Hey guys. Would first like to say thank you for your positive comments, either as a review or a PM! They keep me going :)
9. Meanwhile
"Stay together, guys. Search everyone, we might find something useful."
The spiky-haired girl with the dog walked over to a bloody shinobi enemy, who had fallen at the hands of her Gatsuga technique. The others crouched next to the other dead bodies, searching their pockets and jackets for weapons, scrolls or anything informative.
The last girl to enter the room turned over a tall, thin, dark-haired man who's eyes were barely open. She found a few shuriken and a kunai in a pocket attached to his leg, and opened his jacket. Out fell a small book.
A bingo book. Out of curiosity, she opened it and saw the faces of potentially lethal enemies of the Iwa-nin. She found Hatari Zichu; his page had been scribbled on, saying he was currently disabled. Which was true: he had been tortured horribly, but his comrades had rescued him and brought him back to Konoha for treatment.
She found a few Rain shinobi she didn't recognise, a couple of Konoha ANBU they apparently still hadn't figured out who was … some higher-ups from Suna …
"What's that you've got there?" the spiky-haired girl asked her.
She didn't reply. She had stopped at one page, and her insides turned.
This page was also scribbled on, as the owner of the book had found more information about the man on the page. A picture had been clipped on, and looked as though it had been cut out of its original photo. She recognised Shikaku, being half cut out of the photo. The other face, which was whole, was a face she had never seen before.
But she recognised it. The blue eyes were the same, and the hair was as messy and sunny as it always had been. But the face … it was a man's face, not a child's.
She looked at the comments the Iwa-nin had scribbled down. 'Don't let the looks fool you'.
He didn't exactly look very threatening. His expression was warm in the presence of his friend, and she remembered his friendly posture, and how small he had been … He had barely been taller than her, and she had barely grown since ... And she wondered if he still remembered her ...
Her eyes moved to his personalia. 'Rank: Jounin. Age: ca. 18. Gender: male. Height: ca. 1.80'.
Her jaw fell.
And since when was he 1.80?
I've had questions about that necklace Minato stole during the last chapter. If you've seen a few of the oldest pictures of Minato by Kishimoto, you see he's wearing some sort of necklace, but nothing he wears regularly. I just thought it was a shame we never knew what it was and that it's never been mentioned in any fanfictions (at least of what I've read) so far, so I thought I'd put it in!