Chapter 31: A Powerful Shinobi! Third Hokage Forever!
It was raining, but not a pounding, relentless rain. Instead it was gentle and even the stormy gray clouds above seemed gentle as they floated past. Konoha was grieving the day after the attack and the weather matched their grief as everyone gathered at the Third Hokage's gravesite to drop lilies.
We watched from atop a building, the rain making our hair stick to our faces, a somber silence between us all as we watched a line form as one by one people lowered lilies onto the Hokage's coffin.
"Who do you think the next Hokage is gonna be?" Kyoske asked and I elbowed him right in the ribs which made him cough.
"Wha-what was that for?!" He asked.
"It's too early for talk like that!" I spat.
"It will probably be Jiraiya." Hideki said and I swung around to shoot him a look.
"Probably." Megumi-sensei said, running a hand through her hair.
Silence fell between us then and I looked back down at the funeral procession at small Kono crying his eyes out beside Naruto whose head hung low as he watched. Orochimaru had impersonated the Sand's Kage and ended up killing him. It had been a hard fight and Megumi-sensei had arrived a little too late to do any good. She had a good counterattack against the Sound Four, but it wasn't enough and in the end, the Hokage had accepted death and tried to take Orochimaru with him. But, even that had failed but he did manage to take away Orochimaru's arms which meant he could no longer form hand signs perform any jutsu. The Sound Four had disappeared along with whatever remained of the Sound ninja and the Sand ninja fled with Baki after they stumbled upon the corpse of their leader. They were disgraced but the Leaf focused on burying their beloved Kage first.
"Orochimaru might have fled, but we have sufficient evidence to bring back to our village." Megumi-sensei said. "Information that Akane won't receive until much later on."
"What happens next, then?" Kyoske asked.
Megumi-sensei stared on at the procession, not even blinking as she looked down at us. "We wait and see."
"We're still leaving." I said, unable to form a question and not even bothering to hide my disappointment. After our fight with Gaara I hadn't even looked Sasuke's way. So much had been going on, so much concern not just for Naruto but for my team. Even when we had reunited and confirmed that we were all okay, there was the Hokage business.
"Yes." Megumi-sensei said.
"Will we ever come back?" I asked right after and I wasn't surprised when my question was met with silence. We stayed until after the ceremony was over and we jumped down to street level. We didn't even bother giving the burial site another glance and as everyone began filing out, we turned and headed down the street, our heads low.
It felt like a failure and maybe on some level it was. Our mission was to stop Orochimaru but everywhere we turned something else had popped up. So much had gone on, so much that we could barely grasp at and everything that felt like a lead was actually nothing, just another obstacle to climb over.
As for Sasuke, he was neither an obstacle or a treat at the end of the tunnel. The focus away from him, the sudden life or death that had happened with Kimimaro reminded me that before Konoha, he had been nothing more than a distant legend to me. Sure, I still cared for him, but that was really it and that was all it would ever be. If we had never come to Konoha, maybe the same things would have happened, but the fact that we had barely made a dent in any of it proved that we weren't needed, that our being here did nothing. It was painful to leave, but I thought suddenly that maybe, maybe…maybe he was better off without me after all.
"Megumi."
We froze and slowly turned around only to see Team 7 walking toward us. It was Kakashi who had spoken and he stood beside his students, his eyes heavy.
"Miyuki! Where are you going?" Naruto asked, his blue eyes wide with innocence.
"Oh hey, Naruto." I managed, forcing a smile.
"You guys all have your bags with you…" Sakura said, her eyes sad as she stepped closer. "Are you going somewhere?"
"We're heading home." Kyoske said.
"We're not needed here anymore." Hideki added.
"Needed?" Sakura asked.
"Our mission is over." Megumi-sensei said.
"Mission?" Kakashi asked, his eyes widening slightly before turning cold. "I should've known."
"It wasn't like that, Kakashi." Megumi-sensei said.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "What mission?" He growled, his eyes harder than usual as they glared at me.
