Chapter 12: Under still waters.
Kakashi blinked slowly.
He blinked again.
No, the sight in front of him was still the same.
After spending the last two hours practicing his stealth (and no, it had nothing to do with the fact that someone in the Hokage tower had seen a copy of the not-classified parts of his report and decided to talk about it in the vicinity of a certain green spandex obsessed beast), the copy ninja had finally decided to grace his students with his presence.
He could easily see his teacher's son boringly rolling around in the grass of their usual ground, nothing weird there. The problem was more about what wasn't there.
He knew his constant tardiness irritated his cute little genins. He also knew all of them were way too proud to not arrive at the training grounds at the appointed time, even if it was just to train on their own for a couple of hours. Besides, he was actually trying to help all of them with their particular necessities, so they had an actual motivation to arrive on time. And yet there were two glaringly missing genins in the grounds right now. Jumping off the tree, the elite ninja landed next to the blond. He should probably work on the boy's spatial awareness sometime soon if he was surprised enough to jump when Kakashi wasn't even bothering to hide his presence.
"Yo..."
"You're late," the boy grumbled, his voice noticeably more subdued than other days.
"Yep." So the boy had no idea why his friends were suddenly missed then; it wasn't just another hare-brained plan to prank him. "Though it looks like I'm not the only one today."
Naruto muttered again, annoyance badly masking the worry underneath. Filtering through memories of the last Saturday, Kakashi tried to look for any sign of sickness that could've kept the two at home only to come out empty-handed. They weren't anywhere close to the river, and it wasn't cold enough for them to be able to get sick. Even then, their records showed none of them had ever ended up having to visit a doctor because of an illness, for a couple of broken bones here and there, but never for a cold or something similar.
He'd think they were trying to get back at him for his own lateness, were it not for the fact that Naruto had absolutely no idea of the reason behind their absence.
A rustle of leaves warned him of his late students' arrival a second before their two disheveled forms landed on the edge of their little clearing.
A frown made its way into his face as he looked at them. Dark shadows circled the Uchiha's eyes, clothes rumpled as he breathed heavily, the straps of his equipment hastily made. The girl looked even worse, with matching dark circles under her eyes, she was still trying to fix the belts of her pouches to her long sleeves. Long hair usually braided for days with afternoon missions was left loose and slightly tangled. The wrinkles in her skirt easier to see than the ones in the boy's clothing, but there anyway. Was that what they were wearing yesterday?
"Sorry, sorry we sort of...overslept." Kagome winced a little as she spoke.
Overslept? The meeting time was for 6 o'clock, they were almost three hours late for just an accidental case of not setting their alarm.
"Oh, did you find the things in your library?" the blond asked, his earlier annoyance vanishing in a blink.
Kagome lowered her eyes, an embarrassed blush rising to her cheeks, left arm crossing to grab her elbow, a sheepish smile on her lips. "Not...really. I found the records on the archives, but the library had too many things from that general time," she ignored Sasuke's annoyed scoff. "We sort of lost track of time trying to find it and fell asleep there, actually."
At that, the girl looked up at him, an apologetic look on her eyes, and Kakashi froze.
It was small, he almost missed it, but it was there, a tiny tell as her fingers tightened around her sleeve for just a fraction of a second too long.
She was lying.
His most honest student was lying, and he'd almost bought it.
"Oh, and what was so important for you to be this late to your training?" he asked, his tone carefully selected to sound more sarcastic than wary.
"How about the scrolls you asked for?" Sasuke snapped back, clearly not in the mood to be questioned.
"Oh?"
For the last few days, they'd been trying to figure out just how it was the girl's unique bloodline worked, only to be stumped at the starting line. The girl was still producing results, but relying on instinct for so long had ended up hurting her in the control department. Oh, she could manage to force a technique to work, probably even without the proper hand seals, but the amount of energy she wasted could spell disaster later on. Having a proper understanding of how the thing worked was essential.
Shame the Higurashis didn't appear to believe in the idea of leaving full explanations on their scrolls. Apparently, that was such common knowledge there was no need to reinstate it in the newer versions of their texts. It was a smart way of protecting their secrets, but it was only making their lives harder right now.
