Troublesome
[PAST]
In the end, Rae lost ten thousand Ryo.
Everyone involved in the game of Tag was almost dead on their feet and the kids were worse off. Zen and Karin couldn't even muster the strength to walk home, resulting in Rae to carry them. And when they arrived home, there was a hot pot of miso soup ready for them.
Rae smiles serenely as she served their meal for the night.
"You can sleep in tomorrow," She says to her exhausted charges. "You'll start water walking training after lunch"
Zen groaned at the mention of training and Karin buried her face in her hands in defeat.
"You did great today" Rae smiles encouragingly. "I'm sure you'll be fine tomorrow."
"I heard that Water Walking is harder than Tree Walking" Karin voices out as she sips on her soup.
"It is" Rae confirmed. "It's because you need to constantly adapt to the liquid matter to stay afloat instead of using a constant amount of chakra to stick to a solid surface"
And when Karin looked at her in confusion, Rae merely smiled and gestured to continue eating. "You'll understand tomorrow"
"I'm sooooo done for today" Zen groaned after finishing her food. As soon as she stood up to leave, she dropped down again on her seat in pain. She looked up to the oldest member of their little family in a plea. "Take me to the room?"
Smiling, Rae stood up and carefully carried both kids to the bedroom.
"Good night"
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It wasn't even three hours later before the kids were woken up by an unusual disturbance.
Groaning, Zen slipped out of bed with a moan of pain. Beside her, Karin only snuggled deeper into the covers, covering her head with a pillow to muffle any more sounds. Zen glanced at her enviously. If only she wasn't mentally older she would do the same. But she knows that Rae isn't at home tonight and wishes that whatever it is that woke her up just be a mice or two.
Rae shouldn't take any more double shifts. She groaned.
The moment she left the bedroom, she felt it. Something ominous was in the dark.
Frozen in fear of the unknown, Zen couldn't even utter a sound much less a scream. Cold sweat formed on her skin, making her shiver. The pressure was too much and it brought her down to the ground. It must have been the pain in her muscles that jerked her out of her frozen state and crawled back inside the room.
"K-K-Karin!" Zen stuttered, fear still dominant in her. But the redhead didn't respond.
Closing and locking the door, Zen backed away from it in fright. The soft footfall in the silent apartment was as loud as a war drum to Zen's ears and it sent her panic into overdrive. Crawling determinedly to her friend's side of the bed, she shook her insistently.
"Karin wake up!" She whispered. "We need to go!"
Removing the pillow from her head, Karin looked at her friend in confusion. "Why?"
"Someone's in the apartment!" Zen immediately said.
"Rae-nee?" Karin asked, afraid.
Zen shook her head. "She's at work"
Pulling herself upright, Zen staggered to open the window. They were on the third floor and the jump from this height can definitely injure them if not kill them. Thank Kami they learned tree-walking.
But before they could even step up to the window sill, the bedroom door slammed open. A man stood hidden in the dark shadows but Zen didn't need a light source to know who he is. The glowing, slitted pupils, snake-like golden eyes were a dead giveaway.
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"Orochimaru" Zen whispered in fright.
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In a certain restaurant filled with happy, slightly drunk patrons, a shrill sound erupted amidst their merry moment. In an instant, the restaurant quieted and glanced at the source of the sound. The doors to the kitchen proper were slammed open as Rae dashed out in a hurry. Shinobi instantly sobered up and left to follow. She wasn't hard to find considering that she was the source of the shrill sound. Many more shinobi came out disgruntled from sleep but ready for anything.
They all ended up in the woman's apartment and the shrill sound stopped. Three shinobi followed her inside while the others waited outside the apartment and on the surrounding building roofs. There was nothing to note in the place and nothing seemed to be out of place. But none of them had gone in here before to know. Rae immediately went to the room in the far corner of the apartment and as they followed, they heard her curse.
There was nothing inside the room that stood out. And that was probably the most worrying of all. Everyone knows that Rae lived with two kids. And everyone knows those kids, not just because they were seen around the village in a spectacular display of chakra control in their game of Tag, but also because the kids were helping around for the reconstruction of the village.
"They're gone..."
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"Let us do this" Shibuki insisted as he stood in front of the foreign woman. Rae is dressed for war with ninja pouches and scroll straps in every easily reachable place. Who knew she was stocking up this many weapons with her?
