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[GUtW]—❈—32:: Signals
🕑 Added 2023-07-08 10:52:13 +0000 UTC"Anyway," Kakashi says, carrying on the conversation, "if you're telling them, my advice would be for you to do it now, because I'm pretty sure Naruto's already making friends with the girl's brother."
My eyes close and I exhale a tired breath. Why is nothing ever easy?
Turning from Kakashi back to the Okinawa's house behind me, I see that, while everyone else has gone in, Sakura still waits outside, watching me and Kakashi with a pensive frown; she can tell that something's wrong.
Then again, it must be rather obvious considering I suddenly needed to speak with our sensei in private.
Our eyes meet, and hers seem to search mine for an answer to what's going on. She doesn't find one, of course, but it certainly isn't for lack of trying on her part.
Using the standard Leaf-nin sign language, I tell Sakura to get Naruto.
Well, what I actually sign to her is 'get teammate' since we never bothered to come up with individual signs for ourselves, but seeing as there are only three of us on the team, there's only one person I could possibly be talking about (which is the reason why many three-nin teams don't bother to make individual signs until they need to).
Sakura looks from me to Kakashi, confused and a little worried, but finally, she obeys, going into the house, and, barely thirty seconds later, walking out with a confused Naruto in tow.
The blonde's confusion increases when he sees Kakashi and I still standing down the road to the house, and it climbs all the more when, with a tap on the shoulder and a muttered "come on" I read from her lips, Sakura leads him towards us.
Behind them, Kei appears at the door.
The girl takes one long look at the scene before her, then finally, her eyes settle on me, and immediately, I can tell; she knows that I've figured out her secret. And that I intend to act to on it.
Kei's hands clench into fists, and a wave of murderous intent washes from her down to me.
Caught in the path of the rogue kunoichi's murderous intent, Sakura and Naruto spin, eyes wide and with weapons drawn in preparation to defend, only to hesitate when they see who the enemy is.
Unlike my teammates though, Kei doesn't hesitate, instead she capitalizes on their shared moment of indecision and dashes at Sakura, fist drawn back for what I can already tell will be a devastating blow.
But then, also unlike my teammates, I don't hesitate, and I fling a shuriken at the attacking ninja's throat, going straight for the kill.
I have no idea what Kei's skill level is, or even what those skills might be in the first place, not to mention, she's already proven herself to be fully willing to attack with no holds barred; she's dangerous. I'm putting her down.
In a blur of motion, Kakashi intercepts, with one hand he snatches my shuriken out of the air, and with his other he catches Kei's fist and easily puts the smaller girl into a simple but effective hold.
I scowl. So much for 'this still being my mission, good or bad,' I can't help but think with some derision.
Kei immediately begins to struggle and Kakashi calmly releases her.
She jumps back, creating space between herself and him and falling into a combat stance, her eyes trying (and failing) to watch us all at once.
She's terrified; definitely still angry, maybe even more so now than before she'd tried to attack Sakura, but it's finally beginning to sink in for her how inescapable her situation is.
"Don't fight us," Kakashi warns gently. "It will only make things worse."
"Make what worse?" Naruto asks, as I make my way forward to join the group. "And why'd she attack Sakura?"
Realization dawns slowly on the boy. "Wait, is she—are you a bad guy? Holy shit, you're a bad guy, aren't you?"
A vein throbs on Kei's forehead. "Bad guy?" she asks, irritation obvious. "How am I the bad guy when you're the ones picking a fight with me?"
"You literally just attacked me unprovoked," Sakura shouts, sounding genuinely ticked off by the other girl's claim.
"Yeah," Naruto chimes in agreement, "you tried to hurt her. You're obviously the bad guy here and we're gonna kick your ass!"
"Don't look so excited about it, you idiot," Sakura says to Naruto in annoyance.
The boy, naturally, responds in a totally mature manner by sticking his tongue out at her. "You're just mad because I was right; there are enemy ninja here." He cackles in maddening glee.
"Is everything okay out here?" Chief Okinawa asks, walking up to the door, his young grandson following behind him.
Kei had been scared before, but at the appearance of her brother and grandfather, she practically pales.
Is she scared that we'll harm them? Or simply scared of them finding out who she really is?
"Hey, Old Man, did you know your granddaughter's a ninja?" Naruto, tactless as ever, says, then his eyes widen after a moment and he asks; "Wait, are you a ninja too?"
Kei must either have successfully kept her grandfather in the dark, or the old man is the best actor in two worlds, because Naruto's words seem to be a complete shock to him.
The old Chief is so shocked in fact that he can't seem to find words.
Who definitely finds his words is Kei's younger brother, Gin. The little boy rushes out of the house, face bright with excitement. "What? Big Sis is a ninja? Really?"
Naruto begins to reply when Kei screams in rage; "Leave them out of this. It has nothing to do with them."
"You're right," I cut in before anyone else can speak. "It has nothing to do with them. Just you and Ken Ishimura."
"Cow guy?" Naruto asks in confusion. "What's he gotta do with this?"
I ignore him. "You can either fight us," I say to Kei instead, "in which case, we will hurt you in front of your family and take you in cold of we have to, or you can surrender, and spare your brother the nightmares."
Kei's crying now, tears that she barely seems to notice rolling down her face as her mind seems to work a mile a minute, trying to see a way out of this.
But there is none. This is it and she knows that.
"Kei," her grandfather says softly.
Gin, now able to tell from my previous words and the mood of his family members that something serious is going on, holds onto the man's leg. Much like his grandfather, the boy looks near tears.
"Don't fight them, Kei," Ichi Okinawa begs. "Please. Don't fight them."
Kei stares at her grandfather, looking tortured by the decision she's about to make, then finally, with a sigh, her shoulders slump in defeat.
"Good choice," I say, right before Kei's chakra pulses in an unfamiliar pattern so strongly that even Naruto senses it.
That's a signal! And there's only one person around here I know of that she'll want to signal in this situation.
In a flash, I have a kunai pressed to Kei's throat. I hear Gin scream, but I ignore it, my eyes trained on Kei's as I turn on my sharingan, both for the possibility of combat and for added intimidation factor I'm aware it can have.
"What was that signal?" I ask simply.
The girl sneers at me, her height helping her make it appear more demeaning.
That's it, after this mission I'm digging up my clan's notes on subjugating wills with the sharingan.
I hadn't bothered before now because any ninja worth anything can likely resist it well enough for it to barely matter, and not to mention that it would mean investing a lot of time into building up a skill that would be useless against Itachi, but, for all its limitations, it would have been very useful to have in this situation.
Sharingan subjugation of wills or not though, I still have a kunai to Kei's throat, and in many cases, that works well enough.
I press the blade harder to her flesh, breaking the skin and drawing blood.
"What… was… the signal?" I repeat, emphasizing every word.
"Sasuke," Kakashi calls my name in warning.
The tone of his voice puts me on alert, and a split second later, I see why when a ball of fire slams explosively into the ground some distance away like a meteor crashing from the heavens.
Within the bright green flames, whose uncomfortable heat I can feel from so far away, my sharingan just manages to make out Ken Ishimura.
I guess I know what the signal was now.
