Chapter 20: Chapter 19
A/N: Well my patreon was deleted cuz apparently my writing was too "Graphic". Illegal creations they said. Basically too much sex and my acc was not rated 18+. Everyone was refunded so that's good. Fuck that I made another one. You can support me on that. Its Ko-fi.com/XanaxOD now. I'll upload everything in a few hours. Anyways enjoy!
...
"He'll be here soon," a new voice, feminine, rich and unexpected answered. All three of them looked at the source, and Sakura recognized her. It was her, the exotic-eyed woman from the bathing house. Dressed in fishnet draped by bandages, Sakura eerily noticed how some of the passing men passed her by and snuck a glance. She could understand, the woman was by all rights gorgeous. And full. Why couldn't she be like that?
"Who are you?" Ino, the unbridled one in their group, pointed a finger and asked. "And why are you eavesdropping? That's rude." Sakura smugly smirked. The pot was calling the kettle black.
"Kurenai-sensei?" Hinata started, a bit confused, but smiling. Then Sakura noticed her eyebrows twitching. Ever so slightly. Weird. Must've been muscle reflex.
"Hello, Hinata," the woman smiled. Warm, charming, alluring. God, this woman would kill men with a smile. "How've you been?"
"Fine, sensei," Hinata said, her voice coming off a little firm. The Hyuga turned to her teammates as she introduced the woman. Apparently the jōnin had a soft spot for Hinata and often went out of her way to help the girl after her mother died. Hinata largely indebted a large part of her confidence slowly rising through the years to the woman. As if she were an older sister. It was so cute. Sakura felt like gushing, but Ino was there. Gushing for later.
"Hinata, you praise me too much," Kurenai softly patted the girl's shoulder. "As for why I'm here, Lord Hokage deemed it fit that one more jōnin travel along with you. Given the circumstances."
"Is it too dangerous?" Sakura asked. She'd beaten Ino to it. Both of them were worried about Sasuke-kun. Especially after hearing that bit in the office. The pinkette had been praying her love was alright.
"The mission is risky considering which shinobi got involved, but we should be enough," Kurenai's words assured them both. She then looked at Sakura. "We meet again. This time under proper circumstances."
"Yeah," Sakura laughed a bit, cheeks rosy. "Last time was really awkward." Why did she have to bring it up? Ino would surely rattle about it.
"Where'd you two meet?" On cue the gossip queen fired it away.
"The Warm Whirlpool," Kurenai answered. "I was having a rather ecstatic conversation with someone who recognized her as one of Naruto's students."
"Yeah, sorta," Sakura said, clearly trying to dodge further talk about this. As if Ino would let that happen.
"OH and who was this someone else?" Ino asked getting in Sakura's space.
"Some woman named Anko," Sakura said. Her face was annoying now. "What's it to you anyway?"
"Nothing." Ino was lying. Sakura could tell. They both knew each other too well. "She's probably some jōnin."
"Yes," Kurenai cut in. "A tempered one at that." Well, they weren't the best of friends, Ino now knew that much.
"Glad to see you're all done socializing." Her sensei's voice reached her ears, along with his presence right behind Ino. Sakura was surprised, but Ino—fool she was—jumped. Her cheeks very pink and very bright. Their sensei looked at her with a raised brow.
"You alright?"
"Yeah!" Sakura blinked. Did Ino just squeal? "I mean yeah. Stop jumping me from behind all the time." And talking loudly apparently. What was up with her this morning?
"Jump you?" Her sensei walked forward. He smirked a bit. However, Ino was quiet. Her head was somewhere else and her leader noticed it too. "Oi." Oh he poked her in the forehead. "What's wrong with you today?"
"Nothing! Just…nervous," Naruto shrugged. Ino looked embarrassed. Sakura smiled. Today was a great day so far.
"Don't worry too much," Naruto said and turned around. "I've trained you well enough to know you can take care of yourself. Also, you have Kurenai here." He walked forward. Well, that was unusually warm of him. Or had he been this way from the beginning? Sakura wondered if her sensei was bipolar at times.
"Wait sensei," Sakura asked, needing to assure her theory, "what about you? Won't you help?"
"I'm overkill," Naruto said. "Now, you know the mission, and met the extra help."
"I'm not the help."
"You're right. You've met extra baggage." Ino and Sakura couldn't hold back a giggle at the face the jōnin made. Hinata was holding back. Not too well apparently. "Let's go. The more daylight we waste, the worse." With that they were out and Sakura breathed in. She was ready. She had to be. Her first real trip outside Konoha. As a kunoichi. She had to win. For her, and for Sasuke-kun.
For over an hour they'd been sprinting through the route to Land of Waves. It was dragging out much more than it should have. Her sensei, cruel as he could be sometimes, did train her. She could run faster than this. Hell, Ino could tiptoe faster than this if she wanted. Probably not.
She was bored. Too bored. Taking a chance she looked at her sensei was leading the group ahead and yawning. She'd been seeing him in a different light for a few days. Ever since her mother revealed who the guy was and how he saved her Dad from becoming human shish kebab, she felt a sense of gratitude towards him. Which daughter wouldn't? Slowly, the gratitude paved its way into admiration. Someone so young, her age, already graduated, honed his skills as a shinobi and probably one of the better ones their village had was her teacher. Not only that he cared too.
In his own insufferable way.
Like right now, Ino thought as Sakura's finger slowly twitched. Forehead was a bit surprised, but considering what their sensei did almost every day, this was child's play. The chain hook shot out of the tree at a menacing speed aiming for their sensei. The sharpened hook at the end cut clean through his head as blood and flesh fell over the place. Ino sighed as she felt someone creep up behind her. She dodged the blow towards her head and immediately kicked him square on the chin.
His head was dazed. Sakura followed with thin razor and shuriken; it wrapped around the assailant, cutting through his clothes and the shuriken dug deep into his flesh. They were poisoned too, if she wasn't wrong. Hinata rushed him with a flurry of strikes as the man shook and fell with a guttural scream.
"Gozu!" their sensei's killed shouted as he looked at the trio of kunoichi genin with baleful eyes. "DIE!" It was the only word he was allowed to say before he froze. Kurenai Yuhi appeared behind him as the man fell.
"I thought Kakashi captured them," Naruto emerged from the tree with a cup of instant ramen in his hands. Of course he did that. "Not that it makes a difference."
"He's become more lax," Kurenai commented. "He should've finished them off." Ino knew her teammates felt a slight chill too. The casual way the jōnin spoke of killing off the shinobi was…still hard on her ears.
"Yeah, maybe," Naruto tied them up both to a tree. "Then again sometimes killing people doesn't work. They're like cockroaches these ones. No matter how many you stamp out, more will emerge. Still, somebody needs to clean up."
"Sensei," Hinata tried to say more, but he waved her off.
"Eh, you guys move on," the blond told them. "I need to have a little chat first." Kurenai nodded and they began to walk. "One last thing."
"What, sensei?" Sakura asked and Naruto looked at all of them with a thumbs up. Eyes still unimpressed as ever.
"Good job. I'm proud of you all."
"You could at least put some effort into it!" Ino righteously shouted at him. A nerve in her head blew up profusely. She shook her balled fist. "You're saying that like you were forced to."
"Fine," Naruto Uzumaki sighed. "I take it back. You all suck."
"Sensei," Sakura muttered with cruel features. "One day you'll regret all this abuse."
"Oi, Hinata," the one-eyed jōnin looked to the Hyuga, "have you got something to add?"
"I think," she began, "You could be a bit more enthusiastic, sensei."
"Women."
...
Read 30+ Advance chapters on Ko-fi !
Ko-fi.com/xanaxOD