Soooooo, it's been a while... Sorry 'bout that.... I'm kinda just not in a place where writing is the first thing on my mind, but here's a chapter either way.
Enjoy and have a nice day, night or whatever!!! ^_^
We arrived at the hideout in a short few days, where the Anbu, who apparently could speak after all (surprisingly enough with his reluctance to even say a single word on our way here), ordered Shikamaru to keep guard, before he snuck into the hideout with me, where he finally described the papers we had to find. They didn't seem too important to me, apparently some underground affiliation from one of the villages had made a deal with the people, that owned the hideout, and we had to grab the papers to prove it. But if it's an underground affiliation from one of the hidden villages, is it then not their, the village in question's, duty to take care of it?
Whatever, I'll ask Otou-sensei, when we get back. Though I'm kinda mad at him; he wasn't there to send us off, even though Danzo had told him, or he said that he told him. Anyway, we were at the hideout, which was surprisingly quiet. It didn't feel right at all. Of course, I voiced my concern for the two others and the Anbu seemed to take it into consideration, nodding quietly, before telling us his plan. Shikamaru was to keep guard outside and be ready to shadow-bind anyone following us, just in case it turned bad, while I, and the Anbu, would sneak in to find the papers. My job would be to find the papers, while his was to watch my back.
We spend hours observing the hideout, just to make sure that we wouldn't be going into a set up, and once the sun had set and it was relatively dark, we made our move. Quietly we snuck in. It was quiet inside too, if it hadn't been for the lack of dirt and dust, you could have taken the place for being abandoned. It all felt wrong, like when you come home to a house that is too quiet and find that someone had broken in while you were gone. Almost like the people inside were holding their breaths in an effort to not be noticed.
I almost started to hold my breath, just because it seemed to be mandatory. But I didn't, mostly because I didn't feel like explaining why I had done it, should the Anbu notice. He led the way, like he knew where he was going, though perhaps he was just lucky, or maybe the team, that found the hideout in the first place, had told him. What do I know?
As we entered what looked like a meeting room, I went straight to the filing cabinets along the walls, while the Anbu went around the room. At first I thought that he was checking to make sure that we wouldn't be ambushed, but when he suddenly turned completely quiet somewhere behind me and I, when I turned around, found him missing and the papers, that we were to get, neatly stacked at the table in the middle of the room, I knew that I had been right all along; something was very wrong. I stepped closer as quietly as possibly, settling my bag on the floor to easily stuff the papers into it. That's when things changed, from a hidden door a ton of tiny clay spiders entered the room and covered it almost fully, I quickly grabbed the papers in front of me and stuffed them into my shirt, but I wasn't quick enough to grab my bag, before it was infected with spiders. I couldn't keep back a gasp, when two voices, that I faintly recognized as Deidara's and Crow's, flew into the room at the exact same time.
"Deidara! No! Don't!"
"Katsu."
Everything exploded and my mind went blank and I let my body move on its own. The hand signs I made was unfamiliar to me, but the thick layer of ice that appeared in an orb around me gave me hope. It didn't manage to fully appear before the explosion hit me; my left leg and right hand were hit the hardest, though, as the explosions threw my unfinished orb around, I got very bruised. But I was alive, so yay!
The orb was thrown out of the hideout and crashed into several trees, making several branches crash in through the icy walls, where they stabbed me several places. But again, I was alive, so that's good, great even.
I let the ice dissolve, when it stopped moving, and forced myself up, with the help of one of the few trees that were still standing, and began running, ignoring how my whole body was begging for me to stop moving and just stay down for a bit.
I didn't have time for that. I had to get out of there, I had to find my way home. Danzo clearly never told Otou-sensei where he sent me, Otou-sensei would never had let me come here; he doesn't want me anywhere near that gang. He probably doesn't even know, that I had a mission, and now they'll probably think, that I died again. And someday it's probably gonna be true.
Did Danzo try to get me killed? It kinda feels like it...
I had to do something about my injuries, this wouldn't work for long; I couldn't just keep going, but I had to get home.
With tears in my eyes and salt from my tears in the cut on my chin I ran as fast as I could and broke into the first building I found, turned out to be a bar. Of bloody course it was! And the room I broke into of course was a changing room/storage room with no sinks or showers! No water!
With gritted teeth I took in what I had, that I could use. I had bandages, great, and nothing else, as everything was in my bag, which I hadn't been able to save. Looking at the room I was in, I quickly found some clear vodka and used it with a heavy heart to clear my wounds, before I bandaged them. It hurt, it f*ck*ng hurt, but it had to be done. I sat down for just a second, after cleaning and bandaging the last wound, just to catch my breath. And in a panic, I used a genjutsu on myself and copied several of the features of the girls on the photos on the wall labelled employees, just enough to look like an adult, seem familiar and not stand out too much, when the door was slammed up and someone entered. It turned out to be one of the employees, the girl whose eye shape and eyelashes I had copied. She threw one look at me and seemed to think that I was a new girl, who was supposed to work there and to keep from being found out, I went along with it. She led me behind the bar, where she just left me. One look at this place and it was clear, that it was some kinda coyote ugly kinda deal and as such I acted the part, ignoring the pain in my body and my nerves when I was suddenly faced with Crow, Fishie and the silver haired member of their gang, that I met in the Mist. Fishie and Crow were looking around the place, which didn't worry me too much as several of the other girls were using genjutsu to seem more attractive, so they wouldn't find me out through that. It was the silver haired one, that was the problem as he had just sat down in the bar.
"Oi, b*tch! Have you seen a little brat around here? Masked and burned?" He inquired rudely and leaned over the bar counter.
I stopped what I was doing, drying of the counter, and leaned over the table too, making sure to stay in character by standing in a way that showed off my borrowed body's assets.
"I'm afraid not, love. Can I get you anything." I told him playfully and bit down a comment about 'our girls' being more mature and possibly setting him up with a friend if he was insistent on finding someone bratty.
He replied with a f*ck and went over to his two fellow gang members. They stayed for a long long time and I stayed working in the bar until after 'my shift' was over, just to be sure that I wouldn't be found out. Apparently, I did good though, 'cause I was made employee of the month, my picture was even taken and hung on the wall, and I left with A LOT of tips. So, if this whole ninja thing doesn't work out, I can always work in a bar....
I don't think Otou-sensei would be too happy about that though.
Anyway, I walked out of the little town, that the bar was a part of, and started running once I was out of sight of the town. I suppose I could have broken into another house to use some water to heal myself, but all I could think of was going home. I'm not sure how much time passed before I reached Konoha, but it was still dark, when I arrived, though only barely. It was early morning, I suppose.
I didn't stop by the gate, I didn't care to, I just wanted to get to Otou-sensei. I was headed straight to the hokage's office, where I found the window open and Otou-sensei sitting on the floor in front of it. Obviously, I jumped in through the window and landed on the floor in front of him, swaying on my feet.
"Those papers better have been worth it, I lost my sketchbook and I don't think that I can get it back again...." I commented as I landed and gasped as my body decided to remind me, that it was barely holding itself together.
With a 'uff' I fell over and crashed into Otou-sensei, who caught me and cradled me to him.
"Everything hurts.... I was almost caught in a bar, when I broke in to find water... There wasn't any, can you believe it? Had to pretend to work there to keep from being found out. I'm the employee of the month though... I think I did good..." I wasn't really aware of what I was saying as everything was turning black.