Oh, the Irony

A Trip to Konoha (Chapter Six)

Who knew that people were capable of liquefying themselves and enlarging their limbs at will? Despite my initial disgust, I had to admit that this was pretty fascinating.

And it was getting increasingly more difficult to maintain my frown when Suigetsu was smiling at me like that.

"Well…" I hesitated upon saying the next few words. "You did well in this fight, so maybe joining up with you wasn't as bad as I thought."

Suigetsu widened his eyes in mock surprise. "Wow… that's coming from you, Kisara? Today's just full of surprises."

"Why can't you just maturely take a compliment?"

"Can I really consider that a compliment?"

Ugh… there was no dealing with this guy. Judging from his smug expression, Suigetsu probably thought that he had won some victory. I wasn't one to prolong an argument, so I only let out a small sigh before continuing past the unconscious rogues and in the direction of Konoha.

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After that encounter with the Iwagakure rogues, the rest of our journey passed by relatively uneventfully, save for Suigetsu's constant chattering. Before long, Konoha's majestic gate came into view, and I started to mentally go over his instructions while trying to maintain a composed exterior.

On our mission, we were to be Kiri chunin sent by the Mizukage due to a mysterious "enemy threat" near Konoha. This idea of "extra protection" seemed very suspicious to me when Suigetsu first introduced it, but he assured me that this type of mission would allow for the most leisure, which could then be used to locate and steal Kiba.

He claimed that what we needed wasn't security, but speed. If we could get our hands on Kiba before the Konoha authorities discovered of our mission's invalidity, then we had no reason to worry.

And as usual, he acted so confident of his ability to succeed that I couldn't do anything but go along with his plan.

Before long, the dirt path gave way to stone as Suigetsu and I passed through the entrance to Konoha. Although he appeared completely at ease, feelings of guilt started to swirl inside of me. I knew that our intentions were wrong… Suigetsu's promise of protection almost didn't seem worth walking down this path of crime.

Suigetsu led me to a small desk situated a few yards away from the gate and handed the fake paperwork to two Konoha shinobi. "We came here on a reinforcement mission," he stated. "Orders from the Mizukage."

While my stomach flipped, one of the shinobi scanned over the paperwork and looked at us inquisitively. "There's a threat like this near the village, and they only sent the two of you? You guys must be pretty high-ranked."

"Nah, we're only chunin. But I must say… we're pretty hard to beat." Suigetsu winked.

"Well, if you say so. Maybe we could test that out during your time here, eh?"

"Kotetsu!" the other shinobi reprimanded. "You know we can't do that… We have these responsibilities to take care of."

"Hey, there's no harm in taking a break to spar."

"Yes, there is. We'd be neglecting our duties."

I couldn't help but faintly smile at their casual banter. I hadn't been in a carefree atmosphere like this since… well, forever. Were all the citizens of Konoha so innocent and lively? My small smile quickly faded at that thought and the notion that we would be stealing from such good-natured people.

"Anyway," said Kotetsu with a laugh, "You guys are probably sick of us by now. The paperwork still needs to be approved by Hokage-sama, so just head towards her office right below the mountain. You know where it is, right?"