78 Naruto : Uchiha : Chapter 78
The Uchiha was spouting off nonsense in his eyes right now.
"That is not our mission Naruto …" Sakumo hissed in a retort.
Had his friend truly lost it?
...
To walk in a den full of tigers - with no idea of how many lay in there, waiting for their chance to pounce on them with no mind of their own lives?
"It's the right thing to do. They're our allies, and they need our help." Naruto retorted flatly, and Duy palmed his face seeing the oncoming argument that he had hoped to diffuse, firing up once more in all it's glory.
"We are shinobi you idiot. Don't you remember what sensei told us back then during our first real mission? Alliances are just that, mere pieces of papers and words." he snarled and Naruto glared right back, matching his best friend's gaze with one of his own fiery ones.
"I think you don't remember his words clearly Sakumo. He also told us that an alliance truly only matters - 'when the allied nations believe in the peace they are trying so hard to show', remember now?"
The blonde's retorting question made Sakumo quiver slightly, but for the life of him he couldn't retort back to that.
Sasuke had said that, as loathe as he was to admit it.
But the context was completely different here. Twisted words of their teacher weren't enough to warrant the kind of actions he was willing to take.
And kami damn it…
"I'm not going to be a part of it…" Sakumo's words even shocked Duy.
The silver haired genin was absolutely serious. His face and voice alone showed it to them.
"Sakumo, what are you saying…?" Duy's innocent question was cut off by an irate Sakumo before he could finish it, raising a palm up to shut him up.
"Stay out of this Duy. He may be stupid enough to believe in these ideals of peace and put his life on the line, but I'm different." even Duy had to gulp at the stare off going on between two of the closest friends he had ever had the pleasure of knowing.
Sakumo's entire life, he had been trained and brought up by his family to be made into a shinobi inclined for a specific field of the shinobi arts.
Assassinations.
Yes, that was what his family had made a name for itself from.
From as far as he could remember, he had always been taught one thing - each day, every day by his father.
Never walk into a battle you do not know you can win.
For taking on an enemy who is far superior than you, is not your way of the shinobi.
It was a teaching his family, and he himself had lived by to this very day.
He wasn't going to change it tonight, not even for him.
"You walk down that path…" Sakumo's finger pointed to road leading to the village, still as silent and ominous as before and Duy just stood by dumbly - not even being able to believe this was happening.
They were falling apart. "…you go alone. Our mission was to deliver a scroll. A simple C-rank mission, and I'm not about to risk my life for something we weren't even assigned to do in the first place." with those words a few minutes of silence enveloped the clearing they stood within.
For Duy, he felt like hiding in some place and staying there forever.
This wasn't how it was supposed to be.
They were friends - and friends stuck together.
No matter what.
"You coming Duy?" were Naruto's only words to break the tense silence that had settled in between the three. And the hateful…no almost betrayed look that Sakumo gave him, had no effect whatsoever on the Uchiha - who stared at Duy expectantly for an answer.
And as shameful as Duy was to admit it - the ever energetic boy was feeling an emotion he didn't think he'd feel today - or anytime soon.
He felt scared.
Bowing his head down a little, Duy said nothing.
But Naruto got all the answers he was looking for, in but a moment.
Without another word, he started walking back to the village and felt a feeling he thought he'd long since forgotten.
He wanted to turn back and look at them, but he knew it would only serve to make his friends waver in the decision they had made for themselves. He wasn't so foolish as to do that to them for his own selfish reasons.
But for all that was holy - he couldn't shake off the feeling bubbling up from deep within his heart.
Clenching his fist over the left side of his shirt, the same spot where his heart was supposed to be - he let his inner turmoil over take him completely.
He didn't feel scared, it was just that…
He felt so alone.
...
With Sakumo and Duy
Both boys stood beside each other, watching their friend's flailing white jacket blowing in the wind gently while he walked into the dreaded village as if nothing in the world could faze him.
"Sakumo…" Duy's whisper was ridden with guilt, but Sakumo was just staring at Naruto's silhouette - with nothing but an emotionless gaze.
He wasn't guilty - he wasn't, he told himself. That annoying Uchiha had a tendency to put his life on the line each and every damn time.
This wasn't the first time they had argued. Nor was it their most intense argument to date.
That had been one, he still regretted till this day. For that day, in the heat of the moment - he had said something that still made his heart twist in ways that made him lay restless at nights, eyes devoid of all sleep.
