𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐄 𝐍𝐎𝐈𝐑𝐄 | sasuke uchiha

Icha Icha

"Itachi wasn't kidding when he said this would take us three days."

Kannon grinned at Gaara as the pair approached the border leading into the Land of Water, gaze passing over the young boy floating on sand in between them as she spoke to the Kazekage.

"What's important is that we can get proper shelter here," sighed Gaara, growing bored of having to bounce Yuta every now and then to keep him occupied. As the trio continued their steady pace, Yuta seemed to grow bored of Gaara's sand as well, and let out a loud cry signalling his wish to be put down.

Carefully, Gaara lowered Yuta to the ground. The boy stood still, refusing to follow his protectors.

"Come on, Yuta," coaxed Kannon, reaching into her pocket and pulling out his packet of gummy bears. "Let's go."

"Daddy!"

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Kannon waved Gaara away as he attempted to entertain the Uchiha with his magical sand once more.

"Hey, Yuta. Do you want to see something?"

Gaara watched on expectantly as Kannon wove unspoken hand signs, closing her eyes as she breathed in. As she breathed out, she opened her eyes once more, and a stream of pale blue light escaped her mouth, swirling around on the ground before her. As she continued expelling the chakra from her body, it began to take on a large, formidable shape that emitted a pale blue light as it came into existence.

Once the blue haze around it had disappeared, an enormous white wolf was standing before Kannon, its face almost level with hers. Yuta's face broke into a look of awe as he stared at the creature, too stunned to continue his originally planned tantrum.

"Yuta, meet Yuki," grinned Kannon, patting her yuujin on the head as it nuzzled up to her. "Do you want to ride her?"

Not needing to reply, Yuta merely nodded as Gaara picked him up and set him on the beast's back, saying, "Hold on tight to the fur."

Yuta clenched his fists on Yuki's fur as he leaned forward, trying to look the yuujin in the eye.

"And we're off."

Gaara and Kannon walked slowly on either side of Yuki, keeping close watch on Yuta as he enjoyed his free ride.

"Very impressive," mused Gaara, reaching out and patting Yuki's head. "I guess we aren't doing too bad for a couple of strangers, right?"

Kannon returned the Kazekage's smile.

"Right?"

***

As dusk fell that night, Kannon and Gaara quietly approached the occupied hideout in which they would be resting for the night.

"Welcome, Kazekage-sama." Two shinobi bowed at the travellers as they stopped at the entrance, with Kannon lifting Yuta off of Yuki so that she could release her yuujin.

"Thank you. Is there a room free for Yuta to rest in?"

"Yes, we were alerted of your imminent arrival by the Hokage's forces. Please, come in."

Before Kannon could step forward, Gaara held out his arm to prevent her from moving any further.

"Do lead the way."

In the moment the two shinobi eyed each other out, Kannon sensed something was amiss; instinctively, she held onto Yuta tightly and leapt back, narrowly avoiding being met by a blast of fire as Gaara shielded the pair with his sand.

"Kannon, go!" called out the Kazekage as he came face to face with the impostor shinobi, who had dropped their friendly facade and were now bent on taking out their targets. "Also, to answer your question from before, Icha Icha Violence is the best book in the franchise! It's a piece of literary genius!"

"WHAT?!"

Wanting to know more about Gaara's random remark but unable to do so as she cradled a screaming Yuta in her arms, Kannon cast one final look at the Kazekage before dashing off into the night.

She ran aimlessly, unfamiliar with the territory around her, and even more unsure of where exactly she was headed off to. All she was certain of was that there were still enemies in the Land of Rivers, and she needed to be on guard at all times.

"Shh, Yuta, we'll get there soon!"

Time passed as Kannon continued sprinting through the countryside, careful to keep an eye on her surroundings as she did so. However, just as she could make out the sight of a desert on the horizon, she was immediately circled by a band of shinobi. Not knowing whether she could trust them or not, Kannon wasted no time in holding onto Yuta with one hand as she fought with the other, shooting jutsu at those in her way in an attempt to leap away.

However, it was futile for her to take on the four shinobi while simultaneously having to carry Yuta, and she was eventually knocked down.

Clutching Yuta to her shoulder as she was kneeled before one of the shinobi, Kannon glared at him in pure frustration as he pulled out his katana and pointed it in her face.

"You!" he barked, before pausing to look up at his companions. They all exchanged awkward looks before looking away, some whistling to themselves as they waited for him to deal the final blow.

"Um..." The shinobi went pink in the face and averted Kannon's gaze, coughing to hide his embarrassment. "What... what's the best story in the Icha Icha franchise?"

Stunned by the man's question, it took Kannon a second to contemplate what the hell was going on.

"It's... definitely... Icha Icha... Violence..." she mumbled, trailing off in embarrassment as she answered the man's question, mind clicking back to Gaara's words. "It's a piece of... literary... genius..."

Both looked thoroughly flustered by the exchange, but the shinobi nevertheless withdrew his blade and put it back in its sheath.

"Alright," he coughed, shaking his head. "You're one of the Hokage's shinobi. But what are you doing here, travelling at night? We're the border guard- why are you heading towards the Land of Wind?"

"The Kazekage and I were scheduled to spend the night at one of the occupied hideouts, but it turns out it'd been infiltrated," explained Kannon as she stood up, gently rocking a now softly sobbing Yuta. "He stayed back to hold them off while I brought Yuta to safety. I was on my way to taking him back to Suna."

"Do you have any idea which hideout it was?"

"I'm afraid not."

The shinobi grimaced as they beckoned for Kannon to follow them to the hideout they had been occupying, surrounding her and Yuta protectively as they moved together.

"I thought the Land of Rivers was secure," pointed out Kannon, looking at all the shinobi around her. "Were those impostors Uchiha?"

"Very likely. Either that, or Uchiha clan sympathisers," answered one of the kunoichi, who had cropped silver hair. "We have to locate them as soon as possible."

"I thought we'd... you know... killed off any Uchiha we met."

"Some managed to escape in the midst of the battle, so we can't be a hundred percent sure that we've completely eliminated their threat here."

"Right, right."

"If you don't mind my asking, but... why the kid?" asked the second kunoichi, one with her wavy blonde hair tied up in a messy bun. Kannon patted Yuta's back reassuringly as she walked with the quartet, not wanting to reveal Yuta's identity just yet.

"I have to take him back to Suna," she reiterated quickly. "He's a runaway. We don't know what hideout he came from, and we can't hold onto him if we want to advance towards the Uchiha headquarters."

"Poor kid. It's horrible what these Uchiha have been getting up to, huh?"

Kannon sighed, rocking Yuta in her arms.

"Absolutely."