Paths of Divergence

Sinister

Chapter 14

-Sinister

As the three men squad approaches the billowing black smoke, it becomes larger and larger. Shrieking citizens pierce the cold afternoon air with their screams of horror. Hundreds and hundreds begin evacuating away from the devastating fire, trying to escape any harm that might possibly come to them. Shizake, Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru stop at a ledge, observing the amassing chaos below them.

"Hinata, Byakugan on the building!" Shizake directs.

The girl focuses chakra to her eyes, veins bulging out around them. She scans the building, trying to look past the smoke for chakra signatures.

"Rgh...there's too much smoke! I can't see anything!" She hopelessly says.

"Then we'll just have to go in! Lets move!"

They leap down into the streets, many citizens brushing by them still escaping the scene. Shizake focuses the Sharingan into his eyes, looking around for any alarming movement. Harsh fumes and heavy smoke flow throughout the street like a black cloud of death, dismally crawling its way through every crack and crevice.

Due to the smog, Kiba and Akarmaru are unable to use their keen sense of smell since noxious fumes are the only things filling their nostrils. Shizake notices something dash out of the bank, barely noticing if it hadn't been for his Sharingan. The Uchiha takes off like a bolt of lightning, turning his head back to Kiba and Hinata.

"Back me up!" He yells.

Shizake runs forward, quickly gaining on the shadowed figure and stepping in front of them. He uses the momentum and twists his hips, delivering a swift kick to the person's gut. The boy stops centimeters away from the person - having seen whom it was at the last minute.

"I-I had to make sure no one else was in there!" A stressed out bald man with a heavy black beard says.

"Sorry. Please, get to safety!" Shizake says, stepping aside to let the man run off. By now most of the smoke has cleared the street, along with the people too. Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru come to a sliding halt before the Uchiha, looking around for anyone else.

Shizake clenches his fist, "They got away," He says.

"Damn it!" Kiba curses, "They used bombs that would produce harsh fumes blocking any sort of tracker ninja from sniffing them out as well as to cover their escape!"

"We were compromised... either that or the information was wrong. There could have been a change of plans at the last moment to hit that bank instead...I'm not sure."

"W-well maybe they're still in the area! We shouldn't just be standing here," Hinata worriedly says, still looking around with her Byakugan activated.

"You're right, split up for now, search the surrounding area, Call out if you find anything." Shizake says, jumping to a rooftop as he begins looking around the village on his own. Hinata and Kiba nod at one another, splitting up for the time being.

The three of them thoroughly scout the village, looking for any persons of interest. As well as looking them selves, they also question random citizens, asking if they saw anyone run by after the explosion. Shizake lands next to a dark red chimney spewing out clouds of smog into the air. Delicious scents rise into the boy's nostrils, small pangs of hunger rattling in his stomach. He shakes it off, still intently scanning the buildings all around him.

"Where are you...?" He mumbles to himself.

***~~~***~~~***~~~***~~~***

"Sasuke, where are you?!" A young boy cries out into the dead forest, "You can't run like this, not after how far we've come!"