During their last training session, he'd gone as far as have all four of them try and figure out the explanations with both sharingans in use, to no avail. In the end, the answer they got was that they needed to have more information.
"I thought you had them all in hand." He knew she had easy access to them all, she'd complained about it back then.
"We do. But a member of my family married into the Uchiha clan sometime before the founding of the village. She should've brought some texts with her, and those should still be stored in the library...somewhere."
Okay, that was reasonable enough, and it explained why they'd been so late.
Knowing their tempers, it wasn't hard to imagine them getting frustrated and refusing to stop until they found something, or eventually collapsed between piles of books and scrolls.
It fitted everything perfectly fine...or it would if they weren't lying.
"Hmm, I see," he trailed off, pressing them too much could put them on edge. "It's still no excuse for tardiness."
"So, 'we got lost in the path of life' is a better one?" Touchy, the boy was definitely irritated here. Easy to put off as a consequence of a sleepless night, but Kakashi didn't make jounin by jumping to conclusions
The issue about searching the archives seemed to be true enough, it still didn't answer what on the Elemental Nations could be so upsetting that not only Sasuke but Kagome as well, was willing to lie about it.
He mulled over it as he sent the brats on a group stamina-building exercise. Having them run laps around the village for a good hour was as believable as any other punishment he could come up with, with the added bonus that he got some solitude without it looking on purpose. He needed to think about it without having to worry if he was giving away the fact that he caught onto the lie.
The obvious answers would be that they found out that the circumstances behind the girl's ancestor joining the family weren't exactly cause for celebrations. Except it was common knowledge to anyone who lived within a clan that her family had been hunted relentlessly. Even the academy touched upon it, taught as the reason behind the disappearance of one of the village's founding clans. They had to have known the chances of a happy union were not high for anyone from Kagome's family. Besides, while the boy was way too determined to restore the Uchiha clan, Kakashi never heard the girl say a single word about her own clan other than when speaking about her kekkei genkai.
No.
That was not it.
He was drawing blanks, though...
Naruto left out a sigh and winced. Even doing something so insignificant as that was painful. Their bastard of a teacher had suddenly decided that punctuality was something important, and pushed an insane taijutsu-only training on them for the rest of the day. The cancelation of their usual 6 D-rank missions was something the blond wasn't completely sure how to feel about. Knowing their sensei, they'd end up cleaning mud from the river bank or something equally gross and annoying. He still wasn't sure if the grueling physical exercises were worth it, though.
Usually, he'd be sharing his sorrow with his friends, but they'd chosen to split up almost as soon as they were out of the training grounds. Something else he wasn't sure how to feel about. The day had been beyond boring, normally he'd just stick to Kagome, who'd make Sasuke stop bitching and either follow them to Ichiraku's, or dragged him to their house for some healthy food.
He could have done it.
Even tired as she was, he knew Kagome felt guilty about being the reason Kakashi-sensei went so hard on them. There was no way she'd complain about him crashing on their house like he'd been doing for the past few days. They looked so tired earlier...
Missing the dark bags under their eyes would've been impossible, plus the girl was almost falling on her feet during the last part of their training. Even Sasuke began having trouble keeping up for the last ten minutes.
No, if he followed them, they would only tire more.
Then again, the blond also doubted those two would follow his advice of going straight to bed when they arrived home. Naruto may be the impulsive one, but those two could be every bit as pigheaded as he was. Once determined to do something, they would persevere until they made it, no matter how long it took.
The small part him wondering if that really was all they were upset about, was immediately pushed away.
So now here he was, sore and bored and with nothing to do for the rest of the evening.
His apartment never looked as discouraging.
To be honest, he was dreading spending time alone more and more lately, that first day after getting back to the village, he'd made the mistake of going straight home to sleep. Waking up with crimson tinted visions still on his mind had been an unpleasant surprise.
The half-remembered memories had taken way too long to fade, even as he rushed to the sink wiping his hands from a non-existent liquid.
It was because of that that he'd decided to stick to them the next morning, heck, he'd gone so far as to sleepover with them ever since. Being together stopped him from overthinking what had happened.
It wasn't that he regretted it.