I have a family to return to Naruto, you don't. Not everyone wants to throw away their lives for such foolish reasons.
That was something he regretted to this very day.
His friend's reaction was just as he had expected, a little flash of pain in his eyes before it was hidden from the world while he simply walked away from him.
"Let him go Duy, we don't need to be there to bail him out each time he does something reckless. He's a shinobi now, let him deal with the consequences of his actions." Sakumo finished with a scoff. And even as dumb as Duy was, he could say he didn't mean those words to come out as harshly as they had.
If the clenched knuckles of his were any indication that is…
"We'll wait till dawn for him to return, if he doesn't come back by then…"
No words were uttered any further between the two while they sat under a tree while Duy began starting to work on building up a small place for them to sit in.
And place some traps while he was at it…
Sakumo merely perched atop a branch while keeping his eyes peeled on the village that made his spine shiver each time he so much as thought of entering it…
...
Squad Six
..
..
"How long till we get there sensei?"
Each and every adult surrounding the litter carriage carrying the pregnant lady for whom protection detail had been organized for - sighed - for the umpteenth time, in unison.
"Jiraiya, if I've told you once; I've told you a thousand times - asking the same question again and again will not get us there any quicker." Hiruzen scolded his genin. Though sighed wearily when said genin huffed and looked away with a pout.
It wasn't his fault that they were all so damn boring were a trace of Jiraiya's thoughts.
But the one thing bugging him to no end was…
"And why the hell does she get to ride in the carriage while we all walk?" this time though, Jiraiya's voice was filled with annoyance. And the head of his primary source of annoyance popped out from behind the carriage's curtain while sticking her tongue out at him.
"Because I'm not a pervert!" the laughs that comment from a certain blonde kunoichi caused Jiraiya to go red in the face.
More so from embarrassment than in anger.
"I'm not a-"
"You are. Don't try and deny it." the glare that Jiraiya leveled on Orochimaru - was downright murderous.
"You are my teammate and a guy for Kami's sake. Agree with me for once!" he half-yelled half-scolded and fumed silently when Orochimaru waved his hand at him as if he were shooing away a pest to make him look away from him and let the ever calm boy have his peace for the remainder of their trip.
"Alright-alright you two, be nice." Hiruzen's amused voice cut in straight through their banter. Though if one were to look closely, he himself was biting back a chuckle and failing miserably at it.
"And as for your question Jiraiya…" that did perk the genin up, who awaited for an answer as to why he couldn't sit in the carriage while Tsunade could enjoy the free ride like a princess of some sorts. "…Tsunade is a girl." and Hiruzen continued before the fuming boy blew a gasket.
"Plus, she can help a lady best - seeing they do share the same gender…" he couldn't quite continue on speaking in his amused voice anymore upon seeing Jiraiya miserably trying to come up with an answer.
But seeing him fail even more miserably, was downright hilarious and prompted another round of chuckles from the two carriage pickers, the two civilian guards guarding the woman inside and Hiruzen himself.
Though Hiruzen's sharp glance to his right for a moment, wasn't picked upon by anyone seeing he had taken his position at point - up front.
The jounin had no time to come up with a counter when a kunai flew in from his blind spot on the right, the only alert for him being the whizzing sound the weapon made and caused Hiruzen to jump up and away on instincts alone.
"WATCH OUT!"
His shout alerted everyone, the civilian guards drawing out katanas that may as well be considered a walk in the park by shinobi standards.
Orochimaru though, being placed on the right side in the back of the carriage's detail had caught onto the offending weapon in an instant.
Not even in the blink of an eye, his hands flew back into the sleeves of his kimono and drew out a handful of shurikens before launching them straight for the offending weapon heading for the carriage.
Three of his dozen of thrown shurikens made contact - to show off his practiced accuracy and deflected the kunai from it's trajectory to embed it safely into the ground underneath the carriage.
Orochimaru did let his eyes go wide when his ears picked up on a slight sizzling noise.
And sure enough - the kunai he had just deflected to the ground beneath the carriage, had a small slip of paper attached to it's ringed end.
And it was lit alight…
...
If you like the story so far, please throw some power stones.
======================
If you want to read ahead of the public release on p atreon.
p @treon Link :
p atreon.com/sybife
|● sybife
