We Are Shinobi (Naruto Fanfic)

5: It Begins

The afternoon rolls by, a lot quicker than expected. Before I know it, evening comes and the sun begins to set.

I'd spent the day sort of roaming the streets of Konoha, learning all the good back streets and side alleys. I'd also found a few places to hide, should that become necessary. One is an old abandoned wine-cellar I am able to enter through an alley on a back road near the Uchiha District and Police Department.

As the sun disappears over the horizon, I make my way back to my apartment. It feels nice to lie down and close my eyes, but not as nice when thoughts begin to seep into my head.

A baby's face continued to flash in and out of focus and I curled into a ball, wrapping the blankets tighter around my body. I notice that I have begun to shiver.

I don't know a whole lot about the great nations, but there must be some kind of formal interrogation unit... It's quite off that I was never formally interrogated when they first caught me. This Hokage is certainly different than any other.

The fact that he knew my real rank and saw through every lie, yet still proceeded to go on as if nothing happened and allow me to stay... Does he know what scroll I am after? Surely not. I mean, he's smart but I'm sure he would have handled the situation differently if he did know.

Everything is just so confusing. I guess it doesn't matter anyway, because as soon as I kill the child and get my hands on that scroll, I am out of here.

***

I throw a kunai and it hits a target lodged into one of the trees at the small training ground near the Uchiha district. I should be sleeping now... it's nearly midnight. I just couldn't fall asleep with the thoughts running through my head.

Another kunai flies from behind and I flinch as it near-misses my shoulder. It flies towards the target my kunai was lodged into and splits the wood of the cheap wood handle on my kunai. When I turn to see who threw it, Kakashi emerges from the trees.

"You planning to sleep tonight?" he asks. I shake my head. "Me neither," he mutters, keeping his head low. I notice that he is no longer in ANBU uniform. Instead, he wears basic black sweats and a short-sleeved black tank--one of the ones ninjas usually wear under their vests.

With a sigh, I lean against a large rock behind me that's sticking out of the ground.

"What are you still doing up?" I ask, pulling a kunai out of my pouch and fiddling with the splintered handle.

He ignores my question and changes the topic.

"Those kunai knives suck."

I raise an eyebrow and he skillfully pulls a kunai out of his pouch, flipping it around his finger a few times before catching it in his hand. He holds out the kunai for me to take, "I already have my own..."

"Just try it," and he motions for me to throw it at a nearby target. When I take the kunai, he chuckles at my reaction. It's heavier than the wooden-handled ones from my village and this one has a nice fabric wrapped metal handle for grip.

I throw it towards the target and it misses, lodging into the bark of the tree. "Pfft. I don't get what's so special about it."

He steps beside me, "You don't have to aim so high with these ones," he tells me, grabbing another one from his pouch. "They go right where you throw them 'cause they're heavy. They don't fall while in the air like those wooden ones." He throws the kunai and it goes through the handle-loop of the one I had thrown and lodges into the tree, leaving mine to hang off it, dangling from the impact.

"Show off," I mutter, smirking. I grab my knives and hand him one. "Let's see you throw with mine."

He shrugs, taking the knife and grabbing another three right from my pouch. I swear he could've been a skilled pick-pocket in another life.