Decaying Bluebells

Arc IX - Saigo-no-Shudan

Kind artwork drawn by Lammington on deviantART. 

Disclaimer: The characters of Naruto belong to Kishimoto.

Warning: Uh...

Beta: Kalafina94

Beta: silverseed

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Interlude – Omniscient– 2

"We cannot allow him as our Kage anymore," a Kiri shinobi declared.

Mei nodded in agreement, staring at the large mass of faces before her. "I know and I understand, but we have to tread carefully. We cannot allow the one who is controlling Yagura to know of our plan. Not to mention eliminating Yagura will be difficult."

"Then what do you propose we do?"

Mei glanced towards Chōjūrō, her gaze uncertain. As always, the young boy gave her a shy and warm smile. She smiled in return immediately, and when she glanced back at the audience, she felt a plan slowly form in her mind. ". Here's what we do."

Meanwhile in the shadows, two yellow eyes stared unblinkingly at Mei, listening intently.

. . .

. .

.

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"Nao!" Yagura barked, seething with irritation. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Blearily, I cracked my eyes open, staring at the looming form of Yagura, my mind muddled from sleep. It took a heartbeat or two before I quickly realized what was going on and what was about to happen. I let out a startled shriek, leaping out of bed and making a mad dash for my clothes.

"I'm sorry!" I cried out, leaping into the closet, grabbing my change of clothes and changing as quickly as I could. "Oh God, I'm so sorry!"

Yagura seethed and in each of his hands, he held a cup of ice water and a cup of boiling water. I knew from experience that had I not woken up and made a quick move, he would have dumped the boiling water on me first, followed by the ice water.

Yagura hated it when someone wasn't punctual. It pissed him off to no end and he wasn't afraid to show it. I knew that from experience as well, any time I was late for a training practice —even by so much as a minute— the practice was twice as brutal. At times, he made Gai and Lee's training seem normal and nice. When I had finished getting dressed, I stepped out of the closet, bowing lowly and still having a sort of mini-panic attack.

Yagura eyed me another moment before he set the cups down on the nightstand. "I will allow it to slide this once, as I know you were exhausted due to our. trip, and that trip was on my behalf. But Nao, if you so much as—"

"I-I know," I said quickly, too relieved I was forgiven. "I'm sorry, Yagura-sensei."

He snorted. "Whatever. Let's go, little dove."

At the nickname, I felt a small swell of affection. "Hai, Sensei."

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A pattern had settled in Konoha, one that hadn't meant to be set into place. Once the others had learned of my return to Konoha, they stopped by on occasion, whisking me (and sometimes Yagura, as well) out for a bite to eat or something entertaining to do. During the day, however, Yagura trained me, as he had for the majority of our journey together. We did not take missions for numerous reasons; the first and most prominent being Yagura, the second being that I was scheduled for a rank test and thus was given leeway, and the third being we were expecting the return of Naruto and Sasuke any moment and I didn't want to be out of the village and risk not seeing them.