"..." Normal chat.

ABC. Thought.


Chapter 12


At first, I was expected to be lectured for an hour or more about my responsibilities as a Shinobi, perhaps even being called a coward, and selfish for only thinking about myself and abandoned my teammates. Not to mention that I may have no voice in this matter because the it's the Third Hokage who had appointed me into the team.

That's why I had spent almost a whole night long just to figure out a way to counter Kakashi's cross-question before bringing up this matter to him. Yet the only reaction I receive is him tilting his head to one side along with an usual deadpanned face. "Oh? Any specific reason for that?"

"Well, I really can't tell you much but... This is really important and I hope that you can trust me on this."

After hearing my explanation, not a good one to be honest, Kakashi takes out his notebook and writes something into it before turning his head to me.

"Is this counted as the third condition?"

I shake my head in response.

"Alright then. Just so you know, this is not something to be done in one or two days. I will inform you once there's news about it."

Kakashi puts notebook back inside his jacket and vanishes from the spot. Probably on the way to his next assignment, and he seems to be in a hurry, too.

Wow... That went much easier than I expected? Is this even normal?

I stand there in awe for almost a minute long then open up the windows to get inside my room. Too tired to change into pjama or take a bath, I jump straight onto my newly bought bed to look for a little comfort, as I barely have any sleep since last night.

What's left to do is to inform this news to the others. But how am I suppose to do it probably?

Should I just straight out telling then now or wait till everything's been done? Hopefully things won't get too awkward between us after I leave the team...

By afternoon I was woke up by loud bangs on my door coming from our friendly neighborhood boy, Naruto, who was eager to train for the upcoming Chuunin exam and decided that I should be coming with him. In hope that we would somehow figure out a combination attack for ourselves, just as he did with Sasuke.

Then he proceeded dragging both Sakura and Sasuke, who were enjoying their walk on the street, to join him in his training along the way. Because the more, the merrier or so he said.

So now everyone is here, except for Kakashi, gathering at the third training ground and trying to discuss on how we should split the team into a group of two, one male and one female, for practice matches.

And I still haven't found a single moment to talk about it to everyone, no, it's more like I just can't bring myself to whenever seeing Naruto's overly enthusiastic face. As I keep opening my mouth then closing them immediately, for so many times that I'm starting to make myself look like a dying fish.

Perhaps I should leave it for another day...

Almost 20 minutes passes and their debate has yet come to an end. I decide to conclude it for the team by picking Naruto as my training partner. And Naruto gladly agrees to follow my plan, because it's his intention to train with me begin with.

Sakura's also happy with my decision since she has been itching to be grouped with Sasuke way from the beginning. Though the girl doesn't say it out loud to us but it's quite understandable simply by reading her face expression, which has been rotating 360 degrees whenever there's an opinion about her partner being either Naruto or Sasuke.

"Picking on the weak now, huh?"

Suddenly Sasuke speaks to me, yet his tone make it sounds more like an insult than expressing his opinion of being dissatisfied with the team's *unfairly* distribution. Then he proceeds demanding for a partner swap. Too bad for the Uchiha, none of us really wants to make a change. And the reason is quite obvious.

"Bastard, who are you calling weak!"

As expected, Naruto erupts immediately after hearing Sasuke's little taunt.

"Naruto isn't weak. And as far as I know, he's way stronger than you are."

I step in between the two and drag Naruto away from a potential verbal fight, paying no mind to the Uchiha's glare.

Naruto's temper quickly dies down thanks to Sasuke's grumpy face, then he starts throwing harmless insults and sticks out his tongue to make fun of him. Despite being told to stop pouring fuel into fire for multiple times, Naruto keeps on going until earning a couple of punches to the head by Sakura for being way too annoying.

"Oh really? Do you want to bet?"

Dismissing the chaos between the two, Sasuke invites his friend to a one on one battle. Of course, Naruto isn't someone who is going to back down from a challenge, especially from his ultimate rival.

"You're on! If I win, you will have to call me Naruto-sama for the rest of your life!"

Naruto gives him the middle finger and declares loudly.

"And if I win, you will be the ultimate loser for the rest of your life."

Sasuke smirks and takes a few steps away from Naruto, pulling out his Kunai and gets into his offensive stance.

Oh boy, I have a very bad feeling about this... I watch the two of them getting into their positions speechlessly.

At result, both I and Sakura are now standing at the side of the battle ring, acting as the audiences and judges for those burning in fire of youths fighting for their Shinobi's prides.

