“So like I said, we’ll deal with the Mist and their Uchiha later to avoid interrupting the exams and potentially starting an international dispute. As for Hasa, I have some ideas, but I’ll leave the matter up to Lady Hinagiku if she wants to pursue this now or at a later time. For now, we’ll just have a team sent to tail them.”
With a light nod, two ANBU took that as their queue to exit the room and communicate the orders to their peers. First, there would be a group of ANBU, that also consisted of a Hyūga, Aburame, and Yamanaka alongside them, to try and tail the group of women who had left on board the hawk summon a little while earlier. Their mission was to essentially determine if the women indeed had someone wielding the byakugan among them. Should they get their answers, it would be up to them to choose to engage or disengage.
The next course of action would be much more complicated. There were still two more Kunoichi from Hasa currently competing in the exams. It didn’t much too suspect that there were also some other lurking among the crowd of spectators in this stands. However, security records indicated no trace of Hasa had passed through the Leaf’s barrier. It was quite the troublesome find and had managed to stir some panic among the barrier team. Minato couldn’t help but remember that there was also no trace of the man behind the mask all those years ago.
He couldn’t let an atrocity such as that happen in the village again.
Fortunately, the barrier team can taken the precaution of saving the chakra signatures of the women who left the village. By cross-referencing the signature of the woman who had made use of arrows with ones that had come in earlier, they were able to discern who else had come in at round the same time. With one of the members of the Interception Division being a Hyūga, they should be able locate those signatures in the arena. Of course, that was only one part to rooting the remaining Hasa members out. This next step would be a bit more risky.
“An Uchiha and Hyūga potentially in the hands of our enemies? I can’t say I’m surprised by the Uchiha, but this is quite the unusual blunder for a clan such as the Hyūga. I do hope this matter is resolved soon for the sake of your clans.”
With that final remark directed towards two of many clan heads that were now in the room, Danzo turned his attention towards Minato. His icy blue eyes glanced towards Hinagiku first. He never doubted the woman once and knew even she had been caught unaware. On the other hand, Fugaku just seemed to stare in the opposite direction. Forward.
An Uchiha in the Mist. He had tried his best to hide the truth from seeing the light, but even a lie could not stay hidden forever in the dark. Yet, Fugaku had maintained the same stance as Hinagiku. Danzo had been right and he cursed that thought. This matter needed to be resolved for the sake of their clans. Whatever it takes.
Dismissing the clan heads and elders, Minato transported himself back into the spectator room where the rest of the Kage were seated. The battles going on seemed to have their current attention. Now looking down towards one of the battlefield exits. There was a presence he could sense down there. To him, it felt calm and focused. Almost as if it were a part of nature itself. Glancing towards the battlefield, he found the match between Hisato and Karui. It was a strange coincidence to see Mist vs Hasa again. Preferably, it would be beneficial if Yagura were not to get in their way this time. Raising his voice only slightly, Minato made his reappearance known.
“Lord Mizukage, there is a matter I’d like to speak with you about later. Until then, please continue to just keep watching.”
Though his voice spoke out those words in a very calm manner, Yagura couldn’t help but tense up. The Hokage knew. That must’ve been what his disappearance was about. Cursing that witch, Yagura glanced across the arena to see if Kiro hadn’t returned yet. He hadn’t. Could they have already captured him? Killed him even?
The Hasa nin that was suspected to have the byakugan had just perished in her fight against Taiyo Akugami. Burned to death. It was a horrifying way to go. However, it had already been confirmed this girl was not a Hyūga. That should be enough to end all suspicion. The girl who supposedly had their byakugan was dead now, so there should no longer be any reason to pursue this...
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“What?”
That basic question was directed to a volunteer assistant nurse who couldn’t seem to stop examining him with her brown eyes. Kiro didn’t what the hell was wrong with her and why her face was red. The only times she wasn’t trying to take a discreet look at him as he sat on the hospital bed was when she was going over the notes with the nurse or watching one of the fights on the television in the room. Coincidentally, or perhaps not, the only fight the girl around his age seemed to be interested in was the one between Raiku and Shiho. Kiro could only guess why.
“Um... are you related to Raiku by any chance? You guys have the same looks. Like your eyes are both black and yeah...
Her eyes made eye contact with his as she asked that but the girl quickly diverted them away for some reason. She wasn’t wrong. He did remember Raiku having black eyes. They also shared black hair. But like many other people also had black hair and eyes. Was that all the similarities between them?
“Is that it?” Throwing a question back at her, he wondered what else she saw that connected them. The girl brushed one of her locks to the side after pondering on her thoughts for a second. “I mean... he’s cute too.” Unfortunately, that answer just confirmed Kiro was in the wrong timeline. She didn’t seem to be joking about Raiku, or rather she just realized the thoughts that had slipped out her mouth. Fortunately, Kiro had time to waste on amusement.
“Yeah, you definitely like him.” Running a hand through his hair, Kiro casually stated what he believed to be the obvious without a care. As expected, the girl’s face immediately drained of all color before she attempted to quickly shut down his assumptions. “What? No!” She shot back very quickly, but it didn’t really help her case as far as Kiro was concerned.