I pressed my lips into a tight line.
"We were tasked to stop Orochimaru by all means necessary." Megumi-sensei said.
"Some luck you had." Sasuke grunted.
"Sasuke!" Sakura gasped, turning to shoot him a look.
"It's alright." Megumi-sensei said with a shrug. "He has a point."
"We tried our best." Kyoske said.
"And we're sorry for your lo—"
"Whatever." Sasuke grumbled, cutting me off before giving me his back as he started walking away. My eyes widened and I told myself the distant ache that shot across my heart was nothing.
"Such a treat…that boy." Megumi-sensei mumbled.
"When will you be back?" Naruto asked, his hands balled into tight fists at his sides. He was looking right at me, not even giving me anytime to fully react to Sasuke's rudeness which, maybe was a good thing.
"Who knows?" I said with a shrug. "But I'm sure the next time we meet Naruto, you'll be even stronger."
"Or more annoying, whichever comes first." Kyoske added.
"We have to go and report back to our village all that happened here." Megumi said.
"And you have to leave now?" Kakashi asked and there was something shimmering in his eyes as he looked at our sensei, a plea or something. I wanted to arch an eyebrow, but kept it down. It didn't matter now.
Megumi-sensei smiled and nodded. "Best of luck."
Silence as a passing breeze came and as the rain stopped. We all looked up as the heavy, gray clouds broke apart and a stream of sunlight shot through. Moments later the entire sky cleared up and there was sunlight all around, along with a crystal blue sky.
"Leaving so soon?" A voice called from above. We all looked up only to find Jiraiya, his arms crossed and a satisfied smirk on his lips.
"It's about time I left, old man." Megumi-sensei called back.
"Who you calling old?" Jiraiya snapped.
"Pervy Sage!" Naruto called, which made a vein pulse on the Sanin's forehead.
"I told you not to call me that kid!" He snapped.
"Ugh! So much noise!" Kurenai sighed as she walked beside the small Leaf group. The other Rookie 9 followed, their expressions curious as they looked my team over.
"Miyuki?! You're leaving already?!" Tenten asked.
"It's about time." Neji grumbled.
"Thanks…Neji." Kyoske sighed.
"Do me a favor when you get back will ya?" Jiraiya called out to us.
Megumi-sensei looked up at him and arched an eyebrow.
"Send Akane my regards." Jiraiya said with a wink.
"After all this time Jiraiya, the answer is still a resounding no." Megumi-sensei said. "But I'll be sure to let my mother know how desperate you've become."
We all laughed then while Jiraiya threw a fit above. It might not have been perfect, but it was an ending nonetheless and I could feel the beginning of something even greater working in the distance. Konoha hadn't seen the last of us and I had a feeling that it wouldn't be long until we saw our friends again and temporary was always better than never.
…
Akane hadn't bothered to ask us about the mission when we walked into her office. She had merely nodded at our entrance and slid a thick mission briefing in our direction. Megumi-sensei grabbed the folder, holding it between her hands before turning and sliding it into Hideki's hands. She stayed behind while the rest of us shuffled out and we didn't say a word about it, but instead opened up the file folder and looked down at the mission summary.
"The Daimyō wants us to go back and investigate the Akatsuki." I mumbled, not even bothering to look it over again.
"How many times are they gonna have us run into those guys?" Kyoske growled.
"But now we're the ones being summoned to do it. It's even labelled differently." Hideki said. "Different level."
"S-Rank, so what?" Kyoske spat. "Big deal."
"He expects us to end it." I mumbled, folding my arms.
"No, not end it." Hideki said, reading over the more detailed briefing. "He wants us to bring Karin back."
I stiffened. That hadn't been in the summary. It had literally been a whole bunch of empty words that came down to the simple fact that the Daimyō wanted us to investigate the Akatsuki, find out how many members it housed, where the hideouts were, etc. But Karin? Of all of them, why her?
"When do we leave?" Kyoske asked.
