Akari Uchiha

Ch. 80 Anko Sensei's Snake Did It!

"Master!"

Genma Shiranui stopped short, before turning back to look at a familiar 13-year-old.

"Akio," he raised his eyebrows.

The genin jogged up to him, before looking up at his senbon-wielding master.

"When did you get back?"

"Two hours ago, give or take," the jonin grumbled. "The village is really different now huh..."

Akio glanced down slightly before sighing. It was. Loads of people got injured, at that. Most of his clan, the Kaneko clan, was safe. His mother hadn't been as lucky as most of them had.

His master had been on a mission during the Pein attack. When he came back he was sent to another one, to represent the Leaf Village in front of other villages or something. It had something to do with Danzo running off from the Five Kage summit and everything.

Technically Genma-sensei was supposed to go with the current stand in for the Hokage, Kakashi Hatake, Akari's master. But Kakashi Hatake was busy going with Naruto Uzumaki, the Hero of the village, to talk to the Raikage, right after the Pein Attack.

Akio understood almost none of it anymore, just that he hadn't really seen Genma since a long long time. Almost around six months. Almost since after the chunin exams.

Akio remembered Genma being mad at him about the entire 'abandoning Sara' thing he did, and when Akio had refused to apologize...

"A person who can't even respect his comrades or admit to his faults, or at least listen to his master... I can't keep a person like that as my apprentice."

Akio shook his head to push the memory at the back of his mind. He hadn't gotten to talk to Genma properly since then. He knew that he was still Genma's apprentice, otherwise the Hokage would have called him in and assigned him someone else.

But the most training he had been doing ever since Genma had been off on his mission was either under Ibiki-sensei or Kakashi-sensei. Now it was mostly Ibiki-sensei, if he had time, because Kakashi-sensei got busy as the stand-in Hokage, and Kakashi's own apprentice had returned from her mission. Though from what he had gathered from Akari, Kakashi hadn't had time to even talk to her properly.

Sara had gotten busy with her medical training. Even he had started learning the course materials for becoming an advisor in the future from the Nara clan-head. He had been surprised when Shikaku-sama had agreed. Oda had his T&I thing. Haru was busy rebuilding his clan, but he would sometimes join in during their training. Anko-sensei was on a mission too.

Anko-sensei and Genma-sensei were special jonin. Akio never really understood, but Shikamaru-san had told him once that there were certain missions that only these special jonin could perform. Which is why their masters were busy.

He looked up at Genma, wondering if he would still be mad... despite how silly it was. Genma-sensei probably didn't even remember that conversation. He was the only one who was probably needlessly obsessing over it.

"Akio? Hello?"

Akio snapped out of his reverie as Genma-sensei waved a hand in front of his face.

"H-Hai?"

"Where your mind at, Kaneko?"

"Gomen, ah... what were you saying?"

"I was just questioning how you've been, Akio," Genma repeated, starting to walk as Akio followed.

"Great," Akio lied easily. "How about you, sensei? How was your mission? Are you tired?"

The thirteen-year-old stopped as soon as his master came to a halt and turned back to look at him. He felt slightly uneasy when he saw Genma look at him for a solid few seconds, before speaking.