Hot 'N' Dangerous

Chapter 56: A Few Pairs of Cat Ears

"You. Are. Late. Late, late, late, late, LATE!" Liz screamed in Kakashi's face.

"Okay, let's never mind that and I will tell you about our new mission," he smiled, acting as if nothing happened.

Liz huffed angrily and sat back down, her chest heaving.

"Well...?" Sasuke asked, putting on his bored appearance.

"Our mission is to catch a cat," Kakashi stated simply.

"What?! We're going to catch another cat?!" Naruto said complainingly.

"Kinda. This time, we're catching Nekomata," Kakashi smirked, crossing his arms across his chest, "Our mission is to get his paw print."

"Yay! A mission involving cute kitties!" Liz laughed joyously.

Kakashi looked as if he was going to say something against that but Naruto spoke first, "Nekomata, or whatever," he said it like a curse, "Let someone else go on D-rank missions like that!" Naruto rolled backwards onto his back.

"Well, I wouldn't say it's exactly D-rank but-" I was cut short by Naruto.

"Don't you agree, Sasuke? Aren't you tired of missions like this?" Naruto whined, kicking his feet up into the air, "Say something! Tell Kakashi-Sensei that you don't want to do this mission either!"

Sasuke remained silent all of this time.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura called.

He finally reacted, but it wasn't a good reaction, "If you don't like it, don't come," he growled at Naruto, "This is a Uchiha... or rather, my mission."

"Why?!" Naruto asked, suddenly sitting up straight again.

"I would like to know as well," Liz piped up.

"... Maybe later," he blushed.

No one had even an inkling of an idea why he was blushing though.

"Is this the place?" I asked as we stopped outside of a smallish store.

"There is no mistake," Sasuke confirmed and he walked inside, leading the rest of us.

On the inside, it smelled purely of cats. Ninja tools were hung up on the walls surrounding us. When I looked, I noticed there was a rather old lady sitting on a mat with a cat in her lap. She was scratching its chin, its response was contented purring. Two more cats sat beside her, as if awaiting their turn, another lay on its belly in front of her. She was definitely a cat lady. The lady had pure gray hair that was tied back into an explosive ponytail. She wore a black cat ear headband and she held a lit pipe in her other hand. We all bowed respectfully.

"I'm glad you came, Sasuke boy," she croaked with a pleasant expression on her face.

"It has been a long time, Granny Cat," Sasuke responded in kind.

"My, how you've grown," she said sweetly, taking in Sasuke's features.

"You know her, Sasuke?" Naruto whispered to Sasuke.

"What does it look like?" Liz mumbled, loud enough for only me to hear.

I smiled at her comment.

"What is this place anyways?" Naruto queried.

"This is the place where the Uchiha Clan buys weapons. Granny Cat is the source of invaluable data for the Uchiha. She is also our client for this mission," Sasuke said steadily without a break.

"Tamaki! Bring me the Paw Encyclopedia!" Granny Cat called towards the back of the shop.

"Here you are, Granny!" a girl with short brown hair walked out of the back.