It was difficult to lie to oneself, and I decided from the beginning that I would be taking some liberties regarding this aspect.
And it was blatantly obvious Karin's invitation in what would end.
Reason why I had a towel wrapped around my waist and another being used to dry my hair so I could greet the new day with a fresh and cool start.
I was first to take a shower.
Compared to the outside, the apartment was built with such techniques and materials that it can keep a cool temperature without the need of air conditioning or any similar utility.
Also, the storage scrolls were truly useful to carry thing I quantity without worrying about the volume or weight giving me the facility to carry more with me. with the only crippling drawback, that if I lost that scroll, everything inside would be lost as well.
The door leading to the bathroom was thrown open allowing all the steam to escape, revealing Karin with a towel wrapped around her body and other around her hair.
"We could have shared a shower, you know?" She said.
I stared at her for a couple of seconds, my eyes slowly watching the drops of water go down her legs. "I know for a fact that you wouldn't do just that."
She only rolled her eyes and shook her head."Maaybe, but still didn't expect to take my offer so fast."
My gaze returned to her eyes as a frown formed on my face. "You ruined my bed, I want it clean and tidy. " And I was decided that if she dared to pull that off again I would kick her out from her room and sleep in it.
"Should we wake up those two?" She asked.
As if the world was connected the door was slammed open with Suigetsu standing at the entrance looking at us with a smug smile.
"No need, we are already up and hungry."
"FUCKING KNOCK THE DOOR!" He screamed at the top of her lungs.
Me on the other hand felt annoyed by his shameless intrusion of our privacy.
His finger scratched his ear with an eye closed. "Don't yell so loud, anyway, we will be leaving to grab some breakfast around, where is the cash?"
Karin didn't hesitate to throw a stocked wallet to his face, yet he caught it mid air.
"Easy there Karin-chan." His cocky grin only made Karin grow even more frustrated, without thinking it twice she grabbed the lamp from the night table and was ready to throw it at him.
"JUST LEAVE!" She pointed the direction.
Suigetsu grin didn't leave his face as he turned around and left our room without closing the door.
I stood up and made my way to the door and close it before she could slam it closed.
"You are easy rile up."
Karin threw her weight on the bed and dragged both hands across her face. "If he wasn't made out of water, I would snap his neck with my very own hands!"
My mind wandered a bit, usually our situation should develop in me giving her some words of comfort or a massage to calm her down to increase our affecting or something sappy like that but I wasn't that kind of person, my liberties were limited according to my own limitations after all.
When I was done with my pants, I stood up. "Get dressed we will leave as well."
She turned to look at me."Hey, back me up in this!"
I shrugged. "I'm hungry as well." It wasn't a lie, I was hungry.
Then I left her room and headed to the kitchen in hopes to catch up with those two.
Much to my surprise Suigetsu was rather fast and already went to the shop and brought a lot of ingredients, but since he didn't know how to cook he went to pester Karin to cook for him.
I didn't know what happened but I could tell that Karin wasn't finished dressing and snapped, causing her to use her chains to grab Suigetsu and slam him against the wall followed up by a kick to his face that literally made him explode.
I was honestly surprised with her attitude, sometimes she was calm and collected and other time she was hyperactive.
I decided to ignore the situation as long as they didn't cause any destruction to the apartment and focused on cooking the rice and prepare a pot of tea for myself. Juugo also ignored those two and accompanied me to eat.
About an hour later we all were gathered around the table, it was time to discuss my tactics thing that wasn't possible yesterday for various reasons.
"Before we start this meeting, Karin tell me how many do you sense?" It was supposed to be a meeting of four after all.
"Four of them and each one at a different direction, but not close enough to hear anything unless they have a way to do so."
I nodded and pulled out a shuriken and using the sharp edge I made a small cut on my finger before doing all the necessary hand seals and slamming my hand on the floor. "Summoning Jutsu!"
"Karin tell them the locations."
She nodded and proceed to do a couple of hand-sign yet no jutsu or chakra came out, it quickly kicked in my mind that she was talking them with sign language and all four of the snakes nodded before melting and disappearing inside the floor.
"You could have done that yesterday." Suigetsu quickly interjected.
Unimpressed at his sudden remark, I stared at him. "And give the kazekage the perfect excuse to double his watch on us? We will only need privacy for this moment."
I knew that keeping a spy could be beneficial since you would only feed them false and useless information rather than risk another spy who you might not be aware of.
He sat straight with his legs crossed, leaning closer. "What's the plan then?"
"After the fight with Chojuro I understood that my Kirin probably wouldn't be enough to obliterate Kakuzu in a single strike unless I get rid of his lighting heart." I had a theory that his mask might save him from turning into ashes just like the Kiba blades saved Chojuro from the same fate.
Suigetsu tilted his head in confusion. "Lighting heart?"
My brow twitched at hearing that kind of reply making me turn to look at Karin hoping for her explanation. "You didn't fill them in?"
She crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks, looking offended. "Only Juugo heard me while this idiot preferred to snooze off."
I rolled my eyes, typical attitude from this guy. "Anyway, we will engage the Akatsuki in two teams. Suigetsu and Karin will go against Hidan while I will face Kakuzu with Juugo support."
Karin abruptly turned to look at me with shock plastered all over her face.
"Me?!"
"Not close combat but you will use your sealing chains to support Suigetsu as much as possible." I quickly added to calm her down.
Her stance immediately relaxed. "I will do my best."
"That's why you must train as much as possible so you can completely restrain somebody, we will count on your help to finish Hidan as fast as possible."
"Enough with the sappy words, what should I be careful of?" Suigetsu injected himself into the conversation to get more information from his target.
