Fear of a direct confrontation with Tsunade kept Qianyu from going home that night. He crashed in the ANBU barracks instead. Rest did not come easy.
Every time he closed his eyes, visions of Tsunade and Nonō appeared, demanding to know who he liked more, with a watchful Mikoto lurking in the background… Holy hell!
"Can't do this. Need to find something to distract myself!"
Qianyu sat up on the bunk, found paper and a pen, and dashed off an anonymous tip-off letter about Hiruko.
"That guy's a threat to anyone with a Kekkei Genkai. Since I remembered, might as well deal with him early."
In the letter, Qianyu stated that Hiruko was researching a forbidden, inhumane technique—one that sought to fuse the bodies of other shinobi and summoning creatures with his own, stealing their bloodline powers to fulfill his ambition of ruling the ninja world.
He finished the letter and made sure no traces were left. Then, he waited for a busy moment in the corridor and slapped it onto a wall.
Shouldn't be long before this ends up on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desk, he thought.
Hopefully, the mission to hunt Hiruko gets assigned directly to me. Might be able to squeeze some benefits out of that white-haired freak before I kill him.
Preoccupied with these thoughts, Qianyu wandered back to the lounge. Before he knew it, a smiling, lovely face was inches from his own.
The hell?!
Qianyu practically launched himself off the couch. "I-I thought today was a day off?" he stammered. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"Because I figured you'd be hiding from me at the ANBU HQ. So I came to find you." Nonō blinked, a playful smile on her lips. "Don't forget, I'm a shrine maiden from the Intelligence Division, you know."
She took a step forward. Qianyu took a step back. She took two steps forward. He tried to retreat. She pursued. There was no escape!
"Wh-what are you doing?"
As Nonō closed in, Qianyu's brain conjured a solid 64 GB worth of scenarios. Lounge Rendezvous with the Kunoichi. The Female Agent's Special Interrogation. The Shrine Maiden's Temptation…
"Pfft—HAHAHAHA! Did I scare you just now, Qianyu?"
She saw the sheer panic on his face. Nonō burst into laughter, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Because of Danzō Shimura, she hadn't felt this alive in so long. She hadn't laughed this freely in ages.
"Heh, a little, yeah."
Watching Nonō laugh her heart out calmed Qianyu's own nerves. A smile tugged at his lips.
"You haven't had breakfast yet, have you?" Nonō wiped the corner of her eye, beckoned him over, and pulled two bento boxes from her bag. "I made these for the children. Made an extra for you. Want to try my cooking? We can talk while we eat."
"Sure. Thanks, Director." Qianyu took a deep breath, sat down beside her as naturally as he could, accepted the bento and chopsticks, and dug in.
"I'm sorry about putting you through that awkward situation yesterday. It was terribly rude of me." Nonō took small bites of her food, gently bumping his arm with her elbow.
"It's fine. Strange as it sounds, I was actually kind of… happy about it." Qianyu scratched his head. "By the way, after I left… Lady Tsunade didn't get violent, did she?"
"Pfft, is that the image Lady Tsunade has in your mind?" Nonō's lips curled upward again. My odds seem a little better now, she thought.
"Lady Tsunade is actually a very good person. She offered to adopt several children yesterday, really easing the orphanage's burden." Even as a 'rival', Nonō gave an objective assessment. She wanted to win Qianyu's heart fair and square.
"Yeah. Yeah, Lady Tsunade is great." Qianyu nodded in firm agreement.
Nonō looked at him, a knowing smile playing on her lips. "So then. Do you like her more? Or me more?"
"I… I…!"
Qianyu wanted to slap himself. Just eat, you idiot! Why'd you have to open your big mouth?!
"Alright, I'm just teasing you." Nonō saw he couldn't give the answer she wanted. A flicker of disappointment crossed her heart, but she smiled again quickly. "Let's just stay friends for now. We can get to know each other better first, before talking about anything else. So you don't have to hide from me anymore."
Her understanding lifted a weight off Qianyu's shoulders. He let out a sigh of relief, a genuine, relaxed smile appearing. "Okay. Then let's start over. I'm Qianyu. My hobby is… let's not go there. My dream is to survive until the very end."
He offered his hand. Nonō was startled for a second, then took it, her smile blooming like a flower.
'I'm Nonō. My hobby is watching children grow up. My dream is to have you by my side, watching them grow up together.'
