Naruto AU: The Untold Story

Chapter 21: Stable Ground

The night seemed to drag on. They spent what little daylight they had left showing Guy and Lee where the traps were laid so they wouldn't trip any of them by accident, and the rest of the time was spent in silence as they waited for the robbers to show themselves.

"This is rather tedious," Hisako muttered to herself, sighing as she laid her back against the wall of the house.

"It's taking forever for something to happen. I want to prove my strength in battle! With the Power of Youth!" Lee shouted, standing up, and throwing a fist in the air.

Out of the corner of Hisako's eye, she saw Lee's attention snap to the garden, and she turned her eyes to Lee, "Lee, what is it?" Hisako asked in curiosity.

"A plant just disappeared," Lee stated rather bluntly.

"Plants don't just disappear," Neji scolded, turning his attention away from Lee.

"This one did," Lee replied, jumping the fence to examine a patch in the garden.

Hisako let out a controlled sigh and stood up, "alright Lee, let's be serious here," Hisako reprimanded, jumping over the fence to join Lee in the garden.

She noticed the patch Lee was looking at had tossed up dirt, and even though it was dark out, she could see the shadows leading to a hole in the ground.

"It's another hole like the ones Neji and I saw earlier," Hisako observed, tilting her head to the side as she stared at the small rodent sized hole.

A few feet away, another one of the crops suddenly vanished. Hisako's attention shot up to where the crop was just a second ago and now all that was left was tossed, moist dirt.

"See! It was another one!" Lee exclaimed, pointing.

"Yeah, I saw," Hisako grumbled, standing up and looking over her shoulder, "Neji! Guy Sensei! We need your help! Something's going on over here."

Hisako turned her attention back to the plants and looked down right as something popped out of the dirt right beside her leg. Its small beady eyes peered up at her with an eerie intelligence, it's long claws scrapped against her shin as its brown fur glistened in the moonlight. Hisako shrieked in surprise as the tiny creature turned and fled into the underground tunnel once again as Hisako fell on her butt.

"What? Why did you scream?" Lee shouted, sinking into a fighting stance his hands in front of him as he surveyed their surroundings.

"It was a rodent thing! Under the ground! I saw one!" Hisako exclaimed as Neji and Guy came up behind them.

"Byakugan!" Neji exclaimed, activating his Kekkei Genkai, the blood vessels around his eyes protruding from his skin as he stared at the ground, "You're right. There are dozens of rodents under the ground, they're the robbers we've been looking for. They're stealing the crops!"

"How can rodents be the thieves?" Guy Sensei asked in disbelief as Hisako stood up, activating her Sharingan to look in the direction Neji was looking at with her eyes.

Dozens of rodents scattered to and from the tunnels to gather crops and then disappear again, "no wonder no one's seen the robbers before," she observed, shaking her head, "Come on, I can see where they're going,"

"Right!" Lee exclaimed, "Lead the way Hisako, Neji,"

Neji and Hisako jumped over the fence, Guy and Lee following them as they disappeared into the nearby forest jumping from tree to tree as they followed the rodents through the underground tunnels. Eventually, they came to a clearing where there was a large cavern under the ground and it seemed that the rodents were congregating in this one location. Hisako wasn't sure she was believing her eyes.