“You like literally just said it.” Continuing this growing back-and-forth, Kiro would rather not pollute his mouth with what she had called Raiku. “No, I just said he was cute. That doesn’t mean I like him!” Unsurprisingly, she was quick to respond to his insinuations once again. She was quite confident in that response, which was displayed by her standing up. To her credit, that was a reasonable point.
“Yeah, okay...” Those words of acceptance were contrasted the doubtful tone they were spoken with and seemed to purposely insinuate he didn’t completely believe it. Of course, she was able to realize that just as fast as her confidence dwindled. “You don’t believe me.” She assumed was she took her seat again. Kiro didn’t even know why he was still debating this. The girl said she didn’t like Raiku, but her embarrassed expressions said otherwise. Talk about confusing. It was a bit amusing to watch.
“I don’t know. Tell me more about him.” Kiro said, slightly interested in learning more about the foolish Uchiha from the perspective of this equally as foolish girl. The assistant seemed to get a bit excited at the opportunity to talk about Raiku, but quickly calmed herself before speaking.
“Well, he’s pretty quiet and is usually always alone. I don’t see him around other people much. I think he’s always training by himself. He seems like a nice guy though...”
From her description, it seemed like Raiku preferred being on his own. From his few interactions with the Uchiha scum, he always seemed to be with someone though. Then again, he did abandon Shiho. That meant his bonds weren’t exactly that strong in the first place if he could ditch her so quickly. Kiro wondered if this girl even knew how Raiku treated his supposed comrades.
“Why don’t you talk to him then?” If she thought he was lonely, it shouldn’t be too hard for her to go up to him. Especially if she thought he was a nice guy. What was the worst that could happen?
“It’s not that simple!”
Of course, for some unknown reason to Kiro, talking to him was apparently not simple. He didn’t really understand how talking to someone could be complex. Then again, his opportunities for social interactions had been limited to taking a life or being on the violent end of a beat down for a long time, so just talking casually to anyone was like a breath of fresh air at times.
“Why not?”
He asked a simple question this time, one that questioned the complexity of walking up to someone to talk. Yet, the girl only gave him a quizzical expression alongside her response.
“I can’t just walk up to him. He might not even like me.” For some reason, she thought Raiku wouldn’t ignore her if he didn’t like her. “I mean, I’m still talking to you.” Kiro remarked in response to her doubts.
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?” She responded, indicating his remark had gone right over head as she stood up. It was probably about time for her to go at this point. Letting out a sigh, Kiro was just about done with this meaningless conversation anyways.
“Don’t worry about it. Look, I don’t really care about this Raiku guy. He’s a fucking coward.”
Finally, Kiro let out some of his true feelings on Raiku. Calling Raiku a coward out of no where, of course, did surprise the girl. An innocent boy like Raiku probably didn’t deserve to be suddenly insulted like that. However, she didn’t give Kiro a chance to explain before she took offense to that and attacked him.
“What the fuck?! Don’t say that!”
Inadvertently, the girl smacked one of his legs with the notepad in her hands, causing Kiro to grimace slightly. Of course, she pulled back immediately and quickly apologized.
“Oh my god! I’m so sorry about that!”
As far as Kiro was concerned, he had just gotten assaulted by some angry Raiku fan girl. No wonder she was a volunteer and not an actual nurse. Reluctantly, Kiro held back from retaliating against this annoyance and accepted her apology instead.
“Whatever. It’s alright. I just don’t think you know him that well if that’s all you know.”
The girl would have to find out on her own what type of guy Raiku was. To be honest, what Raiku did in this village wasn’t really his business. This fan girl probably wouldn’t even believe him anyways if he explained the pathetic actions Raiku had taken in the forest. It wasn’t his place to take down the reputation of the Leaf genin anyways. Raiku’s actions would do that for him. Whether the consequences of those actions painted him in a good or bad light, Kiro didn’t care. However, what the girl said next caused his gaze to darken.
“Well, he is an Uchiha. You know them, right? Like Shisui is like the crush of every girl my age. He’s so hot! Plus I think Raiku trains with him too. Uchiha are just so cool and you seemed to give off a similar vibe to them somehow. But yeah, I need to go now. Nice meeting you, Kiro! We should, um, talk again! Bye!”
Flashing a smile, the volunteer nurse scurried out the room, shutting the door behind her. Having just finished receiving top of the line treatment for his legs, Kiro had been told to wait there for awhile longer. He wondered him much more longer was necessary at this point. Now that the silence had returned, Kiro could only think back to what she said.
‘An Uchiha. Why is that always the answer?’
No matter where he was, it seemed like that answer was always the explanation to anything good or bad. What did being an Uchiha have to do with who someone was? Was it blood that determined fate or was it the person themself that had the freedom to choose their path? Kiro had hope the latter could be true as the former was the reason why he currently lived in a cage.
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Somewhere on the branch of a tree deep in a forest near the Hidden Leaf Village sat a lone body. One of his arms rested on a bent up knee as the cloaked figure laid back on the trunk of the tree. His spiky black hair blew to the left only slightly as a gust of wind passed by. As the man looked onwards towards the village, a leaf slowly floated downwards, towards the open palm of his left hand. There was an unseen grin hidden as the leaf failed to land on any part of him.
“So many moving pieces now. It’s been awhile since things were so... entertaining. What will you do now, Minato Sensei?”
