Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 37

Akira opened and closed her mouth, then looked away. "Yeah, that's a good point," she grumbled. Kakashi nudged her with his foot under the table. She glared at him in response. He only raised an eyebrow at her and smirked again. Akira rolled her eyes.

They did go with her plan, and as soon as they were finished eating breakfast, Kakashi left the condo to go track the target down again. Now that they knew what he looked like, it would be easy. Seek and Akira stayed back a bit to clean up.

Seek and Akira were tag teaming the dishes, him washing and her drying them, then putting them away. As they worked, they chatted a bit about the Mist Village, and how it was so different from the Leaf. Then he caught her by surprise.

"I'm sorry for how I reacted last night. It was uncalled for to yell at you guys, especially you. It wasn't your fault you were assaulted, and you handled it in the best way possible." He sighed and closed his eyes. "I haven't been honest about how stressed I am about this whole thing."

"I know," Akira said quietly. She looked up at Seek. He didn't even appear surprised that she understood what he was referring to. "We won't let anything happen to you. Dog and I will get you home safe, I promise."

He met her eyes with a smile, and a bit of relief in his chakra. "Thanks, Fox."

She gave him a quirky grin. "Now, let's go track some jerks, huh?"

Seek chuckled and turned the sink off. "Let's do this."

Akira really hoped she would be able to keep her promise. But a sinking feeling was beginning to weigh on her.

They left the rental together, then split up outside the building. Akira made her way toward the marketplace, hands tucked into her jacket pockets. Her gait was slow, but she was on high alert for threats. Especially after the events of the previous night. That type of attack was rare in the Leaf and told her everything she needed to know about the Mist.

Akira went through the marketplace, stopping every once in a while to look at what the vendors had on display. But the products on the tables were not her focus. She was eavesdropping on conversations that other shoppers were having. Though, most of what she heard was gossip. Only one man mentioned the impending war.

When she reached the end of the street, Akira turned left, toward Eto's house. She cringed as she walked past the alleyway she'd been pulled into the night before, but didn't dare to go down it to see if that guy was still there. Doing that would only draw attention to herself.

She kept her head down until she reached the neighborhood Eto lived in. The gate was open, so she walked right in and down the street until she was standing across from his house. As she passed his huge mansion, Akira felt for any chakra signatures within. There were a few, but none that were strong enough to indicate that they were shinobi. In fact, there didn't seem to be any shinobi within any of the houses on the street. She narrowed her eyes, suspicion creeping into her thoughts.

It was just too easy. Where were all the shinobi? Were there really no guards, or patrol anywhere within the neighborhood? No ANBU?

They had to have been suppressing their chakra. It put Akira on edge. She lowered her eyes to the sidewalk in front of her, feigning a state of nonchalance. Thankfully there were several other people out on the street, but if she appeared like she was there for some nefarious reason, it would definitely draw unwanted attention. Spying on the house while out on the street was not going to work. She had to figure out some other way to watch the property.

Akira stopped using her sensory ability in order to hide her chakra signature, instead opting to observe from the corners of her eyes while she continued on down the street.