𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐒𝐮𝐤𝐢 | ɴᴀʀᴜᴛᴏ ꨄ︎ ꜱʜɪᴘᴘᴜᴅᴇɴ

Solo Ninja

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(Third POV) Three Years Ago—Interrogation Office:

The cool room was compact with windowless bare walls. A single, harsh light hums above two figures, making the area more washed-out than without. Sitting at the centre table was Tsunade in front of Kazumi.

After she had agreed to take on the ANBU mission, Tsunade's brought her further through the interrogation room and into a 'quaint' sitting. As Kazumi previously asked for a single day to herself, she'll be spending the current last hours of it with the busty female.

"I will not think for myself." Kazumi spoke, pleasing the woman.

"As ANBU you can't, Suki. You're charged with infiltration in Otogakure, nothing more." She curtly nods at the response.

Tsunade then leaned against the table, poking a small stick to a specific area on the vast map of the shinobi world. It's got sticky notes and emphasised doodles loitering along it. Kazumi had just inhaled an information overload of the shinobi countries.

What to-do. What not to-do. 

Kazumi's very limits.

"The Kage's will be informed of your every move, when necessary. There might come a time where you must sever contact with me. No matter, since I'll have the best tracker shinobi's on your tail." Tsunade's pointing stick taps at the five nations. "So long as you report back to me, I can continue to protect your status. But..."

The room becomes thick with cautious tension.

"If you betray me, I cannot protect you from officials. And I won't take lightly to a shinobi thinking only for themselves."

Kazumi's brows furrowed. "I'll rid Orochimaru, maybe even burn it all to the ground. There's no gain for me in betraying my own country."

Tsunade's eyes sharpen. "You'll want to do more than just kill Orochimaru, won't you?"

She's right with that.

Whenever Kazumi even so thinks about him, she thinks much more of his salivating servant. Orochimaru angers her, but Kabuto...

His cocky face is the first to plague her ruined mind.

A sigh exhales out of Tsunade, and Kazumi realised she must've had a pretty guilty look on her face. "Take a look at this." 

Her yellow eyes flinch to a heavy folder dropping on the table. Tsunade opens it to reveal hundreds after hundreds of recorded missions Sanjiro partook in. What struck out to Kazumi the most was how alone he was in every one of them.

Much like how she felt. With her feeling as if a part of her soul was missing.

"Sanjiro-Sama was a solo-ninja." Tsunade mentioned, turning a page to a specific mission involving Sand infiltration. Kazumi almost forgot how rocky Leaf's relationship was with Sand until recently. "Unlike you, he never had a personal goal other than his motto of 'seeing to it done'. His stubbornness of demanding solo missions had the Third grant him as the first Leaf shinobi to work alone. Either way, that hermit man was remarkable at doing so." The thick folder is instantly closed before Kazumi could blink.

"Why show me this?" Kazumi asked, feeling the weight of her worn bag resting against her ankle on the floor.

It's already midnight, her last day of being in Konoha is used up. If she looked long enough through the gap of the backpack, she'd find the Team Seven picture frame inside.