“How long would I have to train for?” I asked with hope that it wouldn’t be long.
“It won’t take long.”
“No, I need to see her in 2 years! I need to talk to her!” I replied quickly. I had to talk to her and make her leave the village. I had to save her from the Uchiha massacre.
“Yes, yes, you’ll see her in that time…. Probably…. just finish up your food for now” the old man responded with annoyance.
Looking at his face made me want to punch it. This whole situation I was in was because of him in the first place. If it wasn’t for him, I would be training with Mariko-sensei in a few days! But the events had already taken place, there was no going back now. What he was saying was the truth, if I went back now even if I wasn’t killed, I would be taken into questioning. There was no saying what would happen to me.
I quickly gulped down the rest of the fish and filled some water into a bottle that the old man was carrying. We started sprinting into the forest again.
“Where are we even going to old man?” I asked him while running.
“A safe place.” He simply replied.
I had stopped talking to him altogether for a few months so I had forgotten about his shitty attitude of not clarifying anything properly.
“Oye old man are you even sure I can get powerful in just 2 years?” I asked with speculation.
“Who said anything about getting powerful. It’s training to hide yourself from others. You don’t have talent like me.”
“What are you talking about. Although it was powerful you only used 1 jutsu!” I replied angrily at his taunt. I too thought I had no real talent except being slightly tough for my age. Trying to learn the rasengan had painfully taught me that I was not talented. Although when we were making talk about all this it made me remember about that moment that kept gnawing me at the back of my head.
“…Thank you…” a tiny squeak left my mouth as I used up all my energy to say those two words to this old man.
“What? Repeat it louder, I couldn’t hear you.” He said with a smirk on his face.
Fuck he was doing it on purpose!
“Thank you! I said thank you for saving me!” I said frustratedly. No matter what I thought of him, in the end he had saved me from death. I couldn’t shamelessly not say anything to him after that.
“Hmph about time. But are you really going to end it with that? Just a thank you? Shouldn’t you be more sincere to your savior? Shouldn’t you do something in return?”
“What do you even want from me in return?” I asked perplexed. There was nothing I could even give to him, I myself didn’t have anything of value.
“Stop calling me old man. I’m not even that old. Follow whatever I say as a command from now on. I don’t want what happened with that Kumo-nin to repeat itself. It’s not a request, this is an order. Let me remind you that I’m the only person you can rely on right now so you better listen to me, got it?”
“…Got it…” he was right. Like he said I had no clue what to do right now. Mariko-sensei was the only one who I could think of that could help me but she wasn’t even in the village. I had to survive with the help of someone else for now. I hated this, even though I was an adult I couldn’t help myself because of my toddler body, powerlessness and lack of information.
….
….
….
A had just received the report on the Konoha envoy trip. It was no surprise that those tree huggers had agreed to peace treaty with even favorable terms toward Kumogakure. What made him mad was that the main purpose for which the envoy trip was planned had failed. Not only that but Oto one of their talented special jonin was most likely dead. He had reportedly been through a battle which ended with a massive surge of chakra. There wasn’t much left of him but a few traces were found here and there across the pit that was formed due to a battle.
“AAAAAAARGHHHHH!” he hit his table in frustration splitting it in half.
…
The guards outside winced a little. They nodded at each other before one of them walked off to bring a new table for the Raikage’s office. They were already so used to the Raikage breaking tables regularly that a process was already in place to replace broken tables with new ones. They had a room filled with tables to replace the broken ones. The broken ones would just be given to the carpenter to fix it again or to use as parts for a new table.
…
Hakai Hagoromo’s horn that was obtained by Oto’s father which was always carried on him as a memento was missing. The horn was very mysterious it wasn’t an object that could be damaged easily. Oto’s father was the only person that had somehow managed to chop it off Hakai’s head. Apart from it’s extraordinary hardness it wasn’t anything special. There was no reason why anyone would have to take it away. There was also a report saying that the last surge in chakra was of the storm release nature. Oto although talented wasn’t good enough to perform such a high level ninjutsu.
This fact coupled with a mysterious disappearance of the horn and another preliminary report that had some suspects as to who might have fought with Oto were leading him to quite a strange conclusion. If it really was ‘him’ that had caused this mess, then what was his reason to do so. For what reason had he come back after all these years?
Whatever it may be, it was a chance for Kumogakure to kill this troublesome traitorous family once and for all.
Just as A was about to smash his table, he realized that it was already broken. This made him even angrier- “WHY HASN’T MY TABLE BEEN REPLACED YET?! ARE YOU GUYS SLEEPING OUTSIDE?!” as he screamed some static electricity started bouncing off of his body.
The guards inside started perspiring. The tension was palpable. They hadn’t dared to move an inch since the Raikage had started to read his report.
‘Today is going to be a tough day’. They all thought while praying for themselves and their comrades jobs.
Nathan1234· Feb 5, 2023
