"Good evening Mikoto-san," the kunoichi greeted politely. "Good evening Sakura," the dark haired woman smiled in return. "Is Itachi home?" she asked. "Yes, Fugaku mentioned that you would be coming in the evening," the Uchiha matriach explained. Sakura nodded as she was ushered inside. "Is Sasuke also home?" she asked again. "It's the usual, he's meeting up with Naruto until midnight," was the reply. Sakura let out a silent sigh of relief. The younger Uchiha wasn't aware of her meetings with his older brother and she didn't want him to find out.
"A jutsu retrieval mission in the school," Itachi stated once he finished reading the scroll. "Yes, Lady Tsunade said that the spy is in the school under the guise of a student in first year and is coming from Sound," she added. "I see, so how do we go about this?" the older Uchiha asked as he rolled the scroll. The two were currently seated in Itachi's room on the carpet. "You have more experience in tracking than I do, not to mention the Sharingan. I think it's best if you lead this mission," Sakura replied as she straightened her back, watching him intently and waiting for his orders. Itachi nodded once in understanding.
One thing that Sakura was grateful for was being the Hokage's apprentice, the Godaime Hokage to be precise. While her teacher was a drink and a terrible gambler but one thing she was good at was talks. If you refused to negotiate with her, her fist would follow suit. And no one wanted to face the wrath of the Slug Sannin with monstrous strength as such she had many allies all over, albeit begrudging allies.
Most of the shinobi had retrieved their memories but none of them had retrieved all of their memories. Even Tsunade and Sakura hadn't recovered theirs fully but they had more than most. Evidence of this assessment was that the Shinobi nations were not in ruins because if everyone were to recover a minimum of 30% of their memories, it would be the Shinobi Wars all over again so they were at least safe for now. It was Sakura's duty to make sure that if anyone were to ever recover at least a quarter of their past lives' memories, she had to make sure that she reduced them to at least 15%. She had inherited the job from Tobirama Senju before he took his last breath at the age of 104, when she was 13.
She wasn't alone in this job though. Kagami Uchiha, who was the same age as the Sandaime, Shisui Uchiha, Itachi Uchiha, Shizune, Tsunade and herself were in the group. Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, Izuna Uchiha, Mito Uzumaki, Fugaku Uchiha Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki and Sakumo Hatake had all been the group before they all passed away, with the exception of Fugaku who was still alive. The Konoha founders had made sure to pay a visit to every summoning world to wipe their memories, leaving only 5% of the summons' memories.
Kagami, Fugaku, Minato, Kushina and Sakumo had worked on wiping the memories of Kumo, Ame, Suna, Konoha and the Samurai. Whilst Kagami was still alive but he was old and rarely went out on missions. He gave the younger generation advice on how to carry out their missions as discreet as possible. In every group, there was always an Uchiha and an Uzumaki because of their visual prowess and fuinjutsu skills respectively. However, the current group had no Uzumaki which is why they had to recruit Karin Uzumaki as soon as yesterday. The only problem was that they didn't know where she was.
As she was seated in class, waiting for the exam to start, she allowed her mind to wander about her current mission. She was yet to receive a signal from Itachi who would notify her as soon as he identified the spy. Shisui was near the school perimeter but not inside the school. He would make sure to intercept the spy as soon as he left school premises. Itachi and herself were to try to capture the spy inside the school at all costs. She glanced impatiently at her watch. Where was the signal? Her examination was about to start and she didn't want to miss it.
She glanced at the window and saw a crow staring at her. It cocked its head to the left then right and back to left again and flapped its wings. 'Spy at the cafeteria. Come now,' she translated the code. She immediately stood up and made way her out of the classroom. She passed by Sasuke who was looking at the window intently. She looked the window as well. The crow was gone. Had he seen it? She shook her head and headed towards the bathrooms, focusing on the task at hand.
"Care to tell me why you want to talk to us just before an exam? FYI, I studied for this exam so need to tell me the answers."
"Ino, that's great. I wish I studied as well, I spent the entirety of last night doing push-ups. I felt challenged by Tsunade's Apprentice and decided to do push-ups, yosh!"
