Not much of a chapter but I thought you guys desrved something considering hom many votes did this story get. The votes are over 800!!!! YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!!
Its just a passing chapter not much fun but considering I wrote it in the midst of all the exams i think it turned out pretty well.
Shikamaru Pov
'What a drag!' I thought jumping from one tree to another, beside me was Kiba and Yumiko and so far we had nothing.
This was almost our third time into the forest; it was drill for us to finish covering a certain distance before meeting up with Asuma again and then repeat.
Considering so far we didn't manage to get any results I just wanted to lay down. Soon enough though we jumped down from the last trees into the end of the forest.
"I though you said this was only a forest area followed by the mountains?" Kiba questioned.
While we could see the mountain up ahead in a distance this area mostly though was houses and farms, with a river passing on the side from another part from the forest. It passed beside the houses with waterwheels beside them.
"Oops" She muttered scratching the back of her head "I forget, this is just our farming area I mean we have to get our food from somewhere."
"It does not look so lively" I told her
"Most of the farmers are back at the village, they didn't feel safe staying here alone" She explained.
"Troublesome woman" I muttered "We should head back and tell Asuma" there was a chance that this could be their hiding place. If it was we could get in a fight which we were not ready for.
Sara Pov
It was almost sun down, as my eye brows twitched again at the silence around me.
I opened my closed eyes huffing in the process, as I sat normally instead of cross legged and let my legs dangle from the side.
After the conversation with Manami I started trying to meditate but of course every time I closed my eyes I couldn't empty my mind and concentrate.
'You know you're being an idiot' Yami said in my mind
'She said that my mind and emotions were behind this so I am trying to solve it' I told her 'If I could just meditate'
'You had been at it for hours now and you have gotten nowhere. You know that what you are doing is not the answer' She told me finishing her sentence quietly.
I didn't reply, I just stayed quiet watching the sunset, I knew that what I was doing was not the answer but the alternative was dealing with them and doing that at this time wasn't possible.
I clenched my fists.
'If I face everything there is a chance I would probably break down and right now is the worst time for that, I already cried enough on this mission.' I told her 'I can't let my emotions get in the way of saving the village and my brother.'
'Suit yourself' She retorted and going back to her silence I just sighed.
'I can't lose this chance not again'
'Um...Sara!' Sadao thought to me just afterwards 'we are coming over now'
'We?' I questioned
'Yes me, Ume and Raiden' He told me and my eyes widened but that was the only reaction I got time to do.
"Saraaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Just as he told me two voices screeched from the sky behind me.
I was thrown to the ground by the two bodies.
"We missed you so much" The two voices shouted as they were on top of me, not realizing that they had basically attacked me.
"Hey could you get off me?" That's was what I tried to say at least but it came out muffled and incoherent.
"I think you might kill her if you don't get off now" Sadao told them and thus after a couple of seconds of them processing it the got off me apologizing.
"It's okay!" I said with a sigh sitting up. Examining them I noticed how much they've grown both of them after all when I first met those two they were barely 1 month old.
Ume and Raiden were both Falcons, Ume had greyish head feathers with blue-gray wings , dark brown back and blue eyes, Raiden looked almost the same except for having a white face with a black tear stripe on his cheeks and Amber eyes.
"It's good to see you two again" I told them with a closed eye smile.
"I can't believe that in seven years you didn't even think of summoning us" Ume complained with a huff.
"Come on you guys give me a break, when I first met you; you were barely out of the egg" I told them.
"Yeah right" Raiden said with a scoff before turning to me again "You won't believe how strong and fast we're now"
"Yup I think we might be able to out fly Sadao now" Ume said with a grin.
"I guess we'll have to test that theory sometime, won't we?" I told her with a smile.
I just didn't know how much they were going to take my words to heart.
They both look at each other with a knowing smirk, almost like they are talking in their minds.
The next I know it I was in the air holding to Raiden for my life, I couldn't even open my eyes.
"Slow downnnnnnnnnnnn!!!!" I screamed to him as he continued to fly up wards at a huge speed.