"Do your best, Sasuke-kun!" As always, Sakura cheers for her crush with one hundred percent confident that he would win easily.

I, on the other hand, somewhat starting to regret for stating my opinion out loud without thinking. Sighing from time to time since it's already fifteen minutes into the fight and Naruto has not be able to land a proper hit.

For Sasuke's part, it seems that the Uchiha has gotten familiar with Naruto's overused tactic and gradually finding a way to finish him completely. He gets around with Naruto's clone and be able to pin points the real one with ease, all thanks to that damned Kekkei Genkai of his.

If Naruto actually loses to him and be called an ultimate loser forever, it'll be my fault since I'm the one who started this fight, indirectly. And as much as I don't want to do it, but right now should be the good time to start thinking of a way to cheer him up after the battle, in case that Naruto loses.

Shall I just play it safe with Ramen? Hopefully I still have enough money to pay for large servings...

"Brr... Clang!"

Within the noises of clashing weapons, Naruto's and Sasuke's shouting for their names and using Ninjutsu, a sound of a heavy object falling on the ground snaps me out of my fantasy and I turn to ask Sakura.

"Hey Sakura, did you hear that?"

However, Sakura's too focus on the battle to notice anything and shakes her head in response.

It's not too far away from where we are standing, maybe I should go take a look. Too late to ignore it now, I start moving away from the spot to search for the source of that mysterious sound. And the further I walk, the louder it gets and there seems to be other mechanical noises mixed along with it. Soon, I reach to the spot and...

Oh. My. God.

Standing before my eyes are three human-shaped figures, painted white and as tall as an human adult. Made out of some material that looks like steel but much more durable, and of course, they all are heavily armed.

My heart begins to race by the surge of memories flowing back to my brain, arms and legs are feeling so weak that I have to lean on a tree nearby to keep myself from collapsing.

You have got to be kidding me. Why here? Why now?

I cover my mouth and noses to calm myself from the shock, but it still cannot drive away the fear that is eating me alive from inside out. Gulping down a mouthful of air, I crouch down and try to get closer to their spot to be able to see clearer.

For god's sake! How the heck did they get in without being noticed anyway? Isn't Konoha being heavily guarded right now?

But then again, it's probably better for everyone here if these things aren't being noticed. Saving me lots of trouble and time from having to explain crazy stories to Kakashi.

And right now those machines are scanning all over the area, using laser from their red giant eye in the middle of their heads and searching nonstop for something, which is of course, me.

They are the same model with the ones that Ryu and I fought against at the lab. My teeth cringe when recalling to the unpleasant memories.

Back then Ryu could defeat like an army of these all by himself using his Dragon sword and overpowered Ninpo. Except right now is no longer the case, because none of us here is as powerful as him. And I'm sure as hell don't own or know how to wield a freaking Dragon sword.

I can risk using that technique again with the Twin Daggers, just like last time with Kibutsuji. But it's not going to last long since I do not have enough energy to sustain it. Best I can do right now is one minute, and that's quite impossible to handle them all within such amount of time.

But first thing first, I have to find a way to lead them out of the village without being noticed. Since I do not want to cause a big ruckus and ends up gaining unnecessary attentions from the other forces that has yet to appear in the storyline.

"Beep! Target I.D: No.9 is located. Confirming coordination..."

Wait... What the fuck did it just say?

Turned out that while I was swimming deep in thoughts, their lasers had gone through where I was hiding and completely scanned me from head to toes.

Immediately, I stand up and make a run for my life. Only to be grabbed from behind within milliseconds by their extended automatic arms, which is almost meters long, and dragging me back to where they are standing with ease.

"Target's secured. Preparing to depart."


By now the rest of the team 7 have noticed Nina's absence and begin to look for her.

"I remembered Nina-chan said something about hearing a strange sound near here." Said Sakura to her team members when she's asked about her last conversation with Nina before her sudden disappearance.

In the end both Naruto and Sasuke weren't able to settle out their bets, as they had to drop the fight in the middle due to Naruto's constant nagging about finding their missing kunoichi.

Soon, they pick up Nina's shouting and everyone immediately accelerates. When they finally arrive to the scene, the girl's already been captured by the unknown enemies, which look like walking cyborgs that weighted easily over tons. Long arms and legs, equipped with a giant round eye made out of glass in the middle of their heads.

As if they have just stepped out of sci-fi channels and comic books.

