夢

Chapter Twenty-Five

春野サクラ
Sakura Haruno

...---....

Akira was dead.

And she was replaced by a new woman.

...---...

Mireya noticed a new regular customer at the weapons shop. She knew because she herself was a regular customer--one who came every week. Her new sensei had been horrible--like her suspicions--so she took it upon herself to train herself, involving weights, new kunai, and traps.

The owner of the shop himself stated that she was a training maniac, yet there was another customer who was as insane as she was. After all, who bought nearly the entire store's kunai, wiring, shuriken, and nearly everything else with it?

Mireya was there to see it happen, and what shocked her more was the immense strength this customer had. She carried every single item with just her arms, never wavering. There was not a single dropped kunai.

Who was this customer? Mireya had yet to figure out. But with the fact that she's buying almost everything in the store, she thought. It's most likely she's preparing for a huge occasion--so she won't continue these visits for long.

But still, she couldn't help but wonder who this woman was--with sleek black hair, emerald eyes, and immense strength.

Why does she remind me of Akira-sensei?

...---...

Mireya met this woman at a different place. And instead of dumping weapons on the counter, the woman was the one behind the counter.

"What would you like?"

Mireya suspected that this woman would need a job to pay for all those weapons, but she hadn't suspected here. She watched as the woman's sleek black hair slowly unraveled itself from the bun on her head.

And then there was the tag. Kiyoko.

Her name's Kiyoko. Huh.

...---...

Sakura tore off her wig the moment she shut the door in her apartment. She sighed in relief as she released her pink hair from the tight hairtie it was in--after keeping it on for nearly the entire day, her scalp was aching. But she sighed yet again, because she knew that the die she placed on her eyebrows would take a long time to get out (thankfully, it would wash out when she showered).

She knew her old student, Mireya had become suspicious of her again--and she cursed her, because if the girl found out who she was, the whole plan would go to waste. But with the fact that Mireya would see her not only at the store but at the cafe she worked at, Sakura knew that the plan might end sooner than she wanted.

Thankfully, she no longer had to buy weapons, so all she had to worry about was the rent--but she knew she wouldn't stay long, so it didn't bother her much.

Now--the plan. The moment those words popped up in her mind, her head started pulsing and aching. It was the consequences of thinking it through and through excessively daily. Sakura looked around for a couch to dump her heavy body on, but then she remembered that she had packed every piece of furniture into a seal.

She sighed and went for the sleeping bag in her bedroom. Her body ached because of the hard wood floor, but she knew it was better than her many missions, with nights spend on the dirt. Still, she wished for better.

Nonetheless, Sakura threw those complaints to the back of her head as she focused on the plan.

So Step One? Her inner asked, testing her.

Gather weapons. Check.

Step Two: monitor the base and find out their patterns.

Sakura remembered Sai informing her of the base's schedule--everyone would wake up at 5:30 in the morning, and everyone was acquired to be asleep by 12 p.m. Between those two times, everyone was going on missions, training, and lunches and dinners were individual, with random times. By the time 12 p.m came around, the doors to the base was locked.

Step Three: test one.

Sakura had sent a small slug summoning inside the base and so far, it hadn't been caught--that, or the base was luring her into the trap. She hoped it wasn't the latter.

Step Four: test two.

Tomorrow, she'd attempt to sneak into the base herself. She figured that the only people inside would be the leader (of course) and some people training. The rest would be on missions. The most appropriate time would be when dark overcame the entire village, so it'd be harder to catch her.

Step Five: strike.

Only twenty-four hours until she got to Step Five.

...---...

It was six in the evening and the sky became a dark blue. Without any rays of sunlight, the only visible things were the silhouettes of trees surrounding the base. Sakura held back a smirk, her confidence increasing.

The entrance is probably guarded. But the windows are probably locked shut. If I break one, I'd risk being caught.

She sent a clone that henged itself as a squirrel. The clone made its way to the gate, attempting to pass by.

Sakura only heard a meek shriek before the clone was gone.

Maybe the roof?

Instead of channeling chakra to her feet, she used the tallest tree next to the building to climb to the roof. But the tree only brought her to the second level, so she fished in her kunai pouch for a wire. She tied it to a kunai and used it to latch onto the building as she climbed.

Luckily there was no one patrolling the area, but she figured that was because there was no door that led from the roof to the inside. Sakura cursed.

With agility similar to a cat, she took the kunai and wire and jumped down, grasping a branch from a nearby tree.

Well that attempt was crap. Her inner states bluntly.

I guess that leaves one thing. As Sakura went back to her apartment (she circled the apartment three times to check if anyone followed her and set up traps both inside and outside her room), inner smirked mischievously.

Tomorrow, we're not sneaking in.

We're breaking it down.

...---...