Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 20

Akira came to learn quickly that most of their missions were going to be intel gathering and assassinations. Team Ky had a reputation within the ANBU for being particularly good at getting intel out of enemy shinobi, thanks to Sparrow. Most of the time Sparrow would lead field interrogations while Seek took care of the rest. Sparrow was very clearly Seek's second in command and was a strong fighter. So it came as a surprise to Akira when Sparrow started singling her out in training and on missions.

She had been on the team for a few weeks when Sparrow started paying more attention to Akira. Initially, Akira had been part of the team that would eliminate threats that weren't being actively interrogated. But recently Seek had been sending her with Sparrow. Including the current mission they were on.

"So, Fox, what else can you do with that quicksand of yours?"

Akira absentmindedly picked at a piece of bark next to her sandal. They were crouched high in a tree and waiting for their target to arrive. Below them, Seek, Juke, Bear, and Bat were lying in wait along the sides of the trail. The target they were after today was rumored to be one of Orochimaru's subjects, and had reportedly been traveling with a group of rogue shinobi from one of the smaller nations. Sparrow and Akira had been tasked with interrogating Orochimaru's subject.

"What do you mean?" Akira whispered. She could form tendrils out of her quicksand, trap people, form structures and barriers. Since her father died before he could pass on all of his family's techniques, Akira only knew the bare minimum about her kekkei genkai.

"You can grab things with it, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you squeeze something with it?"

It was something that she had never even thought of doing before, but doubted it would be very difficult. Akira looked down at the ground, far below them. She infused chakra with a small point on the ground and willed it into a tendril of quicksand. The quicksand tendril wound its way around a rock, lifting it off the ground slightly. Akira reached out her hand toward the tendril, feeling her chakra flowing through it. As she started to close her fist, the tendril mimicked her movement and tightened around the rock. When she had completely closed her fist, the rock had been smashed to tiny pieces.

She lowered her hand and nodded. "Yeah, I guess I can."

Sparrow lowered her chin slightly. "Good. I've got an idea then."

Akira didn't like Sparrow's idea. But she had no choice but to go along with it.

When the target had finally come through and Sparrow and Akira had separated them from the rest of their group, they put Sparrow's plan into action.

Akira trapped the subject's feet in quicksand, and used tendrils to hold their hands out to their sides. Sparrow lead the interrogation as usual, using her firewhip to raise the stakes of the interaction.

"Where is Orochimaru hiding?" She demanded.

"I ain't got nothing to say to the likes of you assassins!" He snapped.

"Oh I think you have plenty to say. You see, you're not in any position to withhold information from us."

Sparrow snapped her whip out and wrapped it around the target's neck. She did two hand signs with her free hand and infused her chakra into the whip, and a small fire ignited at the handle of the whip. It started slowly creeping down whip toward the target.

"Screw you," he growled.

Sparrow held up two fingers with her free hand in front of her chest, and the flame grew a little bigger.

"Where is Orochimaru's base?"

The target spit out a cackle. "Which one?" He was grinning sinisterly.

"The one in this region."