Chapter 35 Capture the scroll.

We leap through the trees silently, making sure not to disturb the leaves. Dressed as Anbu, I expected us to play the part. But it seemed I was the only one of this mindset.

"Say, Sakura-chan, is your hair really pink, or is this a disguise." Shin, root Anbu and trained killer, was trying to have small talk. You've got to be kidding me.

"It's natural." My reply was short and to the point. Any "Normal" person would realize I wasn't interested in a conversation. But those raised to be killers; lack social awareness.

"Really!?" he sounded excited, like a child. "It looks soft and silky and smells like cherry blossoms.

That wasn't a good thing in the shinobi world; it made me easier to track. "I bet you take good care of it."

I fought a blush.

"I do," I confirmed. "Thank you." My ears felt hot, and I hoped the blush wasn't visible.

"Your hai pin sues you," it was so low I almost missed it. I turned to Sai, who looked away. "It is also a weapon, correct?"

"That's right. Its metal is sturdy and can substitute for a kunai in a pinch." I explained.

"And because it was originally a hairpin, you don't have to worry about it cutting your beautiful hair," Shin chimed in. What was so fascinating about my hair?

"That's right, though if I wanted to wear a weapon in my hair, I could sheath it."

"That's true, but anyone that knows you're a shinobi will be able to take it from you," Sai warned.

I smirked, though they couldn't see it. "A good shinobi will have more than just one hidden weapon, you know."

Shin laughed. "I've heard that kunoichis can be pretty scary," he said. "No matter how you disarm them, they will always have something up their sleeves."

"Wouldn't it be better to strip them naked then?" Sai asked, taking the saying literally.

"Yea, but then they will come after your life until one of you die." Shin chuckled. "Something about chastity and never getting married."

"Sound like a man with experience," I said, feeling sorry for the poor kunoichi who had to suffer in order for them to get this information.

"Not me," he said, waving his hands wildly. "The older ones talked about it; that's how I know, honest."

I don't care if you torture kunoichis, as long as it's not me.

"That's good to know," I said, and he sighed in relief. Kakashi, who had remained silent until now, chuckled.

"So, what is the best way to kill a kunoichi?" Sai asked.

I pondered that. Women were, even shinobi, were weaker than men, and you would think they would be easy pickings, but they weren't. Kunoichis knew they were fragile and so became more agile. They were quick and sly, relying on tricks and tactics to outsmart their opponent.

Kunoichis were cold, and didn't show their true emotions. They lie, manipulate and kill without hesitating. They might not be the strongest, but they were the most devious. That's how the academy made use. They gave us no illusion of being strong; instead, they focus on our survival.

"Make her fall in love with you and kill her." I didn't mean to say it out loud, but I couldn't take it back.

The kunoichis in my class were hopeless romantics and would blush at the slightest attention. If you fooled them into thinking they were experiencing true love, they would let their guard down and make an easier target.

"Though this only works on inexperienced kunoichis," I clarified. "If a kunoichi seduces you, it's likely because she wants to kill you."

Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Capable kunoichis are valuable for a reason," he said.

"Sakura-chan wouldn't fall for seduction, would she," Shin said jokingly.

"Takes right!" I said proudly. I already knew who I would end up with, so there was no need for other love interests.

Kakashi signaled us to stop, and we all stood on a large tree branch. He pointed north to a tower in the distance.

"I will remain here," he said. " head to the tower and retrieve the scroll," he ordered, taking out a scroll that served as a reference. The kanji seven written on its surface was the only thing that separated it from other scrolls. "Retrieve this scroll and return to this spot before noon."

A time limit, just perfect.

"Scatter!"

We took off.

"What's the plan?" Sai asked as we speed through the trees.

"We'll focus on stealth for now," Shin said, taking charge as the oldest of us and most experienced. "If we get caught, focus on escaping without getting tracked rather than fighting. We have a time limit and don't know what's waiting for us. Be on alert!"

"Right!" Sai and I replied.

My heart hammered in my chest. The mission might have been a test, but at that moment, it felt like a real mission. My hands moved through the hand seals without my input.

"Thousand-mile eyes!" in a puff of smoke, Springflys swarmed the surroundings and scattered in all directions. Shin and Sai were startled but kept moving without a word. My summons flew around the tower, acting as my eyes. It was disorientating seeing from so many angles, but it was no different than watching several surveillance cameras at once.

"Tripwires straight ahead," I warned. With a flap of the spingflies wings, pink dust fell upon the wires, making them visible. Using the trees as springboards, we leaped through the gaps between the wires. Like balls bouncing off the trees, we traversed through the maze of traps to the clearing where the tower sat.