"Let go of her!"

Naruto's the first to act by summoning multiples of his shadow clones and dashes forward to attack the robot. Trying to release his teammate from its grip.

"Danger alert! Activating self-defense system!"

However one of the robots steps in to stop him by shooting a long line of red colored energy beam out of its eye, eliminate everything crosses its path, including Naruto's clones, and only misses the real one's head by several inches.

The strange light continues going until it reaches to a tree behind them and creating a hole through the body, burning it down into ashes by progress.

"What the heck was that?!"

Naruto begins to shiver after witnessing such high-tech power that he has never encountered before in his life.

"No idea, but I can clearly see that you're not suppose to get hit by that abomination."

Then it's Sasuke's turn to take action, he throws several shuriken attached with string at their legs in attempt of bringing them down on their knees. Once certain to have a grip on them, Sasuke uses all of his strength and starts pulling. Yet only end up being pulled backward instead due to its insane strength.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke!" Both Sakura and Naruto try to help him but it's happened way too fast for them to react.

Fortunately, the Uchiha's quick enough to let go of his hands and jumps off before getting himself smashed into lump of meat under the robot's feet.

"Please, listen to me and get out of here! You guys can't win against them!"

Witnessing their hopeless attempts, Nina begs for her teammates to escape from the area. Not wanting any of them to get involved in her overly complicated personal matter.

"Come on, Naruto." Having no other option, Sakura urges him and Naruto slowly retreat with the others up to one of the tree branches nearby, trying to come with a plan with the two to rescue her.

"Just so you know, I'm not leaving her."

Naruto states before anyone of them can speak.

"We know that already, idiot."

Sakura cringes her teeth in annoyance as she too, not being as much comfortable seeing her teammate being captured right in front of her eyes. Still, Sakura has to remind Naruto that he can get everyone here killed if doing something stupid without thinking, since he has always been the hot-headed one.

"But we can't just blindly jumping in to fight them, either. Didn't you see what it did just now with its eye?"

"One of them perhaps is even stronger than the three of us combined." Sasuke adds his opinion after going through his short analysis from the battle earlier. And as much as he doesn't want to admit it out loud, but those creepy steel dolls standing down there are way too much for them to handle.

"Then... What should we do?!"

Right now nothing here can guarantee their safety and not to mention that they have zero knowledge about the enemy. They have no plan, no supervisor, not even fully prepared for such fight since what they had in mind when first coming here was to train for the Chuunin exam. Not fighting powerful robots.

Meanwhile on the ground, the robots has already created a black hole about their sizes by combining each other's energy. Shocking everyone else, including Nina herself.

Ignoring the aggressive shinobi who are still prying on them up on the tree branches, they carry their main objective in their hands and vanish into the dark gate completely.

Taking the chance that it's still open, Naruto attempts to follow but being stopped in the middle by Sakura's call. "Wait, Naruto! L-Let's stay calm and report back to Kakashi-sensei, okay? I'm sure he will find a way to help."

As the boy's about to open his mouth to object, Sakura continues explaining.

"Trust me, I want to save her as much as you do but this situation is getting out of our hands now, Naruto. And god knows where that thing will lead us to. Plus we don't even know what more of those things can do and how to fight them."

She pleads for him to stay, recalling to their prior mission which they're almost being killed by Zabuza and Haku back at the Land of Wave. And that was when they already had Kakashi to back them up from time to time.

"This is too dangerous for us to handle by ourselves. We may die if fighting those things mindlessly. You have already seen how strong they are, haven't you? We need Kakashi-sensei and the others to help us!"

However, right now Naruto's too stubborn to listen to any logical reasons and turns away from them. He points at the black hole floating in the middle of the air up ahead, which is getting smaller by seconds.

"There is no time for that! Can't you see it's closing?! If we give up now, we may not be able to see her ever again!"

Not going to wait for the two to make up their minds, Naruto dashes right in the black hole and vanishes. Sasuke too, quickly follows Naruto's footsteps and jumps into the dark gate without looking back. Despite her callings for them to stop multiple times from behind.

"Naruto! Sasuke-kun!"

Cannot do anything but watching her teammates walked straight down onto their death routes, Sakura groans and holds her head. Squeezing her brain out whether she should leave with them or stay to ask for help. It's not until the gate's about to close completely that she finally be able to make up her mind and walks right in.

"Guys! W-Wait for me! I'm coming too!"