Akira absentmindedly rolled the ramen cup between her hands on the roof of the building. From where she sat, she had a direct view of Naruto's apartment. She watched him sit down at his table with a cup of ramen in front of him, the cup steaming. He had a smile on his face, but Akira knew better. She could feel the sadness in his chakra.
He said a quick prayer, then dug into his ramen. It was gone in just two minutes.
Naruto sat at the table, staring into the empty ramen cup. His smile had disappeared, and his stomach was still growling. He grabbed at his stomach with one hand, and a tear started making its way down his face.
Akira grabbed the ramen cup and stood. Then she jumped down to his apartment window. She landed on the wall beneath it, using her chakra to stay on the wall. She set the ramen cup on his windowsill, then pulled the second one she had out of her pouch on her belt. She set it next to the first one and rapped her knuckles on the glass. Then she jumped away.
She crouched in the shadows of the roof, watching as Naruto jumped up from his chair and ran across the room. He threw his window open, the pane of glass slamming into the frame at the top. He gasped, and then grinned. Akira smiled slightly as he scooped up the ramen cups and ran back into the kitchen. But it was as much as she could do for him for the time being, and it made her sad.
Akira had kept her word to Lord Third, and had done her best to avoid any direct interactions with the kid since she met him. But that didn't mean she couldn't operate from the shadows. Akira had scared more than a couple bullies away, but made sure to vanish before Naruto caught sight of her. She made it a point to make sure he was eating, and kept an eye on his food supply in his little apartment. When she could, she would leave him an envelope with extra spending money on his counter. She paid for his rent, and set aside money for him each month to cover the basic living expenses. Lord Third would deliver the money for her.
Between covering her own expenses and Naruto's, it didn't leave her with much money leftover for herself so she hadn't been able to go out with Yuhi or Ranka as often. But it was a price she was willing to pay.
It had been a over a year and a half since her first encounter with the kid, and Akira was now fourteen. In that time, Akira had thought about Naruto a lot. She felt bad for him. She knew what it was like to be without parents, but at least she had had hers growing up. She still hated the ninetails, but she knew that it wasn't his fault that he carried it. Uncle Minato had sealed it inside him to protect the leaf village. That wasn't something she could fault him for. But she did hope that she would never have to face the beast again. Lord Third had emphasized to her that her uncle had wanted Naruto to be known as a hero. She did her best to honor his wishes.
Naruto boiled more water and poured it into his second cup of the night. He was dancing around his kitchen, chanting some silly song he had made up about ramen. Akira smiled sadly. Then she jumped away, heading back to her own apartment.
She had an early morning the next day. Lately she hadn't been able to go on runs as often because Lord Third had been assigning Akira's ANBU team more and more missions. Seek liked to get an early start, and they often left the village before the sun was even peeking out over the horizon. In turn, they were often back much earlier in the day, but it meant Akira couldn't get her normal morning routine in anymore.
She put on her mask, then jumped out of her window and headed to the gate. Today she would be going on a mission with just Seek and Juke. They were on their way to assassinate a noble who was robbing a small village at the edge of the land of fire. Frog, Mink, and Bear were away on another mission. They were guarding a convoy of traders that had hired a high level of protection.
Akira was the first one to reach the gates. She stood on top of the wall overlooking the village. From there she could easily see all the way to the hokage's tower, and behind it, the wall with the four faces of the hokage.
She stared at her uncle's likeness carved into the rock. He stared out back at her. She wondered if he would be proud of her, or if he would be angry. Lately she had felt like she couldn't live up to the expectations that she gave herself. She couldn't take care of his son. She couldn't help her team. She felt like a failure in his eyes now. It didn't matter how many missions she completed, how many people she killed in the name of the village. The one person who mattered most to her uncle she couldn't hardly do anything for. And the people that had mattered most to Akira, she had either lost to tragedy, or worse.
Akira sighed and crossed her arms. She felt the scab on the inside of her wrist twist and pull apart as she did so. A stark reminder of her failure. The anger that she felt towards herself. A drop of blood leaked out of the cut.
She felt cold, despite the warm fall night air. Her chest felt empty, and it hurt.
"Uncle Minato," she whispered, "I'm sorry."
She was pulled from her thoughts when Seek landed on the wall next to her.
"Morning," he said gruffly. He still had his morning voice.
"Morning."
They didn't exchange another word until Juke arrived. Then Seek ordered them to head out.
As they ran through the woods, Akira expanded her senses around her to search for other chakra signatures. It had become second nature for her when she was on missions now. In the village, she had used the skill less and less often. But on missions, she was always paying attention.
