Impossible to Forgive

Chapter 10: A New Report

I was speed reading a report on the disbandment and capture of the remaining members of the Ryuha Armament Alliance when there was a knock on the door.

"It's open."

Shikamaru walked in with his hands buried in his pockets. "I still can't get over how weird it is to walk in here and see those two desks empty."

I nodded, "Sadly, I'm really starting to get used to it."

"Well, Kakashi-sensei sent me to come and get you; he's read through all of the files that you gave him, and he made me read through all of them as well. That was such a drag on top of all my other work."

I stood up and placed a marker on where I was in the scroll and followed after the young jounin.

Kakashi was in his office talking to Naruto and two other young ninja who I didn't know. One was a girl with pink hair and red clothes, and the other was a boy with the palest skin ever and dark grey clothes.

Naruto noticed us first, "Hey Shikamaru! Hey... Kaiyo!"

Shikamaru waved, "Hello Naruto, Sakura, Sai."

Hm, that meant that the girl was probably called Sakura and the boy Sai. Unless of course the boy was named after cherry blossoms, but that seemed a little unlikely.

Kakashi waved, "Kaiyo, Shikamaru, you're just on time." He looked at the group directly in front of his desk, "You three go and leave on your mission now. Good luck."

The girl, Sakura, sighed, "It just really isn't the same Team Kakashi anymore without you on it. And Captain Yamato is busy as well."

Sai nodded, "It is strange being on a mission lead by Naruto. I hope that he can keep his head through the whole thing."

Naruto turned and glared at his pale teammate, "Are you doubting me, Sai?"

"Naruto," Kakashi called out to his student, "If you really want to be the  next Hokage then starting acting like it. If you can't lead a B-rank mission, then you can't lead the village."

Naruto stiffened, "Yes sir. I'll do an extra good job of being extra professional this time, sir."

Sakura sighed, "How many times do I have to tell you that saying 'sir' and being professional aren't the same thing." She grabbed her two male teammates by the elbow, "Let's go. Kakashi-sensei is busy."

"Thanks, Sakura." Kakashi waved, "I'm counting on you to keep them from killing each other." After they left, Kakashi turned to me, "Finally. Alright, back to business. Before we begin, I just received this report from the same ANBU unit that reported the theft, and you should read it."

I took the scroll from him.

ANBU Security Report 03070367 Level 1 Alert

Enemy group engaged in combat with squad

KIA: squad member Three

Squad members One and Four fallen to genjutsu and joined assailants

Assailants claim to be called the Taihi Ittai; all chunin or jounin level ninja

This is squad member Two requesting immediate back-up

During combat one member claimed that they will assassinate the Hokage, requesting a Level 3 Standby Alert be placed on the village until threat passes

I looked at Kakashi, "So this Taihi Ittai is still around then. It would seem that they are in charge of this attack as well as the one twenty-five years ago, and they're after your head."