None of them were in any condition to fight, had they been forced to fight...the thought was enough to freeze him.
Had it not been for the fox, they could have died.
Not that he was happy with the situation, his memory was hazy, and what he remembered made his stomach churn. Worst of all, he'd had so little control a part of him feared he could've actually attacked his friends. Being alone and without distractions was not exactly something he was looking forward to.
Bright pink caught his gaze as he walked, a smile stretching across his face as he recognized who was walking across the street.
"Hey, Sakura-chan!"
The pink-haired girl had been his classmate since he entered the academy, granted they didn't really...spoke...all that much, but he liked to believe they were more than just acquaintances.
Actually, Kagome was not all that fond of the pinkette. She was one of the few people he'd seen his childhood friend openly critique, and he'd lost count of how many times she'd advised him to change the target of his affections.
As for Sasuke...well, dislike didn't really begin to describe it. He kinda understood as well, Haruno Sakura was one of the Uchiha's most vocal fans. Which was one of the fastest and easiest ways to get the moody boy to hate anyone.
Naruto himself, though, couldn't help but admire the girl. Coming from a civilian family and with no real backing, she still managed to get herself in the first place of their class when it came to theoretical knowledge. Even Kagome ended up second after her in their written exams.
Plus, he couldn't say he didn't find the eye-catching coloring of her long hair, more than just a little cute.
"Oh, it's you." She was...not that happy it seemed. "What do you want? Where's Sasuke-kun?"
"Ah," And straight to Sasuke it seemed, he really shouldn't be surprised. "Well, he and Kagome-chan are back in the compound, today's training was kind of harsh."
"Hmm, I see." Her tone was knowing as she looked at him. "In other words, Sasuke-kun finally got tired of you. Seriously, I'll never understand why they put you with him, even Higurashi is better than you."
His fingers dug into his palm. He wasn't that bad...was he?
No.
He wasn't that far behind him.
They'd trained together since they were children, and Sasuke was the kind of bastard that would not go easy on anyone. If he truly thought Naruto to be useless, then not even Kagome would have convinced him to spend so much time with him. He could keep up with them both, he'd won against them both on one on one sparring sessions before.
So then why...
"Hehe, that's what you think," Naruto grinned, forced cheer on his voice. "I've gotten so strong Sasuke can't even hope to match me."
It was a lie, in terms of pure taijutsu, they were pretty much equal, he had to say something, though. So he kept smiling as he lied.
"Yeah, right," Sakura scoffed, arms crossed. "Argh, I don't even know why I'm wasting my time talking to you. It's so obvious you're just clowning around like always."
Giving an annoyed huff, the girl stomped away, leaving the blond behind with a grin on his face and clenched fists. Somehow he was not surprised the conversation went that way...
You have to see underneath the underneath.
It was a phrase Sasuke had heard over and over during his years at the academy. A fancy way of saying that in order to survive in this job, one could never trust anything or anyone around them.
It was a lesson he thought he'd learned after that night so many years ago.
He'd been wrong.
He never doubted what he saw that night. Never doubted the unbelievable explanations given to them. Not the excuses of why no one noticed anything out of the ordinary or how he was the only one to escape the tragedy. In his naivete, Sasuke failed to wonder if the people teaching such lessons could be hiding anything themselves.
Not anymore, though.
This time, he was going to dig as deep as he needed to find out just what the hell happened to his family. He'd figure out who was behind the massacre that almost destroyed not only him but Kagome as well.
And once he found out who was pulling the strings, he was going to make sure not even their ashes remained.
" Someone went through this." The tone didn't betray any of the frustration he knew Kagome had to be feeling.
He frowned.
Last night and up until early morning had been spent doing nothing but decoding the papers his father (because there was no way he'd ever mistake his father's signature, no matter how much he wished for it, it wouldn't change). Today, however, they'd moved to the more recent part of the archives in search of the official documents that should confirm the conspiracy against the Uchiha that the papers used as cause for their rebellion.
It didn't take even ten minutes of looking through the notebooks before it became obvious someone had tampered with the files in the newer cabinets.
''We were stuck in the hospital for two weeks.'' Which, considering the relatively light injuries they'd suffered, was far too expensive a stay.
