Sasuke stood there, looking like he had just been hit by a tornado. His hair was sticking up in three different directions. He used his fingers to try and flatten the spikes, but they just popped back up.
"I'm leaving," Sasuke muttered, walking toward the door.
"Wait!" Neji yelled, tripping over his own long hair. "Where are you going? To find more hair gel?"
"Restroom," Sasuke said, his face turning red.
"I'm coming too!" Neji scrambled up. He looked at the balcony. "Lee! Get over here! We are going in a group!"
Lee did a giant flip and landed right in front of them, posing like a joker.
"I have already visited the restroom three times this morning to test my speed! But Neji, if your heart is trembling with fear in this 'BIG CRANE', I shall be your protect you with all my youth!"
WHACK!
Neji's hand moved like lightning, hitting Lee right on top of his bowl-cut.
"I AM NOT TREMBLING!" Neji screamed.
The sound was so loud that Karin jumped out of her blankets. Her glasses were sideways on her face.
"AHH! Is it an enemy?! A Samurai?!" She looked at Neji.
"Oh... Uhhhh! Such a good dream I was having about eating lots of food."
Tenten pointed at Neji's wild hair and started to roll on the floor.
"Hehehe! Neji, you look like a girl from a horror shows! Don't look in the mirror, you'll scare yourself!"
Neji ignored her, even though his face was twitching. "Sasuke, Lee, let's go. We need to find breakfast. My brain cannot handle Lee's 'youth' on an empty stomach."
Sasuke looked at Ino, who was trying to brush her own tangles.
"Ino, tidy up. This room looks like a war zone. And wake up the idiots," he said, pointing at Naruto.
"Hold on," Neji said, holding up a finger. "Don't wake Naruto. If he wakes up now, he will start screaming about ramen and we will never get to eat in peace. Let them sleep. But yes—clean this mess. Tenten, get the new clothes wherever you kept them."
Karin said, "I'll get the clothes. " And she made her move towards the closet.
Tenten kicked a pillow out of her way.
"Why am I the maid? I'm a ninja, not a sweeper!!"
Tenten threw her hands in the air and continued, "This is so unfair! Why do Naruto, Sakura and Hinata get to dream about clouds while we have to fold laundry and fight ghosts?"
Lee stood at the door, flexing his muscles.
"It is a gift, Tenten! We have the power of the morning! Their punishment is that they are missing this beautiful conversation!"
"Lee," Sasuke said, grabbing him by the collar. "If you say one more word, I'm locking you in the restroom."
The three boys walked out, their footsteps echoing in the hallway. Inside the room, the girls looked at the messy floor and the inner side of the room where they were unaware who was sleeping with whom.
Karin stood up quietly. She didn't say much to the others. She walked over to the wooden closet and opened it with a soft creak. She pulled out the clothes from the shopping bag in the closet.
She carefully placed the boys' new outfits on the floor, making sure not to make too much noise.
While Karin worked, Tenten had a different plan. She was exhausted and irritated. She grabbed the edge of her futon and started dragging it across the floor like a heavy sack of rice.
"I'm going to the inner room," Tenten whispered to herself. "I'll sleep behind that wall where Lee's voice can't reach me. If anyone wakes me up, I'm seriously hitting them."
She dragged her bed around the corner of the thick wall, but as soon as she stepped into the shadows, she froze. Her eyes went wide.
There, right in front of her, were Naruto and Sakura. Their futons were pushed together so closely they were touching. Sakura was curled up right next to him, looking peaceful.
'What is going on?' Tenten thought, her jaw dropping.
'Sakura spends every waking second crying for Sasuke to look at her. She would walk through fire for his attention. So why is she sleeping next to Naruto?'
Confused, Tenten looked further into the corner. Her eyes landed on Hinata and Mini-Sasuke.
Hinata was sleeping softly, and the little boy was curled up at the foot of the bed. It looked like a perfect, quiet family scene.
Tenten's mood immediately turned sour. Her stomach did a flip of disgust.
'I don't get it,' she thought bitterly. 'Is Hinata actually attracted to him? Or is Sasuke forcing her to stay near him to help his younger self?'
She shook her head. To Tenten, it didn't matter.
In her present time, Sasuke was a traitor who had walked away from his friends just to get more power.
'He's bad news,' she reminded herself. 'No matter how he acts here, he's still the guy who broke Team 7.'
"Hey! Tenten!" Ino shouted from the other room. "Don't tell me you're going back to sleep! We have to clean!"
Tenten didn't turn around. She just raised a hand and waved frantically, gesturing for Ino to come over. Her face was pale.
Ino stomped over, looking ready to argue. "What? What is so important that you're standing there like a—"
Ino stopped. She looked past Tenten and saw Naruto and Sakura lying side-by-side in the dim light.
"Gasp!" Ino's hands flew to her mouth, her eyes nearly popping out of her head. "No... way. When did that happen?!"
