The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 14

OMG THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ARE STILL READING THIS TERRIBLE STORY

Kansen woke up to a persistent voice screaming in her ear. At first she didn't give a damn, but when it didn't stop her conscious self began to take over. The redhead swatted away the hand shaking her shoulder and abruptly exhaled and sat up. Simultaneously.

She rubbed her eye and just sat there like she was still asleep except in a sitting position.

"Damn it, should have brought an alarm clock........." the thought had never occurred to her until now that she would have trouble waking up. "What time is it?"

"Eight," Penami replied. She was sitting a few feet away legs bent at an angle, her hands propping her up behind her. Kansen's abrupt movement after a full minute of shaking gave her quite a scare.

Kansen finally opened her eyes and looked around for her clothes. Within three minutes she was fully dressed. Penami didn't move, studying her teammate's movements. The weird thing was that the redhead didn't stretch or yawn even once. She just did everything with alarming efficiency.

"Let's go. Did Boruto-sensei say anything about breakfast?"

"He's sitting in the lobby with Niju. We're eating whatever food we packed. You packed some, right?"

Of course she had. "Boruto-sensei checked our bags, remember?"

"Oh....right."

Boruto was chomping away at a sandwich, Niju sitting a few feet away munching on a similar meal. Their backpacks lay next to them on the ground.

Kansen settled down next to the short table along with Penami and took a plain piece of bread in a small plastic bag from her black bag. And then produced a small square of butter. And then pulled out a plastic knife somewhere from her baggage.

"Might as well enjoy luxuries while we still can," she answered her teammate's questioning stares. Boruto had found the bread while searching in his student's bag, but he swore he had seen no trace of the butter. None whatsoever. What else could the redhead be hiding in there........?

*****

Once again, they were walking. Kansen felt a bit sore from the day before, but she wasn't that tired. By the speed they were going and how long they'd walked, she'd say they were getting pretty close to the village that was twenty kilometers away from the Leaf village. That lying old man had told them it was only 'a few'. What was it called.........Tatari?

"We're a few minutes away from Tatari village," Boruto suddenly announced. "There could be enemies nearby, so be on guard."

As she often did, Kansen at first paid him no heed. Only when they were about to walk through the gates did she notice something was wrong. It was too quiet. No footsteps, no talking.........no heartbeats.

Realization seemed to like her a lot better than her companions, as always. Her eyes widened, and she stopped in her tracks. "We're too late."

"What do you mea-" Penami was interrupted by Boruto, who was beginning to catch on. "They're all dead." The jonin broke into a run and burst through the village gates.

A thick cloud of low drifting ash obscured most of the remains, but what could be seen almost made Penami throw up. Random knives and brown spots of burnt blood decorated the entire village, some just splatters of congealed liquid while others were smooth puddles that had flowed from what was now blackened flesh and bones.

Kansen felt something crunch under her boot as she hurried after Boruto. A look of horror crossed her face when she saw a skeletal hand attached to another bone, the one that had disintegrated under her leather shoes. There were no other corpse remains in her immediate vicinity.

"What happened here?!" Niju yelled, agitated.

"This can't have been done by bandits.........." Kansen mused, the reflection of the bone hand in her black eyes radiating fear.

"Shinobi," Boruto's voice echoed the redhead's thoughts. "Judging by the ash, this was last night."

"So we were right to stick around," a deep voice declared. "Something nice did come along."

I'm stuck on what to write next......