''Funny, someone spent so much time going through completely innocent papers.'' Bitterness laced her words in a way the boy had never heard before as she threw the book she'd been checking on the table with a huff. ''This one has been re-sown, I have no idea how many pages were cleaned.''
''We're wasting our time here, I don't think there's anything useful left in these sections.''
''Should we go through wills and death certificates then? We can at least confirm some of the numbers.''
They could, but it would hardly give them any real answers. The documents in Fugaku's coded failsafe contained more than just slight accusations against the Hokage, the Councils, and the village as a whole. And while the things they recently discovered painted a pretty obvious picture, Sasuke wanted to have as many details as he could. As it was, however, their hands were still empty despite spending the last three hours in here. Any and all documents that could back up his father's claims were, apparently, completely non-existent.
The glaring lack of evidence speaking louder than a couple of files full of complaints ever could.
No one bothers to clean up a mess if it doesn't exist.
Hell, even without the aid of the failsafe, anyone with a little knowledge of how a clan operated would suspect something was wrong if there was no evidence of friction with the councils. And yet, if he were to judge their relationship based on what was in front of him, he would've thought it idyllic. There could be nothing more suspicious than that.
So at the very least, his father's damming conclusions had to have some sort of truth. The military police had been plotted against, so they tried to betray the village only to be betrayed...this whole thing was a joke.
Had his brother known about all this?
The coded dossiers listed him as unreliable, chances were the young prodigy had absolutely no idea how far back their research had gone. Generation after generation, they'd been steadily pushed to the edge, constantly subjected to dubious missions and discrimination until they snapped.
If the obvious tampering with their archives was any indication of the way the village resolved their problems, then Sasuke highly doubted whoever ordered the massacre of his clan gave Itachi all the information. They were clearly trying to bury everything, why risk letting the knowledge reach the executioner of the discarded pawns/
Every piece of information they'd discovered or failed to, only made it more obvious. Sasuke was the last piece of their little game.
If he killed his brother, then it would all be tied with a nice proper knot, and the lies would be all that remained. The village would get an obedient little soldier after silencing the one person who could leak the truth of what truly happened that night, and they didn't even need to lose the strength of the sharingan.
Plus, Kagome's reiki would stay with them as well. Instead of risking passing her to another clan, they just had to tie her with him to ensure she'd remain loyal.
''Let's go, we'll take anything we can get.''
The girl nodded. They'd probably go back on one of their free days to make sure there really wasn't anything else that might've been missed by whoever was in charge of sanitizing the Uchiha archives. For now, at least, they could make better use of their time looking somewhere else.
''What about Naruto-kun?'' Her voice could barely be heard despite the silence.
''What about him?'' He had a good idea of what she wanted to say, he didn't like it, but there was no helping it. ''If we tell him anything about this, he'll run straight out to the Hokage to demand answers or justice or something equally stupid.
And that would immediately put their names on the execution list. Oh, it would be done with good intentions in mind, but the ability to stop to think about the repercussions of what he was planning to do and execute a long plan was not within the blond's skillset. It was the reason they didn't have to bother talking between them that morning as they rushed to the training grounds. They already knew they couldn't say a word to Naruto. The blond could be discreet (to a degree) when playing stupid pranks, but as soon as his sense of honor (or chivalry or whatever he called it), got offended all subtlety was thrown off the window.
''He would...wouldn't he?'' Kagome laughed, the sound bitter and dark as she leaned on him. ''But what do we do once we have everything we need from here?''
''You mean when we leave?''
She nodded.
That was something else that didn't need to be discussed. Once they got all the information they needed, there was no way in hell they'd keep working and helping a village like this. It was hard enough to keep his mouth shut when dealing with clients while knowing they had no choice, having to play nice and wasting their time when they had to be looking for Itachi was going to be near impossible. Kagome herself wouldn't last that long either, contrary to popular belief, she wasn't all that forgiving.
He let his head fall back in fatigue, that was the issue, wasn't it? The problem wasn't so much what to do about the prankster now, but what they would have to do later.
''He loves this village,'' the girl snorted, disdain lacing her every word. ''for whatever reason.''
''You think he'd try to stop us?''