"C'mon Lee. You can't be serious, she's just a super strong Apprentice, not the goddess that you make her out to be."
"The weapon's mistress is just jealous that she was knocked out quickly *smirk*"
"You aren't any better Neji. She had you perform your most perfected clan taijutsu on a clone. WOOF!"
"You talk too much Kiba. Why is that? Because she defeated without even trying using a stink bomb."
"Ano, S-Shino..."
"What a drag *yawn*"
"*munch* *munch*"
"Choji, how is it possible that you're eating during an exam?"
"Believe it, ya know!"
"Has anyone seen Sakura?! My youthful cherry blossom is missing!"
"Shut up Lee! It's hard to keep up this jutsu with you shouting in my head!"
"Ano, maybe w-we should ask Sasuke why he called for a meeting during an e-exam?"
"Hn."
"Oi teme! Be more vocal!"
"There's an enemy shinobi in school."
"What?!"
"How?!"
"*yawn*"
"Didn't you sense the genjutsu cast on the entire school? Everyone is asleep except a few."
"Yeah, I sensed it too. I dispelled it on myself, ya know!"
"What a surprise, the dobe can actually dispel an illusion."
"Oi teme-"
"Now's not the time for that Naruto and Sasuke don't provoke him."
"Hn."
"Whatever."
"Everyone be on gaurd. Expect any-"
A figure crashed into the classroom, having barged in through the window. He was dressed in the boys' school uniform. Two figures dressed in black with white plain masks followed through different windows. None of the students moved as they were fast asleep except the Konoha shinobi who feigned sleep but were quite awake. The boy moved backwards, near he door where Sasuke's desk was.
"Give me the scroll," a feminine voice spoke.
"No," the boy snapped as he held the scroll tighter in his hand.
"We're not negotiating," another deep masculine voice said. They received silence in return. The Konoha 11 held their breaths as the killing intent heightened in the room.
"Idate Morino, a Konoha shinobi who defected to Sound, sent by Orochimaru to steal the Scroll of Seals from the Hokage Tower. 18 years old," the masculine voice spoke. "I'm sure Ibiki would be disappointed to know that his little brother was a rogue nin, he had a personal grudge against Orochimaru in his past life," the female said. "I don't care what he thinks. All I've ever done was to try and please him but he didn't bat a single eyelash at me," Idate growled.
"We can easily overpower you, you know that. So what is it that you're hiding from us?" the man asked. Idate grinned. "He gave me a present, just like he did with that revenge-driven Uchiha bra-" The female figure, who was the shorter of the two, released a large wave of killing intent that Idate chocked. She took out a short katana from her waist. The man did the same. "Wouldn't you like to test that power somewhere quiet?" she asked. With that, the three disappeared in a blur.
They were silent for five minutes before Naruto decided to break the silence. "That was the Apprentice, wasn't it?" he asked. "Yes, her chakra signature said as much," Neji replied. "That was Idate Morino," TenTen stated. "The teme has a personal vendetta against him for asking out the Apprentice when we were genin," the blonde spoke, surpressing a chuckle as if he knew something that they didn't. "I had forgotten that the Apprentice was your teammate," Ino said. "Who was that guy with her?" Kiba asked
"I don't know, it was my first time sensing his chakra. It was a bit muddled, just like the Apprentice," Neji supplied. "Me as well" Hinata said. "Are we gonna go after them?" Choji asked as he looked at Shikamaru. "Ask Sasuke," he yawned. "He's the one who knew that there were enemy shinobi in school before anyone did," he explained before they asked for an explanation. The whole group looked at Sasuke who was sitting at the front, his back to them. "We'll go after them. We need information on the Apprentice and more on her partner," he spoke. "Plus we might revive a few memories," he added.
"Then it's decided. We're going after the Apprentice," Shikamaru spoke. "I can't wait to see my teammate fight bad guys, ya know!"
Hope you enjoy the chapter. More will be explained on the memory wiping group in future chapters.
Tozoonana
AfricanFire