"In a few days." Hideki said. "Once Miyuki gets better and it seems that Megumi-sensei won't be joining us."
"What will she be doing then?" Kyoske spat. "Great! She gets a vacation and the rest of us have to do all the dirty work."
"Why Karin?" I asked, forcing both boys to glance at me.
Hideki shrugged. "It doesn't say."
"We bring her in. That's simple enough."
"We're bringing her to the Daimyō." Hideki said. "That's a longer journey."
"Even better." Kyoske growled dryly.
I folded my arms, getting back to business, to what should have been the root of our problems. I was a little bothered that Akane was conversing with Megumi-sensei and not us. How did Megumi-sensei know to explain the Sound Four? What about Kimimaro? With the five of them roaming around, none of it could be good.
"Doesn't any of this bother you guys? Doesn't it feel like we need to just stop and think?" I asked.
They both looked at me.
"Tayuya and Kimimaro are back. Kimimaro is the one who tortured me back in Konoha and we're about to get ready to go on this mission to capture Karin. What's more important?"
Kyoske blinked at me and Hideki cleared his throat, closing the file in his hands.
"Of course they're important. I'd much rather chase after Orochimaru all day long and not stop until he was buried deep in the ground and even then I wouldn't be satisfied." Hideki said, making my body tense up. "But we can't and complaining about it doesn't help. They're back, big deal. They're not our mission and therefore not our focus."
"Plus if they even come our way, we'll break their teeth in!" Kyoske said. "Especially after what that bastard did to you."
I nodded slowly, feeling foolish. They were right. What was wrong with me? Who was I becoming? My own agenda? Who did I think I was? I forced a nod, pressing my lips together to keep from crying. We had our mission, we knew our goal and I was hung up on Kimimaro and everyone else, letting this need inside of me, this dark rage at everything, get the better of me. It was such a Kyoske thing to do, or was it worse than that?
"Now, what do we know about Karin?" Hideki asked.
"She's annoying." Kyoske said quickly.
"She's strong." I said. "Those metal poles of hers are used to channel her chakra, helps her let out just the right amount."
"So without them, is she weaker?" Hideki asked.
I furrowed my brow, thinking back. "She's still skilled in Taijutsu. Not the greatest, but enough to defend or hold off until more help arrives."
"Those poles are endless." Kyoske said. "It has to be a summoning of some kind that she uses."
"But she seems to really hate you, Miyuki." Hideki said.
I laughed dryly. "Wow…thanks."
"No, it's true." Hideki said. "If we get her riled up enough we can catch her."
"But what if she's not alone?" Kyoske asked.
"We put her before all else." Hideki said. "We're alone for a reason."
He had a point there. It was just the three of us, just like it had been in the past. We were capable of watching each other and only each other and not even that at times either. There was no baggage, no dead weight. We would go all or nothing, put everything on the line to complete our mission just like we always did.
"Kisame is mine, though." Kyoske said.
"I'll handle Itachi." Hideki said. "Since you're her favorite, you can take Karin."
"Such an honor." I groaned.
We chuckled lightly, almost politely before it settled into silence. Kyoske leaned against the wall as our gazes fell in different directions and as he slid to the floor, Hideki spoke.
"Do you think the Leaf and Sand can be allies once again?" He asked.
I glanced at him, thinking back to not just the showdown between Naruto and Gaara but the Hokage's death and our parting with the Leaf. Sasuke's coldness, an even darker darkness lurking in his eyes. I had told myself not to worry, that there were bigger things to worry about but I couldn't help but feel if possibly, maybe, I was wrong.
"Do you think Gaara…could actually be nice?" Kyoske asked. "Do you think Naruto…that little squirt…actually changed him?"
I smiled. "They're a lot alike. I'd say it's not impossible."
"Despite his idiocy, Naruto is a decent shinobi I suppose. To be able to fight against Neji Hyuga and win that first round and then to take on Gaara, Jiraiya must have taught him a handful." Hideki said.
Kyoske and I nodded.
"I suppose so." Kyoske said.
