Blood of a Lost Girl (Book 1, Naruto)

Chapter 15

It took a bit of convincing, but we finally sorted out the chaos. We explained to them that we'd seen merchants who were killed while we came this way and we'd been worried that something had happened to them. We told them that we'd hoped that the merchants weren't a part of their group and had hurried to find them. The merchants had been part of their group after all and said that they had decided they didn't want to wait for us. This, however, caused even more suspicion, but with the help of Kurenai-sensei's Genjutsu, we were able to show them the exact scenes. They could no longer doubt us. They had all seen the truth with their own eyes. Finally, we could escort them to our Village.

I eyed a heavy-looking chest that two women and two men were lifting off the ground and decided to go help. Why did the women have to carry it? There were four men, after all. Perhaps it was so they could help protect the others. I offered my help to one of the women, reaching my hand to help lift the chest, but she slapped my hand away. "No, I don't need your help." Her voice was sharp and high pitched. I took a step back and held my hand to my chest. I was taken aback and one could see it if one looked at my wide eyes. She cleared her throat and her expression softened. "No, thank you," she emphasized the words 'thank you' as if to make up for her actions. "I do appreciate it, but I cannot let anyone that is not of the Hisano Village touch this. It is holding a precious artefact, after all."

"Oh! Oh, I see. Alright, I understand." I now understood. The treasure they were carrying was inside the chest. I nodded to myself, keeping in mind not to touch the chest. I didn't understand why the mere thought of touching just the chest bothered them so much though. It was strange.

We started walking in the direction of Konoha, with me falling in step behind everyone else. I had volunteered to guard the back. It was mostly because I knew that people would attack from behind the most and, with me being a sensory shinobi, I figured it'd be safest with me here. Neji walked in front with Kurenai-sensei. Second came two men looking alert and following behind them were the two men and women who carried the chest. After them were 2 elders who walked in front of Kiba and the remaining elder and then, finally, there was me. We walked in rows of two, with me as the exception, because the road we were on was narrow. I thought more on the strange behaviour of the woman. But as I thought about it, I realised that perhaps it wasn't so strange after all. There were many shinobi with peculiar talents who could easily steal the treasure and for all they knew I could be one of them. Luckily for them I wasn't. The only thing I wanted with the treasure was to see what it was. Curiosity, you know. Because of the elders walking with us, we had to take everything at a slow pace. I was surprised they could walk as long as they did, but soon we had to stop for a break. I passed my water on to them and watched as each took a mouthful of it. By the time they returned it, my flask barely had a quarter left, but I didn't say anything. I knew they needed it more than I did. Their bodies couldn't take the amount of labour, not like ours could.

*

I jumped back, holding my arms up to block the clumsy punch. I twisted my body and kicked the bandit behind me on his chest. Hard. He stumbled back and fell down, stunned. I opened my weapons pouch and grabbed a kunai, holding it up right in time to block the knife coming down on me. I pushed it up, glowering at the man whose face was covered in shadow by the hood on his head. It didn't help that a mask covered most his face anyway either. I glanced at my kunai and then at his. This one was the better fighter of the bunch, and that wasn't saying much. I wasn't used to using kunai anymore but, even so, it would be easy to defeat him. I hadn't used my katana a lot, but I had clearly used it enough to get used to it rather than kunai. I stopped pushing and pulled back, surprising the man. He lost his balance and fell forward, still attempting to take swipes at me. I side-stepped and hit the pressure point at the back of his head. I watched him slump and fall down face first. I turned to look at my teammates. They had subdued their attackers already as well. Seems I was the last one to finish. Then again, I did have two attackers – unlike the others. This wasn't the first small battle we had to fight since leaving with the Villagers. We've fought at least four other battles as well, some with stronger opponents, and we were tired. It was hard to protect the villagers and focus on our fights at the same time. I wiped the sweat from my brow and chugged the last of my water. I saw Kurenai-sensei look at us each individually. All our shoulders were slumped and we were out of water. She was probably the only one of us who wasn't tired. Of course, that was a given seeing as she's a Jounin. "Alright," Kurenai-sensei decided. "We're spending the night at an Inn so we can replenish our strength." Kiba sighed in relief, and he wasn't the only one. We were all relieved.