They ran until mid-morning, until they finally arrived at the road that they knew their target would be traveling along. Their mission was intel gathering and total annihilation. Danzo had ordered no witnesses to be left behind. The target in question had been running a drug operation out of his village for the past few months, and his subordinates all knew about it and played a role. The drug operation had started to reach Konoha, and some of the ninjas on guard had found drugs in a couple travelers' bags. Danzo had not been happy. But it was also rumored that the village hidden in the mist was funding the drug operation, and that was the main focus of this mission.
Despite Team Ky being under the hokage's direct control, Danzo had begun to worm his way into their business. More and more often, Team Ky was either divided for missions, or they were tasked with intel gathering and infiltration into other territories. Team Ky had became known for their special techniques that aided in interrogation. Specifically, Akira had become known for it. But Lord Third did not want her to be in the interrogation unit itself, so she was able to stay with her team.
"Juke, you and I will take out the guards. Fox, target the noble and separate him. Bring him to the secondary location we discussed."
Juke and Fox nodded in confirmation. Then they split up and hid in different places surrounding the ambush site.
Akira infused chakra into the ground in the road. The tendrils of her chakra were almost undetectable now. She had spent long hours trying to perfect the technique, but her efforts were greatly paying off.
An hour and a half later, the noble's carriage came rolling down the road.
Akira let out six short whistles, shaping them to sound like a bird call. There were six guards with the noble. She felt Seek and Juke shift positions slightly, preparing to jump into the fray.
She eyed the carriage carefully, studying it's movement. Based on the shift in weight that she could see when the carriage hit a bump, she expected the noble to be at the back. The front wheels moved more than the back ones did when they hit a rock in the road. The carriage was drawn by two horses, with one of the guards at the reins. The other five were spread out around the carriage, and each had a sword on their back. They were dressed the same, in fancy-looking robes. But that didn't fool Akira. Each one of them had control over their chakra. They were shinobi.
Akira whistled again, the warning that they were facing enemy shinobi. Seek whistled back soon afterward. Continue as planned.
When the front wheels of the carriage crossed the area that Akira had infused with chakra, she unleashed a wave of chakra into the ground, turning it into quicksand. The enemy shinobi were all stuck in place, as well as the carriage. The horses reared up and whinnied at the sudden momentum change. The shinobi holding the reins fought to keep them under control. In the chaos, Juke and Seek jumped into the fray.
As they engaged with the guards, Akira used the headhunter jutsu to move through the ground until she was underneath the carriage. The noble stuck his head out of the carriage and started yelling, asking what the commotion was about. Then he saw what was happening, and jumped out of the carriage and tried to run away. But he didn't get very far. As soon he took a single step on the ground, he was stuck in place. Akira rose up behind him and put a kunai to his neck.
The noble gasped in shock.
"You're coming with me," she hissed. The noble looked over his shoulder and his eyes widened. Akira quickly tied his hands behind his back with rope, then grabbed him under one of his arms and leaped away through the trees. The noble protested loudly, trying to wriggle his way free. Akira was thankful that the interrogation point was only a minute or so away.
They arrived at the cave, and Akira tossed the noble inside. He hit the ground with a grunt and rolled. She held one hand in front of her, two fingers held upright. Her chakra infused into the ground below her and four tendrils of quicksand wrapped themselves around the noble's limbs. He was raised off the ground and held at eye level with her.
She stepped forward and glared at the man.
"I'm looking for information regarding your little underground operation you have going on. We can either do this the easy way, or the hard way."
The noble's eyes were wide with fear, but he spat at the ground in her direction anyway. "Like I'll tell you anything."
Akira made a point of shrugging and took another step forward. The quicksand that held the noble's limbs started creeping further up them, and tightened its grip.
"You'll talk. They always do."
The noble grit his teeth. Akira could feel his pain in his chakra. She willed the quicksand to tighten around his pointer finger on his right hand, specifically around the tip of it. The man started to sweat.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He snarled. "I am a noble of Memoshi Village, you cannot hold me like this. There will be consequences!"
"Who funds your operation?" Akira demanded. She increased the pressure on his finger. If she tightened it anymore, it would be crushed.
"Go to hell!"
The quicksand crushed the man's fingertip. He let out a scream of pain.
"Did you know that the fingertips hold more nerve endings than almost any other part of the human body?" Akira asked. She tightened the quicksand around his middle fingertip. "That's why a papercut hurts so much, despite how small it is."
The man was gasping now, his breaths coming in short pants. "I don't know what you're talking about. There is no drug operation out of my village!"
Akira cocked her head to the side, menacingly. "I don't recall saying it was a drug operation."
The man's eyes widened. Akira increased the pressure on his fingertip.