…
"What? Hiruko defected? He's an S-rank missing-nin now?!"
Half a month later, inside the ANBU HQ, Qianyu was stunned by the news.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, are you actually useless?
I warned you! Hiruko's strength is abnormal. You need at least ten Elite Jōnin working together, or a shinobi of comparable power, to take him down! How the hell did you let him get away?!
"That naturally incompetent old monkey, I'll personally—"
"Lord Raikiri! The Hokage summons you and your squad immediately!"
A voice barked from the doorway. Qianyu jumped, thinking he was about to be arrested on the spot.
Then it hit him. Oh right. I was cursing in Chinese. Can these little cherry blossoms even understand the profound depths of our national essence?!
Hokage's Office.
Qianyu led his team in. He thought Sarutobi had called them to assign the Hiruko hunt. He was wrong.
"…An ANBU squad dispatched to the Land of Grass was ambushed and killed. Inside the Land of Fire's borders!" Hiruzen Sarutobi's voice boomed with fury in front of the four of them. "This is a blatant insult to Konoha!"
His anger was justified. As the Land of Fire's premier military power, having their special forces wiped out on their own doorstep was an unprecedented humiliation. If word got out, Konoha's reputation would be in tatters. Who would hire them then?
"Your mission is to find these audacious bastards, eliminate them, and bring our Konoha shinobi home!" Sarutobi slammed his desk.
Clearly, in the Hokage's mind, swiftly crushing these brazen attackers to prove Konoha's strength was more urgent than chasing Hiruko.
"Understood, Hokage-sama."
The four acknowledged, collected the mission intel, and left the office, heading straight for the village gates.
…
Deep within a dense forest.
Qianyu's team followed the scroll's guidance, retracing the last known route of the lost ANBU squad.
"Qianyu, what did the Hokage mean back there? I didn't really get it," Nawaki asked curiously as they moved.
Qianyu shot him a look. "Things everyone else understands in one listen, you need to hear twice."
Nawaki's temper flared. "Qianyu! What did you say? Say that again!"
"Alright, we're on an A-rank mission now. Let's not bicker, you two." Using her authority as the orphanage director, Nonō successfully mediated between the two… lonely boys and their childish behavior.
"Hmph!" Nawaki snorted, turning to his scroll. He decided he'd never speak to Qianyu again. Unless Qianyu apologized first!
"Seems the enemy's pretty strong." After a while, seeing Qianyu still ignoring him, Nawaki broke the silence to mend fences. "The captain of that squad, 'Torrential Rain', had a 30 million ryō bounty on the black market. Almost as much as yours, Qianyu."
"The hell?" Qianyu's mind buzzed. "My bounty's 30 million too. What do you mean 'almost'?"
"You didn't know, Qianyu?" Nawaki looked at him, surprised. "Your bounty's up to 35 million now."
"Who the hell did this?!" Qianyu's breath hitched, his face full of righteous indignation. It went up again? Stop raising it! Are you trying to get me killed?!
Must be those damn Cloud savages! When I get back, I'm taking down two kunoichi from Kumo. Gotta vent this rage!
"The enemy seems very confident." Kosuke had been silently observing the ground. He finally spoke up. "They didn't bother hiding the signs of their attack or their retreat path. Almost like they don't fear being tracked."
He paused, reassessing. "No. The enemy might be just one person. And… he gives me the feeling he wants someone to follow his trail."
"Just one person? Then his combat power must be insane!" Nawaki gasped.
"He wants us to follow? Could it be a trap up ahead, to wipe us all out?" Nonō voiced her concern.
Qianyu's expression turned grave.
A bad feeling settled in his gut. He felt like an old general on a stage, his back bristling with nothing but red flags.
"Just my speculation. Might not be accurate. But we should proceed with extreme caution." Kosuke observed a bit longer, then pointed to a shaded fork in the path ahead, his tone heavy. "The enemy went this way. The trail is fresh. We'll likely catch sight of them soon."
Heeding Kosuke's warning, the team advanced with utmost care.
But before they saw any enemy, a tall figure materialized in front of them as if by teleportation. A pair of glowing, jade-green eyes swept over the four, appraising them like livestock.
Slung over the stranger's shoulder was the motionless body of 'Torrential Rain', his fate unknown.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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