"Alright Green, lead the way. You're the one with the information." Sasuke generously lets me take the lead. I would have anyways, we both know it.
"Don't get lost." I start walking through the village with Sasuke right beside me.
I'm not planning on brazenly walking into their hotel and asking if they're in, that would be crazy. We're Sound shinobi, Konoha shinobi must hate our guts. As far as they know we were part of the invasion force that attacked them, we could have killed people they know. That's not even mentioning the risk we're taking by being seen by them, especially our friends. They might approach us to ask about us. Kami that is confusing.
I take us to a restaurant that is on the same street as Konoha's hotel. We have a nice view of the entrance from where we are, we will be able to see almost everyone who walks out of it.
"Hello ninja-sans!" A rather bubbly waitress approaches our table with a notepad at the ready. "Can I get you two anything?"
"Coffee, black." Sasuke barks out. I've got to give the waitress props, she isn't phased by Sasuke's brisk words.
"Milk and some toast please." I politely say my order. One of us should be nice to the waitress.
"Coming right up!" She leaves us in silence.
"Red. You know that we can't approach them, right?" I have to make sure he doesn't screw anything up.
"Of course. I just want to see her." He says back to me without taking his eyes off of the doors to the hotel.
"Good." I smile under my mask. He said her, not them.
We wait in silence for a few minutes before the waitress is back with our order. "Toast and milk for you, and coffee for you. Anything else I can do for either of you?"
"We're fine, thank you. We might be here for a while, we'll flag you down if we need anything." I kindly respond to her. She leaves us alone again.
Over the next couple of hours Sasuke and I idly wait in the restaurant. We have to be very peculiar, but no one is making a big deal out of it. Our waitress isn't bothered that we're commandeering one of her tables, rather she seems vaguely pleased. We are pretty low maintenance and relatively nice to her.
In an instant our quaint stakeout becomes treacherous. Two teams of Konoha gennin walk into our restaurant.
"Green." Sasuke urgently says.
"I know." I respond. We should leave while we're unnoticed.
I flag down our waitress and ask for our bills. This caused two things to happen, the first we are one step closer to leaving. The second, it caused one of the Konoha gennin to notice us.
"Oto shinobi." They hiss out.
Sasuke and I watch them all collectively tense and fall silent. The atmosphere has changed, before it was friendly and warm. Now it is harsh and frigid.
No one talks, no one moves. Sasuke and I are being stared down by six gennin.
A tense minute passes.
"Is there a problem?" A deep gruff voice cuts through the air. One of the cooks from the back, if his apron is anything to judge by, breaks the silence. He's a tall imposing man with a few scars marring his arms. He is missing the lower part of his left leg, he's wearing a prosthetic. Ex-shinobi, without a doubt. He has an air of danger about him.
"We're waiting for our bill, then we are leaving." I calmly speak out. "We don't want to cause you any problems. Especially since you treated us nicely."
One of the more rash Konoha gennin scoffs. "Running away just like before. Is all of Sound cowards, or is it just you two?"
Sasuke's body coils in anger. His hand reflexively reaches towards his kunai holster.
"Red!" I harshly bite out. We can't afford to do this. "It's just words. Let it go."
With visible effort Sasuke stills his hand. He doesn't move it any further away though.
"Weaklings." A new voice, one of the other gennin this time, insults us again. "Still running scared from the last beating."
Sasuke's hand darts to his kunai. I move and grab his wrist, clamping down on it so he can't fully draw the weapon. If he does, it will end bloodily.
All of that happened in a fraction of a second. One moment we're sitting across each other, the next I'm standing between him and the Konoha gennin and restraining him with an ironclad grip.
"He's fast." A gennin says.
"Red. Stand down." I order Sasuke.
"They called us weaklings." He says in a menacing tone. He wants to hurt them. He wants to prove he's stronger than them. "Weaklings. They deserve a beating."
"I know. This isn't the time or place to teach them otherwise, you know that. Do it in the Chunin Exams when we are given permission to attack them as we see fit." I don't release his arm yet.
We stare each other down for a minute. It is a very tense minute. I have no doubt I can restrain him if I have to, but I can't restrain him and fight off six gennin all at the same time without using something recognizable. My two best tools to do that are my chakra strings and the Jiongu. Both of those are off limits. I could maybe get creative with a spider's web, but that would reveal skills that I want to keep hidden. Plus I have no idea how I would actually go about doing that.
"Fine. During the exams." He releases his hold on his kunai. I let go of his arm and turn to the cook.
"I apologize, we have caused you trouble. Once we pay we will leave." I diplomatically say. I don't want to offend the locals. That would reflect badly on Otokagure. That means it would reflect badly on Orochimaru and I really don't want to be the reason he's pissed off.
"Nonsense!" The cook roars out. "You've been here for hours and we've had no problems. It is them who caused this mess." He gestures accusingly at the Konoha gennin. "I'm going to have a word with your jonin. Not everything has to be a fight, they were willing to leave so you idiots could eat in peace. Disgraceful. You two are welcome back anytime, this meal is on the house."
"We can pay." I assure the cook.
"No." He points threateningly at me. "You eat free and you'll like it. Got it?"
"Yes sir." Where the hell did that come from? "Red, let's go."
Sasuke and I walk out of the restaurant onto the rather crowded street.
"That went well." I dryly say to Sasuke. "Totally blaming you for that."
"Green. They're coming out." Sasuke eagerly says to me. "She's okay."
Sure enough, our friends are walking out of the hotel together. Kiba and Akamaru, Shino, Hinata, Ino, Choji, even Neji, Tenten and Lee. Only Naruto and Shikamaru are missing, Jiraya must have taken Naruto again and Shikamaru has no business here since he's already a chunin.
They're all happy, each one has a smile on their faces. They're enjoying themselves. Good, I'm happy for them. They shouldn't have to experience what Sasuke and I have been through, they aren't ready for that level of exposure. I'm still not ready for some things Orochimaru forces me to do.
I didn't want to believe it. You really did go to Orochimaru willingly. I thought you were better than that. I thought you were a good person.
That's right. If they knew the things I've done they would hate me. If they knew what I did to one of Konoha's shinobi I would be shunned by them forever. Even if I go back I'll never truly be back. A piece of me is gone, torn and shredded by Orochimaru. I'm tainted now.
"Green." Sasuke's voice sounds strained. "Look."
Exiting the hotel behind our friends is a shockingly familiar mop of silver hair and a brightly colored book. Kakashi is here. Why is Kakashi here? All of his gennin are gone from Konoha. Is he the extra jonin Shirokumo told me about? Why him? Did Tsunade tell him that Sasuke and I will be here? She isn't planning on extracting us, is she? I explicitly told her not to.
"We should leave." Sasuke urgently says. "If anyone will notice us, it is him."
In unison we calmly turn and start walking away. We got what we came here for, we saw our friends.
We hurry back to our hotel.
One thought keeps passing through my mind: Why is Kakashi here?
...
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