Downstairs, the bathroom was crowded with morning travelers and grumpy workers. It was a long row of sinks and stalls, and the air was thick with the smell of old wood and freezing water.
Sasuke and Neji stood at the stalls, staring straight ahead at the wall. They were doing their 'business' with serious, stone-cold faces.
Neji had his dark glasses on, keeping his head tilted down to play the part of a blind traveler.
Sasuke stood beside him, his face like stone.
Near the sinks, a group of local merchants were whispering loudly.
"Did you see him this morning?" one man asked, leaning in close to the others.
"The clerk from the front desk. The one the Tetsu Samurais dragged away for questioning yesterday."
"I saw him," another replied, shaking his head.
"The Samurai brought him back just an hour ago. He looked like he'd seen a ghost. He was shaking so hard he couldn't even hold a pen."
The first man lowered his voice. "They say the Guards are convinced he was hiding 'shadow people.' They seized all the records. They're looking for people who don't belong in this city. If that clerk talks... the whole building is going to be crawled over by blades within the hour."
Sasuke listened, but he didn't feel panicked.
'A clerk in custody?' he thought to himself. 'No. That can't be our guy.' He remembered the clerk he had put under a Genjutsu yesterday morning.
He had hit the man's mind so hard that he was sure the poor guy was stuck in a hospital bed, dreaming of nothing.
'The clerk I dealt with is unconscious,' Sasuke reasoned, his eyes tracking the steam rising from the sinks.
'This must be a different worker. Maybe this hotel is more corrupt than we thought. These locals are just gossiping about some other political mess.'
He felt a sense of relief. As long as his Genjutsu held, their secret was safe.
"The Guards are already in the lobby," a third man whispered, his voice trembling. "They aren't letting anyone leave until the clerk points out the ones who checked in without proper stamps."
Neji's ears twitched under his hair. He could hear the faint, rhythmic clank-clank-clank of heavy metal armor coming from the hallway. It was the sound of a dozen men moving in unison.
"Sasuke," Neji whispered, his voice barely a breath. "We should finish up. Now."
Sasuke gave a small, bored nod. "Don't worry. It's just local drama. Let's go."
The washroom door creaked shut behind them as Sasuke and Neji stepped into the long, dim hallway. The air here was even colder, smelling of old incense and damp stone.
Neji immediately went back into his 'blind man' act. He slowed his steps, staring blankly ahead through his dark glasses.
Sasuke sighed and grabbed Neji's hand, leading him forward like a helpful friend. To anyone watching, it looked like a kind traveler helping a disabled man, but their whispers were sharp and urgent.
"Sasuke, listen to me," Neji whispered, his voice so low it was almost a hum. "Those men in there... they said a clerk was taken by the Samurai. They said he's back now. What if that's your guy?"
Sasuke didn't even flinch. He kept his eyes on the floorboards ahead, his expression bored and cool. "Relax, Neji. You're overthinking because you can't see through those ridiculous glasses."
"I'm serious," Neji muttered, gripping Sasuke's hand a bit tighter. "If the Samurai are involved, this isn't just gossip."
Sasuke let out a quiet, savage scoff. "The man I put under Genjutsu is currently in a deep sleep. His brain must be mush right now. By the time he wakes up, he'll be in a hospital bed wondering what year it is. There's no way he's in 'custody' or pointing fingers at anyone."
He leaned in closer to Neji's ear, his voice dropping into a dangerous whisper.
"If the Samurai had caught him and found out about us, we would have heard the sounds of Samurai hours ago. We're in the past, Neji, but the law moves the same way. No custody happens that fast without a mess. It's just local drama. Some other poor clerk probably stole some bread."
Neji frowned behind his glasses. "I don't like it. My gut says the 'shadow people' they mentioned are us. We stick out like a sore thumb in this frozen hole."
"That's why you're pretending to be blind and I'm pretending to care about you," Sasuke replied dryly.
"Now stop shaking. You're supposed to be a helpless blind man, not a vibrating leaf."
"I am not shaking, I am shivering! It is freezing!" Neji snapped under his breath.
They continued down the hallway, the wooden floor groaning under their feet.
The lobby was just around the corner. Sasuke felt completely confident. In his mind, his Genjutsu was perfect, and the 'real' trouble was miles away.
"Just keep walking," Sasuke whispered, his grip firm on Neji's hand. "We walk past the desk, we get the food, and we leave. Don't trip over your own feet, 'Oh Great Hyuga'."
"I will hit you the moment we are-lulone," Neji whispered back.
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📊 BATTLE REPORT: 58-IRON 📊
LOSER: Tenten 🟤🗡
SNEAK PEAK LINES 💬
"Fighting,"
"Now keep your glasses on and look helpless."
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—With love, one forehead poke away from collapse,
Sakura Shinomiya 💫
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