
"Hey."
The girl he saved looked up.
"Why don't you join us for doughnuts."
It was not a question... and she had no reason to reject.
"Yeah... sure."
So, she might as well accept.
Huh, I'm still alive after all.
First of all, sorry for the lack of important updates. I know I've been releasing snippets but I doubt that they are enough to sate your literature hunger. I'll begin dividing this A/N to parts so that explaining things would be easier.
Absence: I've been preparing for my transfer to further my studies in a different country from the one I'm from. This meant that I had to meet people, attend foundations and all of that jazz that consumed my writing time. It was a hellish experience, now, I'm just glad that lessons already started, and they gave me this month's schedule, allowing me to fit in time for writing whenever I have free time.
Progress: As you can see, this story's progress is kind'a slow. We're no where even half the first season, and seeing as how I will completely butcher canon for this particular story, I cannot promise quick progress as I have A LOT of things that I just wanna fit into this story. This means that you will see a lot of non-canon scenes and chapters, like this one. I'm sure that this will be a major turn off for most of you, so I'm expecting those views/reads to drop any time soon.
Future of my fics: All I can say is that I will still be writing fanfiction. Maybe there'll be constant switches between this and Immortal, but I will still be writing stories and posting them here. As for older stories, I cannot say anything about them now, seeing as I have lost most of my muse for anything other than my NarutoXOregairu stories.
Updates: I can't promise a scheduled updates, despite saying that I'll try to fit writing in my free time. The situation in my studies is really putting me at tight spot. International students have to struggle more than local students over here. To give you an example, let me tell that there was this part of my transfer where I had spend an entire day waiting for them to give me the clear for my student's passport. And even now, the academy's administration's still calling me to the office to deal with administration stuffs!
So, to summarize, I've been very busy.
But we all know that that's not really a reason.
So, until then.
1: I really like the look of this gun. And, uh, it's far more believable to have this rather than something like an, I don't know, M6 "Lynx" Gepárd anti-material sniper rifle?
2: I was listening to No Guardian Angel by when writing this.
3: Cookies to everyone who can figure out why I chose Sunshine as Hinata's code name.