"You haven't seen anything yet" He said as he flew even faster. "Let go!"
"Are you nuts?" I asked him, he was still flying upwards.
"Just trust us" He retorted.
I gulped, my eyes still closed.
'I probably lost my mind' I thought to myself as I let go of Raiden.
I screamed as I fell down but it barely lasted a minute before I was on another feathered back.
"Hearing you scream; you would think you never flew before" Ume said with a chuckle, I could feel the wind hitting my face which meant we were rising again and at a great speed too.
But after a few seconds, we stopped moving or more like rising I think.
"You should open your eyes" She told me cheerfully "I am pretty sure you would like the scenery"
Taking a deep breath, I slowly opened my eyes just to gasp at the beautiful scene in front of me. It was really breathtaking, the sun set in the background of it, with its rays falling on the ocean water making it sparkle like diamonds. Even with the empty streets instead of the look of being haunted the village looked beautiful almost peaceful, what added to the scene was the flocks of birds flying above us and beneath us but at a distance from us.
"It's beautiful" I said or more like whispered almost afraid to break the serenity around us, or if I spoke louder than a whisper the scene will disappear.
"Ready to dive again?" She asked but she didn't wait for a reply though, she just started diving towards the village again head first.
I screamed but not in fear like before more like in excitement.
When we broke through a cloud passing by, I didn't wait for her to tell me to jump. I was falling through the air at an incredible speed head first.
Before I even reached the roof level of the village houses, I was flying up again on Raiden's back.
****************************************
"You guys really know how to cheer me up" I told them with a smile when we were back at the shrine. I was sitting cross legged resting against one of the pillars.
"We have always wanted to do that ever since we saw you do it back then" Ume said cheerfully.
I knew exactly what she was saying after I managed to pass the test and sign the contract, I got to meet my flock. The problem back then is in exception of Satoshi, they were all barely a month old, thus most of them were still incapable of flying.
Thus Mom had me train with her own flock, when it came to learning to hold myself at high speed I trained with Ume's and Raiden's parents, Kin and Kyou. It was what we just did except more complicated and involved me falling even more.
"That smile suites you even more" Raiden said.
"Yup" Ume agreed "Your fake smile does not compare to this one at all" I looked at her confused.
"When we came a few minutes ago, you looked like you were forcing yourself to smile just for us" Raiden explained "But this smile makes you look even more beautiful, guys will definitely drop dead for that smile" He finished with a wink making me blush.
"Wh-a-tt?" I stuttered blushing.
"It suits you that much Sara" Ume agreed "As much as flirt Raiden is, he doesn't tend to lie."
"How about we show her what we also learned?" Raiden suggested to Ume and she nodded. "Ready? Transform!" He said and the next I know it there was a puff of smoke but when it dispersed I wasn't expecting what I saw.
Instead of two Falcons there was two teenage kids that looked 16 or 17 in their places.
"So what do you think?" The female asked with Ume's voice and a grin, she had Blue hair, with only her side bang silver in color, and it reached all the way to her knees. Her eyes with also the same Nordic blue from before.
Raiden had shoulder length silver hair, the black tear stripe from before on his cheeks and the same Amber eyes. Both of them had Fair skin.
I had to say both of them were beautiful and gorgeous, I was pretty sure they would have fan girls and boys with those looks.
"So you two spent time learning how to transform into humans instead of learning battle jutsus?" Sadao asked as he sat on my head.
"Yup" The both answered cheerfully making both Sadao and I stare at them.
"Any way before the interruption of those two" Sadao started saying to me "Lady Susumu sent us to tell you that the flocks will handle the village watch from sunset, so you and everyone can rest"
"So that's why there was so many of them flying earlier up there" I said thoughtfully "We just need to tell everyone that"
"Already on it, Ichiro, Miyuki and Kei went to three of them and Satoshi went to Hideo" He told me and I nodded.
"Good I guess then I..." I started but was interrupted by Sadao.
"You're going to go rest too" He said sharply "You need to rest"
"I am fine"
"No you're not"
"Are we missing something?" Ume and Raiden asked at the same time.
