SHADOWS OF THE VILLAGE (Naruto)

Chapter 5: Almost

It was three days later when Sakura had found him at the river again. Kuma had just left Imori after they had trained together in preparation for their next fight.

Given that Sakura and Imori were on speaking terms, Sakura proceeded to tell him about herself, after being dissatisfied with his introduction. He had simply said that he didn't have any likes or dislikes. He didn't have any biological family from memory.

Imori was normally a blank slate around her and Sakura promised that that'd change... but not like this. Today his mask was cracking. Imori was nervous, fidgety and dare she say it, scared, while trying to play it down. He said he didn't want her to worry and that he couldn't talk about it.

But the part that made Sakura concerned was when he asked her, not to think any less of him. He didn't say why or give any explanation. It was clear that he needed someone there for him and that something bad was going on.

She had seen this behaviour a couple of times before from him, but since they hadn't spoken in previous years, she never asked why he acted this way from time to time.

Sakura had tried to distract him with news of passing her Sensei's test at this very training ground, he perked up at that. He had heard a great deal about Kakashi Hatake since he arrived at the Foundation. He couldn't mention any of that though and instead he listened to stories of her d-ranked missions. They were all minor tasks to help out citizens of Konoha. Nothing dangerous and for that he was thankful.

That was until she mentioned how her teammate - Naruto - convinced the Hokage to give them a c-ranked mission in the Land of Waves. They would leave tomorrow.

"Please be careful, Sakura. I don't want to be attending your funeral because you got killed on this mission." He sighed and avoided eye contact as he continued to punch the stumps. He needed all the training he could get in before tomorrow's end but this was more of a distraction than anything else.

"My funeral?" Sakura said in disbelief, arms crossed as she pushed off the stump she was leaning on. "What the hell does that mean, Imori-kun? It's a c-ranked mission. There shouldn't be a problem. The Hokage said so himself."

Bruised knuckles retreated from the cracked wood, falling to the boy's side. He couldn't tell her something important because it involved the foundation. He was at the land of Waves five weeks ago, taking out targets and helping Gato secure it with the assistance of the Demon of the Mist.

Gato was a pawn. Danzo-sama was using his routes for goods and trade distribution. It benefitted the foundation at that time and Root were sent to keep it that way. Thankfully, for Sakura's sake, they had all been pulled early last week. Root had drawn as much blood from the stone as possible and now it was useless.

"It just means that nothing is ever as straight forward as it seems, Sakura. The Land of Waves isn't a shinobi village but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous."

The boy started on jutsus, turning away from the pink haired girl. Using water nature chakra came naturally to the twelve year old, and it was said by Danzo-sama, he should see how far he could push it. There was water in all living things and it was there for Imori to exploit.

Small animals and children were easily manipulated as they had less control over their bodies anyway. Adults generally had stronger will and resistance. There were also difficulties when the enemy he was trying to control was dehydrated. Imori was working hard to figure out all the kinks of water manipulation within the body.