Chapter Sixteen
A dull orange light shone in the corridors as Sasuke and his companions followed Natsui through the maze of prison halls. To their right was a never ending line of cells and Sakura watched in morbid fascination as the prisoners followed their procession. She was about to look away when she noticed that one of the prisoners was a little girl, looking to be only five or six years old.
Horror clutched at Sakura's heart and she slowly migrated towards the cell. Her hand stretched out to grasp the iron bars separating her from them and the girl looked up at Sakura, her eyes curious. Her finger tips were only centimeters away from the cool metal when Sasuke suddenly grasped her wrist and pulled her back.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke said; his eyes hard. "Are you an idiot?"
"W-what?" Sakura said; her clouded as she looked up at him. "Sasuke?"
Sasuke's frown deepened and he reached up to feel her forehead. Leaning forward so that their noses were almost touching he searched her eyes. Ignoring her blush at his closeness he finally nodded.
"Kai," He said and Sakura snapped back, her mind suddenly clear.
"What was…Sasuke-kun? What happened?"
"Is everything alright?" Natsui said; looking from Sakura to Sasuke who was still holding her wrist tightly.
"She fell under his illusion," Sasuke said, nodding towards the cell. "He almost got to her."
Looking over her shoulder Sakura was surprised to find that the young girl she had seen inside had suddenly been replaced by a dark haired man. His skin was ghostly pale while his eyes were a frightening shade of pale blue and completely pupiless.
"W-what? But…but that was a girl!"
Natsui nodded, Shikamaru and Naruto watching curiously from beside him.
"That's Okuni Moritatsu," Natsui said. "He comes from a clan that uses an illusion based bloodline limit. It usually only works on females though because without chakra it relies on the instincts of human compassion to be effective."
"Compassion?" Sakura said. "I've never heard of a bloodline working like that."
"It's the only one of its kind," Sasuke said. "No one really knows how it works. Only that it does."
"Hey," Naruto said. "Not that this ain't fun or nothing, but are we going to go? Or would you rather hang out here holding hands?"
Sasuke blinked down at his right hand that had somehow found its way from Sakura's wrist to intertwine with her fingers. He jerked away like he had been burned and shoved the offending hand into his pockets. Naruto snickered as Sasuke passed him and the former Uchiha sent him a glare.
"Shut up dobe."
"Not a chance teme."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hinata was the first one to spot Yotaro as he approached Ichiraku. Not wanting to alert the other patrons that something was happening, she carefully cleared her throat. Kiba looked over at her, an eyebrow arched in confusion.
"What's the matter Hinata? Are you choking?"
Hinata blushed and looked down. "N-no. I…I was just thinking about how bad I feel for p-poor N-N-Naruto-k-kun and Sakura-chan."
"Huh?" Kiba said. "What are you talking about Hi—."
Ino nudged the boy, slightly tilting her head to where Yotaro and Arai had just sat down to order.
"Oh," Kiba said. "Oh! Oh, yeah. Terrible huh? That Itachi guy is pretty evil to do that to his girlfriend."
"Fiancée," Ino said, rolling her eyes. "Geez, you don't know anything do you?"
"What's there to know?" Kiba said. "First Sasuke kills all those people and his chick cousin helps, now Itachi's tried to off that Haruno girl. You ask me, it's a wonder the whole family isn't in prison."
"A-ano," Hinata said. "I-I al-almost can't believe that Itachi-s-san really tried to kill her. It's t-terrible."
"Totally," Chouji said. "And I always thought he was really nice. He bought me a beef pot once."
"And homicidal maniacs totally wouldn't by food," Ino said sarcastically.
"Exactly!" Chouji said around a mouthful of noodles.
"Eww! Chouji, that's disgusting!"
The sudden sound of a bowl slamming on the counter caused the genin to jump and look to their right in shock. Yotaro was standing beside his stool with his fists clenched and his eyes narrowed in anger. Arai absently wondered if he would break the bowl in his rage but she was to busy glaring herself to give it any real thought.
"Y-Yotaro-san!" Hinata said. "W-we were…ano…this is…"
"Outside." Yotaro said. "Now."
The five genin were all but trembling as they followed Arai and Yotaro out of the shop and into the street. Ayame and her father watched as the group left the shop. Teuchi felt a bit of sympathy for the kids that were about to get a beating but the greater part of him was glad that Yotaro had been there. After all, it wouldn't be good for business if he went around beating up customers for slander.