She sighed, ''He wouldn't sell us out, of course not. But even if he agreed to help us out...''
Kagome let the end of her sentence hang, there was no need for her to finish it.
The last surviving Higurashi and the last Uchiha were too high profile for them to be able to simply vanish without having search parties followed by hunter nins. To have such high-end potential weapons be taken by other villages was not something they would allow. The host of the Kyuubi though...
If they ran away, there was bound to be a scandal; with their reputations, everyone would blame him of being impatient in his quest for revenge. Rumors about him forcing Kagome to go along would spread like wildfire, and doubtlessly, the council would try to recover them both...as long as the true reason behind their parting remained secret, they still had a margin of error.
If it was Naruto who ran, on the other hand, the whole village would be used in the search. If it was even a search instead of a hunt. Too big a risk and too big a weakness to let anyone else take advantage.
And if they learned they couldn't control him, then what?
Naruto wasn't one for subterfuge, his feelings too intense for him to be able to fake them. It didn't take a genius to know what would happen when the higher-ups realized they'd not only lost a potential weapon but that it was also primed against them.
One week ago, the scenario wouldn't have seemed at all possible, after learning how the sanctimonious Hokage and his council had handled the possible Uchiha insurrection...he could easily believe that and more.
"He can't leave the village."
There was no choice.
"And he can't know why we left either, is it?" she snapped at him.
He could see it in her eyes, the light of anger and defiance at his answer. Chances were, it was less directed at him and more at the wold. The girl was smart, she had to have reached the same answer he did, she just wanted a different one.
Silently, he waited, wanting to see if Kagome was going to voice her displeasure or swallow back the complaints she already knew were pointless. He'd happily allow himself to become the target for her frustration if all she wanted was to rant if it gave her a little reprieve. She had good reasons to be mad.
Konoha was hostile enough for the blond as it was, even now, she'd get into discussions to try and defend their childhood friend. Their names alone did quite a bit in keeping some of the vendors civil towards the prankster. While still young, everyone knew they'd eventually gain more than an insignificant amount of political power; and the amount of money to their names wasn't something to scoff at either. Even then, they had a list of stores none of them would step a foot in, some had been stupid enough to actually ban them, others because they thought the two clan heirs wouldn't notice they only accepted Naruto when they were with him.
Once they were gone (disgraced and reviled no doubt), life for the blond was bound to get worse. The teen was just stupid enough to try and publically defend them.
"I know."
The quiet voice echoed loudly in the empty building, tightly contained rage and frustration hidden behind those two small words.
Anger swelled up inside him.
How much had the girl sacrificed for him already? Ever since they were kids, she'd constantly put herself out there for his sake. More than once, she took the blame for whatever accident he caused, knowing full well his mother's coddling wouldn't save her from punishment. Ignoring her own sadness, the girl began to smile, polite words flowing from her lips as she attempted to fix the bridges he'd burned. She had killed for him. She'd stayed back as he killed someone she felt respect for.
Time and again she suffered.
All because of this stupid village.
Her family went underground to survive, but the village failed to uphold their end of the deal, letting the once-prosperous clan to be massacred. The family that took her in was murdered on the Hokage's orders. Even now, she was suffering for fear of what the one person she cared about would have to face because of the fucking village.
"They will burn."
The words fell from his mouth, not a threat but a promise. One he planned to accomplish no matter what.
She wouldn't need to keep sacrificing herself for his sake anymore.
"Not yet..."
He looked up, surprised to hear the determination shining in her words. Onyx locked on frozen azure. She looked so much like she did last night.
"We need to stay," she added. "Until the time is right,"
Sasuke frowned, he knew she was right. The fight with Haku a bitter reminder that while capable of surviving a fight against a stronger enemy, they'd cut it too close for comfort, and the older teen wasn't even trying to kill them.
They were still too weak.
Slender fingers closed around his own in a familiar manner.
"They'll pay..." Hers too was a promise. "but only if we can make them."
"We will."
Crimson light painted the empty streets of the Uchiha district in a well-known hue, an image that mocked him as they left the abandoned building. They were played once, it wouldn't happen again. If they had to lie for years as they planned the village's destruction...then so be it.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder, and then he looked again.