"Nothing Sadao is just being stubborn" I told them shaking my head.
"You're the one being stubborn, I know you've been training all morning" He told me "We share a mind link you know. You shouldn't over exert yourself"
"But..."
"No, if you don't go back I will tell Hideo and Manami" He finished and I narrowed my eyes and huffed in annoyance muttering "Fine"
"Is that a normal relationship between partners?" I heard Ume ask Raiden, who just shrugged.
*******************************************
"What took you so long?" Naruto asked as soon as I entered the living room, everyone was already there setting in a circle.
"I just had some sky diving to do" I said and they all looked at me confused "It's nothing"
"Ok then we just talked about what we all found out" Sensei explained "which really isn't much"
"Sadly so even the farmers' houses were completely deserted" Asuma said with his smoke in his hands, I was thankful that the balcony door was open. "But hiding there would be too obvious"
"The outskirts of the town didn't even have any sign of surveillance either" Kurenai added
"Me and Akamaru didn't smell even a faint trace of anyone leading back into the forest recently" Kiba said
"They don't know" Aki said thoughtfully causing everyone to look at him, he was holding his shin in his hand. "Last time they probably made it to the barrier around the stone, since Yoshio is with them, they probably tried to have him pass through the barrier but the failed at doing so. If they're waiting right now is probably because they don't know that the three of us also have the kekkei genkai, they're stuck"
"That's probable, if they knew they wouldn't hesitate to go after the three of you" Kakashi said "But the question is what they're waiting for?"
'Could they...?'
"When did you see Yoshio?" I asked them urgently
"Huh?" Yumi said confused
"Was it during the attack or after it?" I asked
"After it, same day but after the attack by a couple of hours at least" Taka answered confirming my thoughts.
"So that's their plan" Sensei said looking at me and catching on
"But even that's not a certain plan" Kakashi commented catching on too
"Uh? What are you guys saying?" Naruto questioned and most of the genins looked confused except for Shika and Sasuke who looked to have caught on too.
"It's a 50-50 chance" Asuma said "It could have gone both way, if they hadn't even sent the letter before the second attack they would have failed"
"Come on what are you saying?" Kiba questioned.
"They need someone with Kekkei genkai to pass thorough the barrier, their first plan was obviously to try and have Yoshio unlock it" I explained "That obviously failed"
"While they don't know about those three having the kekkei genkai" Hideo-sensei continued "The only one that is known for having it is Sara"
"So they're after Sara?!!" Sakura asked with a gasp.
"Most likely" I told her "Which means they probably have an eye on the place maybe they're even using a different way like us"
"So it's a good thing that you weren't outside the village today" Kurenai said
"But if our assumptions are right we know how to draw them out" Kakashi said
"Yeah using me as bait is the best way" I said
"What?!!" Naruto asked shouting "But that's dangerous"
"He's right" Sakura agreed "Isn't Orochimaru the one who killed the third Hokage? Won't it be dangerous to have Sara play bait?"
"We can't just let her do it" Yuki agreed "There have to be another way!"
While I appreciated every one's concern, I was ready to do it even if I was risking my life. I looked towards sensei who was deep in thought, as mission leader the best course of action would be to use me as bait, but even with precautions it was still a risk. As my sensei and uncle I knew he didn't want to do it.
"Quiet down Naruto" Kakashi told him sternly but Naruto kept on talking.
"Sensei you taught us that those who break the rules are scum but those who abandon their friends are worth than scum" Naruto said "Putting Sara at this is like just abandoning her, we can't do it"
"It's okay Naruto" I told him with the best smile I could muster "I am ready to do it, actually I want to do it"
"But..." He tried to object but I continued as I looked down making sure my bangs shielded my eyes.
"Naruto! I am a shinobi, we all are risking our lives is just a part of who we are." I told him sternly.
"We will have to come up with a plan first before doing anything" Sensei told us "Even if we do what you want without the proper plan, it will be just a waste, so for now we stick to the surveillance plan at the very least this will help everyone familiarize themselves with the area around, understood?"
Everyone replied affirmatively.