The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 3

With that one sentence on replay in her head, Kansen was running a short distance behind Penami, away from what she could determine by her highly sensitive ears to be only one enemy. Her heightened hearing was something only she and Senai knew about. Apparently it was something that was naturally passed down in her family.

Their target was the open doors of the Academy building with Aburame-sensei standing in the doorway. The teacher lifted up one of his arms, and a dense, black, buzzing cloud emerged from his sleeves and headed in the girls' direction. Only when the cloud parted and flew past Kansen did she realize that it was not a cloud or mist at all but thousands of tiny insects all flying towards a common goal.

A grunt and a thump behind her suggested that their pursuer had fallen down. Hopefully he or she had, or the two students would have been in trouble. The huge height and no doubt age gap had been putting them at a disadvantage, so a few seconds more and they would have been caught.

Since Kansen and Penami both reached the building without being captured and there were no longer footsteps behind them, it was safe to assume that their sensei's bugs had gotten the shinobi.

Inside, their seven classmates waited with bewildered expressions. If the situation was different, Kansen would have taken a picture and then laughed at it for days.

Shikabe looked a bit uncomfortable, but no other change was present. Choi was still contentedly munching on a bag of chips.

Inora looked like she was about to cry, and honestly Kansen couldn't blame her. They were all eight years old, after all.

Rasu possessed a mixture of fear and anger, cold sweat dripping down her face, her teeth were bared and an occasional growl rising at the back of her throat. Now that was a face only Rasu would ever be able to make. Hituro had his Byakugan activated and was positioned with a hint of a defensive stance. Finally, despite his normal mindlessness, someone with a hint of a brain. Koruro's eyes kept wandering around, as if he was expecting an attack from any random direction. He probably was.

Penami was panting heavily, most likely from her narrow escape. Kansen felt no such fatigue. She had always been a lot better at some things than she let on, and her physical capabilities were one of those things.

Niju, however, was a whole different story. There wasn't a trace of fear or nervousness that could be detected from his body language. He looked almost like he was eager to fight with a highly trained shinobi. Ugh, his personality was completely insane. He'd probably be the first of this group to die, Kansen thought.

"Be on your guard, by my experience this is a confirmed attack on the village. We will head to the emergency hiding basement. Do not break down crying or start screaming, because I will leave you behind. Understand?" Their teacher spoke slowly but with a whole lot of threat.

Without bothering to see his students' replies, the visored man turned around and stalked down the hallway, his pupils trailing behind.

*****

The hiding basement wasn't that bad, really. Wood walls, concrete floor. There was still plenty of space even though it contained hundreds of children. In a desolate corner there was a sink and a flushing toilet. From what Kansen had read in some books somewhere in an unsure time, this was a lot better than the basements a few decades ago.

What really bothered her, though, wasn't the dim lighting, the chunin standing around the edges of the cavern, or the general serious looks on their faces.

It was the unnatural silence. With this many young kids gathered in one place, there should have been some type of cloth rubbing against other materials from shifting around sound or the clink of rocks that some boys had brought with them in their pockets or even a sneeze or cough.

There was nothing. The air seemed to press inwards without the constant noise holding it at bay. In this sound vacuum of a room devoid of human clamor, Kansen could hear the drip of water falling into the basin of the leaky faucet. The sink was in the opposite corner of the one that currently contained Kansen.

Then, something that interrupted the strained environment. A woman with orange hair dyed with sporadic streaks of turquoise and likewise turquoise eyes appeared crouched in the center of the room that had been cleared for teachers. Kansen looked up, eyes widening in surprise.

"Shino Aburame." Her voice, although probably no more than a soft indoor voice, echoed clearly throughout the space to Kansen thanks to her ears. "I will from hereon take your student Kansen Reitsui into custody."

"You cannot simply do that, Senai Kuroka. That girl has been placed under my care for now." So the guy actually had a sense of duty.

"I am a jonin and former ANBU captain, therefore I am your superior. Plus, these are direct orders from the Hokage himself."

"Sarada...?" The Aburame mused. No one was quite used to it yet, but Sarada Uchiha had indeed taken the title of Eighth Hokage after the Seventh died. After muttering that name, all opposition from him was gone. "Very well then. You may take the girl and leave." He looked around for Kansen to tell her to get up, but there was no need. The redhead was already stepping around arms, legs, and bodies to reach the center.

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