But the determined woman ignored the genin-turned-leader. Beside him, Suien merely looked on, not encouraging or stopping her. Some Takigakure shinobi also stood behind them, some voicing their wish to come with her and some only watching on tensely. These are the people Rae had saved during the invasion.
"I'll do this on my own" Rae finally said as she was done checking her pack. Honestly, she didn't have much. Since she was determined to leave the Shinobi life while she was here, she didn't exactly purchase quality weapons. The only ones in her pack are the standard grade kunai and shuriken in the amount of two dozen. It was supposed to be enough to protect themselves from attacks and not the other way around. "The enemy is not someone you can handle"
"And you can?" the teen asked.
Rae froze for a moment before straightening up. "I can bloody well try"
"Rae-san!" Shibuki protested. "You're not even a ninja!"
"I don't have to be anything to rescue my family" Rae glared. "Besides, the village needs as much shinobi within its walls after that invasion fiasco. What we have here right now are still injured, intoxicated, and tired from the previous duty. Now don't be a troublesome little shit and let me handle this on my own."
"...But!" Shibuki scrambled for anything to say. "You could die! This person infiltrated our village without anyone noticing and left without a trace! He's clearly someone dangerous and well out of your league!"
"Don't underestimate me kid" Rae glared. "You don't know me well enough to know what I am capable of"
And that shut him up.
"Then at least take these" Another shinobi spoke, hands digging into his pouches and handling his weapons to her. "It's the least we can do to help"
And just like that, the other shinobi present followed the example. Within minutes, Rae was handed with hundreds of kunai and shuriken; and more than a couple of paperbomb seals.
"T-thank you" She stood there, stunned and with an armful of weapons. How she managed to remain unscathed is only thanks to her training and friendship with Tenten who she helps clean up when they go out to spar. Jerking out of her stupor, Rae sealed the weapons within the seal she had drawn beforehand on her right wrist. She'll deal with the disorganized weapons later when she's not in front of her now stupefied audience.
With a deep breath, Rae bowed. "Thank you for your help and support. I'm afraid that I must now go."
And with a final glance around, she disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
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[FUTURE]
Shikamaru is close to tearing his hair off.
There are multiple piles of paper on the ground around him. He could now understand what Zen meant when she said that her work was already "organized" when the Godaime demanded it to be.
One pile consisted of punctured parchments; they are book clippings and handwritten notes. Another pile was the array drafts where both inked and penciled were segregated. And furthermore, he segregated the seal arrays he remembered Zen making and wrote notes what he remembered they are supposed to be for. Another pile consisted of drawings of unfamiliar places and unfamiliar people. And the last pile was a book filled with unfamiliar writings and parchments of paper with the similar writings. He wants to think that they are coded messages but he had never seen anything like it. Even the trip to the library proved to be futile when he didn't see anything resembling the writing pattern. It's been a week but he couldn't make heads or tails on any of the piles.
He was startled out of his thoughts when there was a short knock on the door. He didn't even have the chance to say his consent before it was opened. His parents stood by the open door worriedly. He could only sigh. He already saw this coming.
He was expecting to get a scolding or a demand to stop but instead, he got their support.
"What are you working on?" his father asked as he stepped inside and carefully maneuvered around the minefield of paper piles. "Maybe I can help"
He was followed by his mother with a tray of snacks which she placed on the bed, the only place that is relatively clear of papers.
"This looks like holes made by pins" She pointed out as she held up the punctured paper. He nodded, he noticed that the first time he saw it and deduced as much. But not the next bit his mother said. "This could all be connected"
"... connected?" Shikamaru asked. It was probably the stress and lack of sleep, but why hadn't he thought of that before? Rummaging through the pile, there was no indication that they were pinned on top of each other but he had already noticed a few parchments with tape. He turned to the said pile where he remembered putting them in and separated them into another pile beside the punctured ones. His parents immediately zoomed in to the piles and tried pairing the parchments.
Who knew figuring out one woman would need three Nara heads?
He could only sigh in thought as her smiling image flashed in his mind's eye. His quiet muttering was heard by his parents but none of them commented on it. They could only smile secretly as they heard their son mutter something familiar that they hadn't heard in a while since the war.
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"Troublesome woman"