Jinchuriki of Water (Shikamaru Love Story)

Chapter Six: The Chase

Ibiki was standing with his fists clenched and head bowed trying not to blame himself for this, but was failing miserably. It was his job to remove threats from the village before they can become serious. It was his duty to get information out of the threats in order to better protect the village in the future. He could have done his job if only the Hokage would have let him! It was difficult not to be angry at Hiruzen Sarutobi on a personal level as well. The fact the he did not trust him to interrogate Kaida (although the reader will remember this to be not quite true) made him irritated at first but the more he thought about it, the more this small action seemed like a betrayal. Yet he could have done something about it at the time! Too bad, it was out of his hands now. The tables have turned and who knew how powerful the ten year old could be? The Hokage sighed, making up his mind.

“Bring in Inochi and the rest of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force, and Tsume, Hiashi, and Jiraiya. This is now an A-ranked mission with the potential of becoming an S-ranked mission!” Hiruzen ordered with conviction.

“Hai!” Kurenai, Asuma, Kakashi, and Ibiki said in automatic unison, despite their shock at bringing such powerful people into a simple, insignificant rescue mission.

***

‘So it seems that she might be trying to leave or she is going to potentially hurt someone, herself, or this village in her state. But if the latter were the case, we should have heard about it by now…’ Jiraiya thought to himself as the team of ten sprinted through the green and brown streaks. If they had slowed down to look, they would have noticed the sound of a lazy brook riding parallel in the opposite direction that originated from a beautiful water fall surrounded by moss, butterflies, wild flowers, dragonflies, willow trees and sparkling rocks.

Kakashi and his team finally caught up somewhat to the mentally unstable red head, thanks to his dogs. They started scrambling toward the south east after sniffing Kaida’s broken sports glasses.

“She’s moving pretty fast, Kakashi. Maybe we should pick up the pace a little?” Pakkun asked.

“Right,” he nodded. “Let’s move!” He called to the rest of them.

“Hai! They all started speeding forward double time, the dark green forest whipping past at an alarming rate.

‘Red and silver hair pulled back into a high ponytail, black clothes and purple shirt with a short sleeved black hoodie over it. Her right eye is blue, left eye green, side part with side bangs hanging over green eye slightly, almost down to her chin. Fast, strong, and smart with an advanced – unfamiliar – chakra line.’ Kakashi repeated the notes in his head that he had taken when everyone showed up. He confirmed part of this by running into several of her many traps. At the time, Pakkun and the other dogs had been following the strongest scent.

She stood on an upper branch glaring down at them with mixed emotions – anger, fear, irritation, distress, determination – yet he could tell her creative juices were flowing because of the calculative set of her pursed lips as her eyes flicked around to his well-hidden teammates. She made eye contact with all of them, causing some of them to shiver. She looked much too old to be merely ten with this look seemingly carved into her face. Her young features suddenly looked old, worn and experienced. Shibi had been right not to underestimate her.

“Ya know you can’t beat me!” Rin said shakily in her high pitched little girl voice that was not Melody’s. This shocked Ibiki since he heard her voice before. He understood that she was not the type of person to say something so petty and overconfident. He would have to get her in his torture chamber somehow, regardless of the fact that she was trained to resist such treatments, he would get her to talk… but he felt this overwhelming need to protect her! It was so frustrating to him, he couldn’t figure out why he felt this way-that she is his daughter.