"If it's Guy you're looking for, he's not around here."
"Hmm, interesting fact, if unnecessary." Kakashi turned back to see the newest jounin walking towards him, amusement painted in her vermillion eyes.
"Oh, so then you don't care to know that he was asking around for you some...fifteen minutes ago." A chill ran down his spine at Kurenai's saccharine smile. "I told him you decided to have your team train in the river today."
"That's..."
"Shortly after I made jounin, I ended up getting injured. Nothing big, but the bandages weren't out by the time we came back to the village." The young woman smiled ruefully. "His heart was in the right place, of course, but his methods were a bit...extreme." The wince under said smile, however, couldn't be completely hidden, the copy ninja could relate."Oh yes, did you know there's a nice tea house a couple of streets down here?"
"Right," he scoffed and followed the woman, he still wasn't sure if he wanted to go with her, but considering the warning she gave him, the least he could do was walk along for a bit. "and when Kagome says Sasuke was a little annoyed, she's not making the understatement of the century. Have you considered trading tips with her?"
"The Higurashi girl?"
He nodded but kept silent, he didn't think Kurenai was the kind to be overly interested in clan matters, but Kakashi wouldn't be breathing if he was unable to realize what a politically charged team had been dumped on him. And out of all of them, the only one who was seen with more greed than wariness was the lone survivor of the Higurashi clan.
"Hmm, did she find whatever it was she was looking for?" His steps faltered.
"Excuse me?"
"Hinata-chan mentioned she might've been able to clue Higurashi in some sort of search," she said, in an offhanded tone, like she hadn't just made the decision of going to that tea shop for him.
"I didn't know they were close."
Because they weren't.
After that first session with the brats, and the realization that the ANBUS on task of keeping an eye on the kids were absolutely useless and couldn't be relied upon for decent files, the copy ninja took it upon himself to follow all three from time to time during their first couple of weeks. Nothing overly intrusive, of course, but enough to know that none of his brats had any kind of meaningful relationship with their contemporaries. Then again, that only gave him current information.
This time, Kurenai didn't even try to hide her wince. "Not...exactly. To be fair, Hinata-chan only came to me for advice about to reconnect with someone she once was almost friends with but ended up being too coward to help her when she needed moral support some years ago. I was the one who made the leap, if you know someone else who fits the bill, do tell."
Ah right, he'd heard the Hyuuga head was not all that pleased with his heir, rumors were he was focusing on the younger sibling now...but really, how could an heiress be so ridiculously transparent? Even if Hiashi wasn't happy with the girl's performance, some classes still had to be required, like diplomacy and the basis of not giving up your whole hand before the game even starts.
Hatake Kakashi never bothered with clan politics. While technically his family had once been a decent-sized clan, they'd died out until himself and his father were the only ones left. By the time he could take on the role of clan head, only he remained, and unlike the Uchiha, he had no plans on creating more complications for his life. It didn't mean he didn't know how to play the game.
"Maah, not many candidates." He entered the tea shop.
The woman smiled, "so, how did the search end?"
"Still hasn't, from what I heard." The seat she chose was in the back corner, a nice place to keep words from traveling to curious ears. The woman was also dealing with clan heirs from what little he could remember. "It's a big library, after all."
And something in there had unsettled his students badly enough to put them on edge and lie to him.
"Well, Hinata-chan will be happy to know her advice wasn't completely useless." So that was it then? Kurenai was moving for the Hyuuga heiress? Idly, Kakashi wondered how much more intense was Hiashi's displeasure for his own daughter to make a woman from a small clan take a move. "What do you say about some joined training? Having more variety is always a good thing."
The copy ninja hummed. Joined training wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't common either, the world of shinobis was a competitive one. For jounin who took care of new graduates, having their respective charges advance faster than others was usually a point of contention. Unsurprisingly, because of that only those who had close friendships ever had their teams working together. As it was, Kakashi had made sure to keep everyone at arm's length, and since no one (except one spandex loving taijutsu expert) had attempted to bridge the gap, the man simply assumed his team would continue as they had. Besides, because of its members, the team was unlikely to get separated even after they all eventually got promoted, there was no pressing need for them to be overly adaptable.
