Clash 2: The Wolf and the Desertstorm - a collab with Amaterasu

Chapter 4

Akira suppressed a yawn. His attempt failed.

Ken couldn't help but give a snorted chuckle. "You sounded like a whale."

His teammate frowned. "It's too early man. Really?"

The sensor sighed. It wasn't that is was too early. It was that they had all been stressed over their sensei. He heard Akira tossing and turning all night long. He was certain Suzume was in the same boat as they were last night.

Akira's head perked up at the door's bell ringing. Suzume came out of the shop with a bag in her hands. "Ooo! What'd you get? Something good right?"

Suzume rolled her eyes with a smile. "Of course I did, Akira."

"I still say you should have let me go in and see too," the boy pouted.

"Heh, Suzume's reasoning was sound," Ken smirked, "you would have bought one of everything. We didn't bring a mountain of money with us you know."

Suzume suddenly blushed and gave a sheepish smile. "Uh, well, I did buy extra for the boys. They did say they wanted to meet up again this morning."

Ken sighed. "Right, let's go then." He could assume that they would all be camping out on their return trip home, rather than staying at any kind of lodge along the way. With Akira's appetite and Suzume spoiling their Suna friends, he was sure of it.

...

Daro answered the knock on the door and stared into Hiro's face. "Hey," he said, "heard anything yet?"

Hiro shook his head. "I was on my way to Kuro's. Kumiko is meeting us there." He waited for Daro to put on his shoes and the two boys made their way across the village.

"Everything will be fine, don't you think?" Hiro asked, "I mean, Hisayo-san will be in Konoha right? Just like they said."

"Sure," Daro gave a very unconvincing smile.

They both knew how their Konoha friends felt. They were the same when it came to their own sensei.

The saw Kuro waiting for them already. Kumiko was standing next to him, jumping from one foot to another. As soon as they saw their friends, they ran up to greet the two boys. Kuro's face did not promise good news.

"What's wrong?" Daro asked him.

Kuro let out a sigh. "A message came early this morning. It was a hawk from Konoha. I tried to intercept the message, I really did, but..."

"Where is it?" Hiro asked impatiently.

Kumiko answered for him. Her face was grim and she bit her lip. "Kazekage tower," she said.

The two boys stared at her wide-eyed.

"Where?" Hiro asked slowly.

"Ka-ze-ka-ge-tow-er," Kumiko repeated slowly..

"I heard you the first time," Hiro said annoyed.

"Then why did you ask?"

"Hey, guys, no arguing now," Daro interrupted before things could get out of hand, "we have other things to worry about. How are we going to break this to the others? Not to mention Gaara-sama will not be amused when he finds out we went behind his back."

"You're right," Kuro sighed, "we're in trouble."

Daro sighed too. "Let's meet up with the others first. We'll see where we'll go from there."

...

"Um...that's bad, right?" Akira scratched his head in thought after Daro and the others had met with them and explained the recent events.