Summoner Nin

Page 27

Part Three: Team Kage

Chapter Ten

She sidled her way closer to his window, her back against the apartment wall and her dark clothes imperceptible in the shadows of the night. She was embarrassed, somewhat, to be… checking up on him (she refused to believe that she was, in fact, spying), but she had felt particular courageous that night – the new moon an accomplice in her… endeavour. And really, it was sort of like training, she supposed, in stealth and reconnaissance. Never mind, of course, that the one she was gathering information on was just a nine-year-old like herself. There were times in which a whole village could rest on a nine-year-old's knowledge. For example, there could be a fire and only the nine-year-old was there to witness it first. Thereby, if the nine-year-old yelled, "FIRE!" then certainly the nine-year-old's knowledge would save the whole village…

Zero closed her eyes and muffled a groan. Her logic in this enterprise was flimsy at best, but if One was to question her as to why she was leaning against the outside of an apartment building on the tenth floor… Well, she wasn't going to tell him that she was checking up on (spying) on a certain blond boy. Nope. No way. She was going to stick to her "fire" story. One could never be too careful about fires.

She readjusted her right glove and leaned towards the window. Her glove was torn, several seams unravelling – a tribute to the mission she had just accomplished. Carefully, she looked into the room and held her breath. She did not summon her bloodline limit in case her flare of chakra may alert the boy, but even in his dark bedroom she could spot the yellow spikes of his hair sneaking out from under his comforter.

"Naruto…" she mused to herself, forcibly gluing her hands to the sides of the building to keep her index fingers from meeting.

She was glad that he was unharmed again. For a year now she had been watching him, purposely going out of her ways after missions to seek him out in case of trouble – and trouble seemed to follow the Uzumaki everywhere. Zero had made it her own personal mission to see to his safety.

Zero.

Not her other self.

Her other self was neither equipped nor trained to deal with the dispensing of civilians, but Zero, on the other hand, was very adept at disabling drunken men, spiteful widows and nasty spoiled children. Throwing rocks was never okay.

Fixing her gloves once more, nearly giggling when Naruto muttered "Ramen" in his sleep, Zero slipped into the darkness of the night and into the labyrinth that was Konoha.

xxx

"Hinata?" Kiba enquired as Akamaru sniffed at her ankles. "Are you hurt?"

"N-No." And she turned her attention to the clouds in the sky.

Kiba raised a brow and shared a look with Shino. She was a horrible liar, and they all knew it.

"Were you training with your father last night?" the Aburame asked.

"N-No." And then she shifted her furred hood to ward off a winter wind.

It was snowing again, but it too wet to play with.

Kiba gave an exaggerated sigh and plopped down beside her on their bench. At the farthest edge of the schoolyard, they could see Shikamaru and Choji settled underneath a naked tree, far away from most of the noise and crowds of their peers. The Akimichi was munching on a bag of chips and the Nara was cloud watching. Nothing was unusual, and Hinata chose to ignore the way Shikamaru had met Shino in the eye… not for the first time that day.