He took a second to consider the brats under Kurenai, none of them seemed like the kind to agitate the Uchiha to a degree Kagome couldn't defuse. Practicing against a Byakugan could also do wonders to their taijutsu, and the girl could benefit from making more connections...then again, the one Kakashi had caught the shy Hyuuga tailing during his early observations was his most overlooked genin.
No one could deny Naruto could use some more positive reinforcement. The other two families were also relatively neutral regarding the Kyuubi issue, chances were the kids wouldn't be too overly biased. Having his childhood friends accept him regardless of knowing the truth of his situation probably did wonders for the brat, but having more people around him who didn't constantly revile him would help a lot more. Especially since the boy had clearly become more self-conscious after his loss of control in Wave.
"Hmmm, it could work out. Though right now is probably not the best time for it.
At that, the woman blinked, confusion easy to see in her vermillion eyes.
"It's that time of the year again, it won't be long before we get the official announcement."
"Oh right," Kurenai gasped "I almost forgot we're hosting this time." She took a sip of her tea. "Planning on entering your kids?"
"Hmm, who knows, are you?"
OMAKE
The city looked in better spirits than he'd thought it would be according to their reports, especially considering how much the population was diminished. Miroku wasn't an expert, but he wouldn't be surprised if soon enough, even their clan began keeping an eye on Wave.
"But really, what kind of idiot thought it would be a good idea to name the bridge after a piece of ramen?" Ah, as usual, they could always count on Inuyasha for a vivid commentary on the places they traveled to.
And as usual, Sesshomaru-sama was a few meters behind them in an effort to ignore them all.
"Hey, that's not a stupid name! Stupid!"
The annoyed, high-pitched voice was coming from a kid that was fearlessly confronting his silver-haired friend. Unsurprisingly, Sesshomaru-sama looked as interested in reigning in his brother as he was to announce he was ready to become a pacifist and vegetarian. And Sango was pointedly looking at him, a clear signal that she wasn't in the mood to deal with an angry mob because their friend was so capable of fighting with a kid.
"Ah, Inari!" A young woman ran towards them, her clothes not luxurious but in a noticeable better condition than most of the others, they might have struck gold. "I'm really sorry about this...are you ninjas by any chance?"
The woman was looking at them with a curious look in her eyes. No wariness or hatred in her gaze, did they have a positive experience with shinobis before? The fake monk took the bet.
"That we are, ma'am," he smiled, gentle, and kind, and just the right amount of charming. "We're traveling to take a special exam, all the way to Konoha."
Just like that their expressions brightened, so it seemed he'd been right. Really, for all the problems he knew they'd gone through against that mob boss, these civilians were way too trusting.
"Ah, is that so, why don't you stay for dinner, we're still rebuilding most of our businesses, so there are no real restaurants or inns here yet"
A quick glance back gave him the silent ok for them to follow the lady and her son. Apparently, it was more than just a good experience with the Konoha ninjas, these people had more than a little hero worship towards them, excitedly talking about the four shinobis who risked their lives for them.
Violet eyes lingered in the framed picture proudly displayed in the living room showing the family and the four ninjas. Three of them clearly genin, barely kids with looks of open surprise on their faces, even the older one looked taken off guard, his one visible eye open wide as he looked down.
From the names he was hearing though, they had to be either extremely lucky to have survived or held incredible potential. Considering the older shinobi matched the description of S-ranked copy ninja Kakashi, Miroku was inclined to believe the latter.
A/N: The omake was a little something I wanted to include but just couldn't fir with the story, just to show how things were going in the place that was so important plot wise, and also as a reminder that no matter where Inuyasha is always willing to pick a fight.
My feelings about Sakura are...complicated. I think in paper the character had potential but the execution was worse than poor, most of the moments that should've helped her character development were almost immediately reversed in a couple of chapters. Also I don't remember if her family was made of civilians or not, but considering I don't think it's mentioned in the original series I'm making the decision to say that a girl who was worrying about dieting when their regular training would've kept her in shape did not come from a shinobi family.
As always, thank you so much for reading and all the reviews, comments and criticism, they can brighten my day.