Once the group was out of the public eye, Yotaro turned on the genin with a heavy glare making most of them flinch back. Hinata opened her mouth several times before she finally managed to gather enough courage to speak.
"A-ano…Yotaro-s-san...? A-are you…mad?"
"Mad?" Yotaro said before he suddenly laughed. "Of course not!"
The kids were all visibly relieved but Arai, for her part, was suitably confused.
"Why not? Didn't you hear what they said about Itachi? And me and Sasuke too!"
"Ah…" Kiba said. "Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't mean it, I swear. It was just part of the cover."
Arai blinked. "Cover? What cover?"
"This is who I was going to Ichiraku to meet," Yotaro said. "But since I've never been seen with them before, it would be rather suspicious if, as an ANBU captain, I suddenly started talking to a random group of genin about a secret investigation."
"So you told them to say things that would make you mad so that you could drag them off to beat them up so that people wouldn't get suspicious about you spending time with them?"
Yotaro was quiet for a beat as he thought it over before he nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "That about sums it up."
Arai rolled her eyes. "Right."
"More importantly," Yotaro said, turning to the group. "Where's Sasuke and the others?"
"They're at the Konoha Prison," Shino said. "Investigating Yamataro Makoto."
Yotaro put a finger to his chin in thought before he slowly nodded.
"That's good judgment on their part." He said. "It would make sense that a person with a strong cloaking kekkei genkai would be the most obvious choice to sneak up on Hikari."
"Only four could go in at a time though," Ino said. "So, Sasuke-kun sent us back to you; to see if you had any more leads."
Yotaro shook his head with a sigh. "I'm afraid not. With so much security surrounding the investigation I can't so much as ask about Hikari's condition without having a thousand roadblocks thrown up in my face."
"So there i-isn't anyt-thing we can do?" Hinata said, her brows furrowed in concern.
"Not at all," Arai said. "It's actually the opposite. No one would expect you guys to know anything about this at all, let alone actually try and find out more. From a tactical stand point your three teams have the best ability to do things."
"That was surprisingly well said Arai," Yotaro said with a sly grin. "One would almost think you were a ninja."
"Shut up Yotaro," Arai said with a blush. "You know very well why that is."
Before Yotaro could respond three more chakra signatures appeared on the edge of the training field and he looked over with a smile.
"Yota-nii-chan!" Tenten said as she waved frantically between her two teammates. "Hellooo!"
"It's about time, Tenten!" Yotaro called back, his voice light and teasing. "You're late!"
"Ah, sorry, sorry," Tenten said once her team had joined the rest of the group. "Lee-kun and Gai-sensei were having a 'moment'."
Yotaro nodded. "Ah."
"Hello, Hinata-chan." Neji said.
"Neji-nii-san," Hinata said with a smile. "How are you?"
"Yosh!" Lee answered instead. "He is burning with the passions of youth!"
Hinata giggled. "Hai, hai, Lee-san."
"So what are you guys doing here?" Kiba said. His eyes suddenly narrowed in suspicion. "You're not here to spy are you?"
"Of course not!" Tenten said. "We're here to help, right Nii-chan?"
Yotaro nodded. "I asked Gai-san if his team would be able to join us since they have more field experience. It should help a lot."
Jumping right into the role, Neji cleared his throat and pulled a scroll from his weapon pouch. Pulling it open he revealed a neatly organized chart that everyone crowded in closer to see.
"Hey, what's that?" Kiba said. "A betting pole?"
"Don't be an idiot," Ino said. "That's not it at all."
Neji nodded. "Right. This is a list of every shinobi in Konoha with the ability to mask their presence. It also has there alibis for the time of the attack."
"If they all say they were somewhere else then how does that help us?" Kiba said, annoyed.
"It doesn't as of right now," Tenten said. "But as long as we know who they are we can check their alibis to make sure that they really do match up."
"How are we going to do that?" Ino said. "That's a lot of people."
"We'll divide into pairs and give each group a list of names to check." Yotaro said. "It's a lot of work but it's a good place to start. Any objections?"
No one spoke up and he smiled at them with a firm nod.
"Alright then," Yotaro continued. "Let's get to work."
End Chapter Sixteen
Kaliea: Hey guys! I'm really sorry that it took so long. I've been really busy lately. Also I would like to say that the next chapter of HOFH will be out soon. I would like to, but that would probably be a lie. I have been working on it but so far I'm pretty much at a stand still. No inspiration. It really sucks. Anyway, I'll do my best. Don't forget to review!
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