It took the Umino a few days to master the paths. Now being confident enough to travel the tunnels all by himself, Iruka brought Kakashi into the tunnels as they try to find the councillors' residence.
He didn't expect Kōri to let out all his feelings that day. It made him realise that everyone has their own breaking point- and judging from how bad Kōri broke down that day.... he must have kept it to himself for a long time. And that thought brings Iruka to another question that he couldn't ask the servant; where is his brother? Or more precisely, what happened to him? If he too became a servant like Kori, shouldn't he be somewhere around the castle too?
"Oi, oi. Are you sure we turned the right corner?" The Hokage's voice showed that he was getting restless. Couldn't they just sneakily enter the Queen's room like the ninja way and talk to Nami directly? Why bother going to old tunnels that probably only one person knows the routes like the back of his palm? "What if we entered the wrong tunnel and then ended up meeting those councillors that Kōri was talking about? What if he's leading us to them now? He might be a spy for them, you know." Kakashi still didn't trust the servant completely, those blue-gold eyes could be deceiving and Iruka may have a chance of being fooled by him.
"Hokage-sama," Iruka hissed. "Kōri helped us get into the castle and gave us a map for us to know where we are right now. Why would he help us when he could have reported about us immediately?" He couldn't help himself but sigh, the slow sigh echoed through the tunnels as puffs of smoke appeared from his mouth. How do people survive walking through the tunnels in this cold weather is beyond questioning. "You know, I thought you would be more rational in a situation like this now, Hokage-sama." Both ninjas stopped walking when they heard a loud creak from one of the pathways. Instantly, they rushed through the corridor closest to them, not giving a second to refer to Kōri's map. They'll worry about that later.
After assuring that nobody was trailing them and that the tunnel was as quiet as it's supposed to be, the brunette finally emerged from the dark pillar he was hiding behind. He glanced to his right to see Kakashi already wiping the dust of his clothes. Both of them looked at each other for a few moments before registering the same thing in their minds.
They were lost.
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"Didn't we see that pillar for the fifth time now?"
"All the pillars look the same to me, Iruka."
"I can't believe we forgot to mark our last place before sprinting off like that." Iruka blamed himself for they've been running around in circles for hours now. Surely Kōri is beginning to be worried about them, right? Another sigh left his mouth as they decided to take the path in front of them this time. Times like these made Iruka grateful for the comfortable silence between them as he focused on trying to find their current location. It didn't help him much though for the tunnel was completely engulfed by the darkness- not to mention they were travelling at night. With the moonlight only giving them a little amount of light that passed from the small creaks of the tunnels, they both crawled step by step- until another pair of hushed voices attracted their attention.
"The queen is still resisting."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised with your report." The two shinobis silently walked closer towards the walls, their ears keen on listening to the conversation on the other side.
"She's crazy. She managed to bring down the first two defence walls all by herself. I guess she isn't giving up without a fight."
"That's Nami for you." Iruka seemed to have heard the voice before, but where? "Doesn't help that the Fuyuhana's are all those crazy idiots who just don't know when to quit and the fact she's been trained as a ninja throughout her childhood." A few coughs could be heard before the old voice continued to speak again in a slower matter. "But I guess as long as she can't break the third wall we'll be okay now. So don't fret a lot, Ryu."
"How can I not be worried? With that guy still living in the castle... why didn't you killed him too?" The other younger masculine voice- probably the said Ryu raised his voice. "Who knows what that servant is currently planning.... aren't you scared at all, San-sama?"
"Of course, that younger Yu should be well watched too-" Iruka's breath hitched. Everything seemed to make complete sense now. "-But I don't think he'll give as much effect as his brother had once done. He doesn't have any backup or assistance he can call help for, anyway. Besides, if he does...." Kakashi and Iruka held theirs breathes when they noticed the voices died down. Were they caught? Their assumptions were proven wrong when the old voice spoke again, the venom and wickedness sounding thick in his tone.
"If he does, we'll just finish him off in one shot."
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The day Kori dreaded arrived. It was the day of the coronation ceremony. He tried his best to hide the fear from showing on his face, but that attempt failed severely as Iruka patted his shoulders a bit too strong.
"Come on, you joined the Shinobi War!! This is nothing!!!"
"Says the person who wasn't at the war himself." After avoiding another hit from Iruka, he gave the latter a set of clothes before focusing on the unconscious servant they had called earlier that day. "Remind me to give a good explanation to him on why we're doing this. That is if I'm still alive."
"Kōri, you'll be fine." The servant let out an unsure laugh before they exited their room. Their aim was one, to go to the second floor of the east wing- where the Queen lives. Iruka took the time to look at the corridors, it was big and decorated with ribbons and lots of banners of the royal house. He couldn't take his eyes of the house emblem, a white ice flower on blue. It was simple but showed the powers the Fuyuhana's had. Kōri let the chuunin observed first before pulling him to the east wing.
Their journey was fine until they were stopped by the castle guards.
"State your name and business." The guards were too busy observing Kōri to notice Iruka who was disguising as the unconscious servant earlier. "Yū Kōri, I need to see the Queen to give her some medicine."
"Oh," He said bluntly before opening the door. Kōri pushed Iruka inside as he took the time to pass through the guards.
"Funny, I thought the Queen was under the councillors' spell, shouldn't she be healthy or .. well, not sick for other people to notice?" The other guard was confused and cautious as he watched the servant from behind. 'Wait a minute.' He recalled how Kōri's blue-gold orbs shone when he was questioned. He was quickly reminded of the orders he had received that morning from one of the councillors.
"The second you see a servant with blue-gold eyes....
Kill him."
Both guards sprinted towards the servants, their hands were gripping to their swords tightly. One of them was about to make a blow- before the said attempt failed with Kōri blocking it.
"I think it's time to discard the servant outfits, right Iruka-san?" The other guard was distracted by the sudden poof as Umino Iruka finally appeared and threw a few kunai to their enemy. The kunai hit was accurate as the unfortunate guard was held to the walls. With one of them immobile, Iruka turned to help his partner, only to be rejected dreadfully. Therefore, he could only stand by and watched Kōri slipped away from the guard's sword before turning around and stabbing the guard right at the heart.
"Ah, I never liked you anyway." The swordsman mumbled before twisting the sword thus ending the poor guard's life. "Well, now that I know I'm threatened to be killed... that really made my heart at ease, Iruka-san." He got rid of the few blood stains that were still on his sword. "Now, all I need to do is make sure that I live until the end."
"I never expected Nami to enjoy the presence of someone so... sassy." Kōri rolled his eyes upon the comment before ripping his servant clothes to show the same outfit he had worn during the war. "I'm nice to the Queen. Well, that depends on your definition of sarcasm and sassy, I guess. But you guys, on the other hand- are the definition of chaos." He pulled Iruka as they sprinted towards the stairs. "I just hope you're beloved Hokage doesn't screw up his part of the plan."
"Trust me, Kōri." Looking out at the window, Iruka noticed a figure sprinting as fast as lightning before it disappeared away. "Kakashi's a well-trusted man. We're going to end this mission with a 100% success rate. He won't screw up a mission."
"He better not, he started this mess, he better clean it up perfectly."
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man, this took time to write. ahh i hate describing action.