"Hidan uses a three blade scythe which can be thrown and moved around with a chain, but his sadistic immortality is what makes him a dangerous opponent. He can allow himself to be mortally wounded to get an advantage."
He nodded. "Interesting, a kenjutsu user usually worries about defense but having the ability to not worry about defense and only focus on attack can be fatal, like me. So it would be better if I cut off all of his limbs, right?"
"Yes, cut them and take the head with you. I'm trusting your skills that you are so proud of."
He grinned as he pointed his thumb to himself. "You saw it firsthand, it will be a piece of cake."
And while his words held some truth, I only saw more of his sadism at work in that execution but since his body was water, then I wasn't that worried but more like careful of any surprise they could pull off.
"So what about Kakuzu?" Karin asked.
I sighed, it was the time to talk about him with feet on the ground.
"Juugo, you will have to keep him occupied at least until I can take out his lighting heart, he has such vast knowledge and fighting experience that I cannot make a detailed plan to deal with him unlike Hidan and I know that I would only be able to use the Kirin once on him."
"Why do you think so?" She asked, rather confused.
"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." As if somebody as powerful and experienced as Kakuzu would allow me to perform the Kirin twice on him.
"Alright, I believe I can take out Hidan relatively fast, what should we do next?" Suigetsu asked for the phase.
My attention returned on him. "Remove the Jinchuuriki from the scene I do not want her to become collateral damage."
He grinned. "I can do that."
I turn to face our redhead. "Karin you will try to restrain Kakuzu or any of his masks but if you can't then leave immediately with Suigetsu."
She fervently nodded, it was clear to all of us that trying to fight would end in death for her or become a liability.
My gaze then landed on the calm but attentive Juugo. "Juugo you will have to go all out on Kakuzu and I will redirect the Kirin as much as possible to prevent you to receive the full force and pull you out from the impact zone."
He tensed for a moment but nodded nevertheless. "I understand."
I did understand his personal turmoil about unleashing his power but at the same time as long as I was around he could be controlled and his strength was under the hopes that he alone could face one or even two of Kakuzu's masks.
But at the end, it was up to me to finish him and destroy his masks and after my encounter with Kisame I felt rather confident to fight him specially with my arsenal of lighting and fire jutsus.
However, Karin interrupted my train of thought when he placed a hand on my shoulder to pull me close enough to whisper to my ear.
"Sasuke-kun, multiple signals."
I frowned for a second before my face softened; it was within my expectations for that reaction to occur eventually, after all it was impossible to knockout shinobi in their own village and left their bodies out in the open.
"That was rather quick, good thing that we are done here." I stood up and headed towards the principal door of our apartment.
I didn't need my eyes to understand or predict what was about to happen, I could hear the footsteps nearing and surprisingly the incoming people were oozing killing intent a rather common mistake in the shinobi world.
Wasting no time, I opened the door before they could have a chance to knock.
"What do you want?"
In front of me stood an olive skinned bald Suna shinobi wearing his forehead protector to cover his mouth and neck, his eyes glaring daggers at me."What have you done?"
"Do what exactly?"
He stood in front of me, making eye contact with me. "Do not play coy with me, we found out our shinobi unconscious."
"And I should care because�" Even if it was considered rude my remark, baseless accusations wouldn't lead anywhere.
"Start talking Uchiha." He tried to put more pressure with his own Killing intent, yet it was pathetic.
"Why would I do something to your shinobi in the first place?" I too leaned closer allowing my killing intent to be clear as his with the exception that my growing anger was enough for my sharingan activate and let me watch the world in red and notice more chakra signature hiding in the hallway and behind the corners.
I realized they were preparing to attack me and subdue me if I dared to do the first move but by doing so I would break my implicit promise with Gaara about causing trouble inside his village.
However, that was no reason for me to let myself be captured.
"That's enough, I will take it from here "
My eyes shifted towards the newcomer voice but the blonde hair, the long black dress and the large fan was a dead giveaway of who was the newcomer.
"Temari of the sand, I didn't expect you to come since you are supposed to be the proctor of the Chunin exams."
"I'm a jounin of Suna first and foremost." She curtly replied.
"I see, but I must say it was rude to send agents to spy on us when I specifically explained why I do not want trouble coming my way."
Temari stern gaze didn't leave mine for a couple of tense seconds before she closed them and sighed in defeat. "At least we are thankful you only knocked them out with a non-lethal poison."
"I can understand to some degree the Kazekage's worries but I want my privacy intact."
"I will communicate your opinion to the Kazekage."
"Go ahead."
Temari turned around and proceeded to make her way out when I remembered something important.
"Before you leave, when are the exams taking place?" I called her.
"Today at 12:00 pm." She kept her reply short and resumed her walk.
"Oh, we should be going then." I turned to look at my team, and all of them nodded.
I should think a name for my team.
Hollow?
AN: This took waaaaay longer than expected so if you feel there are empty parts or things that might have been explained better then it is because I needed to get this out to continue maybe in a future I will edit it or rewrite and make it better, besdies I kind of returned to a grindy game with the exception that i became i little more invested because a friend is playing and well playing this kind of games with a friend make is more fun specially in these hard times where you are still locked up inside your home. And to make matters worse my phone got fucked somehow and cannot charge battery so with YouTube help and tutorials I kind of made a improvised direct charger but the battery drains really fast.
Ugh, the worst part is that I can afford a new one but there is nowhere to buy a new phone, everything is still fucking closed.
Anyways, don't forget to leave your comments and fanv and follow to increase the mmr of this story
Also because it references better on FF.
LOL