We stayed in the tree line as my springflies flapped around the tower revealing traps around and on its walls.

"No getting in that way," I stated. Guards were walking around the tower, meaning traps weren't everywhere.

"If we can't go over," Sai said. "Can't we go under?" I looked at Shin, who nodded. Placing my hand to the ground, I sent a pulse of chakra acting as a sonar. Surprisingly, there were no traps underground, say for a pitfall dugout. I nodded, confirming the path was clear.

Sai waved through hand seals before holding Shins shoulder, the two slowly sinking into the ground. By turning the ground into sand with your chakra, you could move through it like a mole. The actual name is ridiculous, so I call it "mole jutsu."

I crawled out of the hole Sai made that opened inside the tower basement. I hid the hole in case we needed it for our escape.

"Sakura-chan, can you search the tower with your butterflies?" Shin asked.

I didn't correct him on the species of my summons; instead, I nodded and formed the dragon hand seal. The springflies turned transparent and swarmed the tower. "Stealth mode," as I called it, wouldn't work on those with sharp senses or a doujutsu, but I didn't sense any such person in the tower. The tower had five floors, the lobby on the first floor, the kitchen and cafeteria on the second, a sparing space on the third, a library on the fourth floor, and a large office with meeting rooms on the fifth floor. To my surprise, the scroll was on the third-floor storage room among the weapons.

"Third-floor storage room," I reported. "But there are people that are sparing right now." I waved through the hand signs for a genjutsu to show a proception of what my summons saw. It was like a surveillance hologram; we found ourselves in a large room that reminded me of a gym. Shirtless people littered the room, some sparing others standing around and talking. They were all obstacles we didn't need.

"So genjutsu can be used like this too, huh?" Shin muttered as he looked about the illusion. I made it operate like a VR space, one need only think about going to the spot, and they were there without moving. Shin seemed impressed and said as much. "Sakura-chan is amazing." He really was too much.

"It will be hard to get around the crowded space without getting caught," Sai said, observing the patrons. "Especially in a room of shinobi."

It was painfully obvious the room was fill with shinobis; they walked without making a sound and moved with a grace no civilian could mimic. They were also sparring using taijutsu and not jutsu, proving they were capable in a fight.

"We could wait until they leave," Sai suggested. I shook my head, no.

"It's likely there is another group waiting for the room," I said. "They have an entire floor dedicated to a sparing, which means it's a happens often enough to need one."

"And we're on a time limit, so waiting until everyone is on lunch isn't an option," Shin said with a grimace. "Can your butterflies carry the scroll out?'

"I can't make the scroll invisible," I informed him. Sai took out his scroll and brush, and Shin shook his head.

"You'll have the same problem as Sakura-chan." He told him. "Infiltration is out since they know each other and we don't have enough information. Stealth is out since they are clearly shinobi, and we can't go in from the outside. We will probably need to substitute the scroll too." Shin muttered out loud.

"Substitute," I repeated.

"Yeah, we don't know if the scroll is valuable to them, and if it is, we might need to swap it for a fake," Shin explained. I eyed Sai's scroll.

"Substitute," I muttered again. Shin followed my line of sight and his chakra flared.

"Can you do that?" he asked urgently.

"I don't know," I answered honestly. I've only had my summons for a few days, and I didn't really train with them before. It was worth a try. "Get ready for anything going wrong," I warned. Had we more time, we might have come up with a better plan, but as it was, we were limited.

"Sai, can I have that?" I asked, reaching for his scroll. He handed it over without hesitation. I took it and wrote the kanji for seven on its blank surface, mirroring the original. I linked to one of my springflies, ordering them to land on the scroll. I called a Springfly to me and had them land on the dummy scroll, mirroring the other.

Substitution jutsu was an e-rank jutsu taught in the academy and allowed someone to swap their body for something else, usually a log, letting them take the hit for you. The academy taught to use it to avoid attacks and gain a moment to counter-attack. As an E-rank jutsu, the substitution's chakra cost was low, but with more chakra, you could evolve it.

I wouldn't have known about it had I not known the future. The one that invented it didn't even acknowledge its usefulness. By pouring more chakra into the technique, you could perform a substitution on someone else without getting involved. Naruto used it to substitute a little girl with a straw doll without touching her. It was amazing how I could feel so proud of someone and so frustrated at the same time.