"Tell me. Where do you get the money for your drugs? Even a noble like you doesn't have unlimited funds."
The man grit his teeth again. His breath whistled out from between his teeth. "I have more power than you realize. You can't hold me here and expect there won't be any consequences for it."
"You already said that." The quicksand crushed his fingertip, eliciting another scream of pain from him. "I guess you like things the hard way."
The quicksand around his legs slowly began to creep up them. It slid up over his knees, then halfway up his thighs. She stopped it right before it reached his genitals.
"I heard another rumor about you," she hissed. It had been included in the intel, but it had not been Danzo's focus. But it had caught her attention in a bad way. "Apparently you like it when your victims beg for mercy. You like things rough. You like it when they are kept in cages, and you use them over and over again. Apparently drugs aren't the only thing you sell."
"Wait, no, please!" The man cried out, as the quicksand began to wrap itself around his genitals. Akira willed it to begin squeezing.
"Who funds your operation?"
The man shook his head violently. Akira increased the pressure on his nether region.
"Answer me!"
He screamed in pain as she increased the pressure again. Then he started talking.
"The mist!" He yelled. Akira relinquished some pressure. The man dropped his chin to his chest, wheezing. "The mist funds it. They send funds through a messenger every first Wednesday of each month."
"How long have they been funding you?"
"Two years," he gasped. "They've been funding us for two years."
"What do you give them in return?"
The man shook his head. Akira began to increase the pressure again. "I'll ask again. What do you give them in return?"
He whipped his head back and howled in pain.
"Money! And intel! They ask for intel on the leaf village!"
"How do you collect this intel?" Akira snarled. She increased the pressure to where his genitals were almost being crushed.
"A sp-spy!" The noble sputtered out. "We have a spy in the village."
"What intel do they gather?"
"Information on the shinobi, how many there are, the missions they take, and how much they know about the mist."
Akira released some of the pressure again. The man slumped forward, exhausted.
"How long has your spy been in the village?"
"Only the last few months. That was when the mist started asking us for more than just profit money. They started asking us to gather intel on the leaf. They said that if we didn't find a way to infiltrate the leaf's ranks, then they would stop sending us funds."
"Who is your spy?"
The man shook his head again.
Akira grit her teeth together. She tightened her quicksand on the men's genitals, as well as all of his remaining fingertips. "Who is your spy?" She shouted.
"Mirai Kuskin!" He screamed out. "Mirai Kuskin. But he goes by the name Hirshin there. He's a shinobi originally from the land of water."
"Who else is involved in your operation in your village?"
The man gave her three names of other nobles who were involved, as well as two businesses that hid the drug operation in their basements. He also gave her the location of his slaves.
"Thank you," Akira said. "You've been very cooperative." She had been carefully reading his chakra for any lies, any change in his chakra or emotions that would signal he wasn't telling the truth. She hadn't found any.
"You're a demon." The man raised his head to glare at her. His eyes were bloodshot, and a mixture of blood and drool was trickling out of the corner of his mouth. "You're as sick and twisted as I am," he said with a grin.
Akira released a wave of bloodlust over the man. His eyes widened in fear. "Then I guess I'll see you in hell."
The man started screaming as quicksand rapidly flowed over his body. It tightened its grip on him as it went. It flowed across his face and into his mouth and nose. His entire body was now covered in it, with the exception of his eyes. Akira crushed his genitals with the quicksand, and when the man sucked in a breath of air to scream, he inhaled the quicksand. It slid down his throat and into his lungs, suffocating him. Then, Akira sent a powerful wave of chakra through the sand, as if she were performing a medical jutsu on him. The man exploded.
A wall of quicksand rose up in front of Akira as he exploded, shielding her from the shower of gore that otherwise coated the walls and ceiling. Blood and guts rained down, and the quicksand in front of her moved to cover her head. Pieces of the man's internal organs landed on the ground with sickening thunks all around her.
It was the least he deserved for repeatedly assaulting young girls and keeping them locked in cages.
Akira lowered her hand and the wall of quicksand retreated back into the ground. She stared at the spot the man had been standing, running through the information that he had given her. They had a spy in their midst. Danzo would not be pleased with this update.
"Holy shit."
Akira turned her head to look over her shoulder at the entrance of the cave. Juke and Seek were standing there, and she could tell through their chakra signatures that they were horrified at the carnage they saw. Akira began walking towards them.
"Did you get what we came for?" Seek asked her.
"Yes sir. Lord Danzo is not going to be happy."
Seek nodded. It wasn't the first time Akira had done an interrogation in the field, and it wasn't his first time seeing her tactics. But this time, she had been more brutal than ever before.