Of course, knowing about this incredible technique and copying it were two different things. Luckily, Naruto was incredibly simple-minded, so the jutsu was likely simple but required a lot of chakra. With the mechanics of the Substitution jutsu in mind. I reached out with my chakra grabbing the two Springflies. With a wave of hand seals, I molded the chakra to my bidding. I pictured a mirror with the Springflies on either side of it, and then had them "warp" through its surface and swap places with each other, taking their respective scroll with them.

There was a poof of smoke, and a different Springfly and scroll stood before me. I blink, disoriented as the springfly that found its self in a new location. It felt like I was on a speeding bike. I hunched over in an attempt not to puke. The Springflies I used for the swap weren't much better, returning to their own realm after trying and failing to fly.

"Sakura-chan!" Shin was by my side in an instant his chakra stained with worry.

"I'm not fine," I said, fighting nausea. "But I'm not dying yet either." Forget the chakra cost; having to experience it with my summons was the real torture. Problem was, I needed to be linked to them if I was to perform the jutsu. I dry hived and promised myself I would train the stupid ability or use it only in emergencies.

"We need to go," Sai said, getting shin's attention and pointing to the shinobis moving towards the Storage room. Was the surveillance still on? I dispelled the summons, and the feed in the storge room cut off. Taking that was our cue, we grabbed the scroll and jumped back into the hole, covering it behind us.

"Hang in there, Sakura-chan," Shin said, forced to support me as we could hightail it out of there. I still felt nauseous and couldn't quite keep up. "Were almost in the clear," he promised. The mission was too easy. My mind was screaming that there was something more, perhaps it was Madara that was yelling, but I couldn't calm down. I scattered the Remaining Springflies and had them watch our backs.

The shinobis of the towers were searching the storage room after one of their sensors felt my chakra when I performed the jutsu. I should have expected there to be a sensor among the shinobis; they hadn't reacted to my Springflies, so I thought we were in the clear. Stupid.

We were discovered but not caught; we could still pass the test.

"Careless!" my mind screamed at me, but I couldn't see how. There was no way they expected us to complete the mission so quickly and in such a way. We only needed to get to Kakashi as fast as possible. I was a burden for sure, but we were making great time. By the time they realized what hit them, we would have been long gone.

Like a proper shinobi.

I sensed it the moment we fell into the genjutsu. There was a second of confusion before Sai dispelled it. That second served its purpose, and we were completely blindsided when the justu faded. Out of nowhere, three shinobis descended upon us; I didn't sense them at all. Sai took center point, protecting us and blocking their first attack.

Metal clashed as their kunai caught Sai's sword. The shinobi proved more powerful and pushed the young anbu back. Seeing Sai on his back leg, I stepped forward to help. The worlds tilted, and I fell on the thick tree branch. If not for the remnant of force on my hand, I would believe I fell on my own.

I looked up to see Shin falling backward off the tree branch. No. He was pulled down by wire strings that wrapped around his body. His hand outstretched from when he pushed me out of the way. I couldn't see his face, but I could feel his chakra. Without hesitation, I leaped from him as he fell from the treetops, pulled down by two shinobis.

I reached out for his only free hand, and he returned the gesture. In my leap, I pushed off the bottom of the tree branch to close the gap. Our fingertips touched before he disappeared, and in his place, the ground greeted me.

I rolled into my fall, walking away with scratches and no broken bones. I looked around, stretching my chakra in search of them.

Nothing.

I touched the spot he disappeared through and found it solid with no disturbance to the ground. They didn't use an earth jutsu to escape; it was as if they just vanished. Waving through the hand seals, I gave my summons a new command; they scattered like flower petals.

I looked up in time to see the end of the fight. Sai knocked the shinobi out of the tree, which plummeted to the ground. They crashed with a thud and laid unmoving.

Sai landed next to me, his breath labored. Fighting a more experienced shinobi seemed to have taken a lot out of him. He looked around before looking at me with an unspoken question. I shook my head, my eyes locking at the falling shinobi.

I walked over to the corpse and turned it over. It was a piece of wood wrapped in clothing. Sai gasped, no doubt shocked by the new development.

A springfly landed on my shoulder and showed me what I feared. I stood clutching my fist in frustration.

"We have a problem," I informed Sai. "Several, actually." He turned to me, his chakra displaying his worry. "They took Shin. I don't know where or why." I started. Taking out the scroll, I dangled it in front of him. "We have the scroll, and technically our mission is complete, but." I sighed, reaching under my mask to pinch the bridge of my nose. "Our fearless commander isn't at the rendezvous spot."

Sai gasped before cursing.

"It gets better," I said dryly. "The shinobis we just robbed are up in arms and in hot pursuit." Sai crouched with a long sigh. I would have echoed him if I was sure I could get back up on my own. This mission had set up written all over it.