It will never stay the same [Part-46]

Veronica ran towards the gates where her favorite guards were standing. She loved to hear all of the gossip from them. She remembered how she used the 'random gossip' from them to black mail a jonin into buying her, her new ninja gear so she didn't have to spend her own money. Well, technically, it wasn't her money but Kakashi's money.

She poked one of them to get his attention.

"Sure, what is it Veronica-chan?"-Kotetsu

He smiled sweetly, at the child. He really seemed to like her. It was probably because she listened to him a lot and comforted him when he was crying out his sorrows.

Her eyes completely normal. She had practiced keeping her body state completely natural so nobody could read her.

"Ura...? Hmm... I don't think so."-Kotetsu

"Before an hour? He only came here yesterday night."-Kotetsu

Veronica smiled brightly like a child and the two gatekeepers felt as if they had seen flowers and sunshine on a cloudy day.

[…

I hate it when you do that.]-Matatabi

[Me as well.]-Tobirama

'I do too, you know. My cheeks hurt. But at least we've got the information we needed. I think it's time to officially plan some things out.'

Veronica's face showed almost no emotion for a second before, her eyes once again had that innocent look in them.

'I'll have to hurry up with the preparations. I can't have Danzo get me before then.'

She waited for her team to arrive by the gates. She didn't need to wait for long though.

The three males had arrived.

"Try to not send a shadow clone in team meetings."-Ura

He didn't seemed to particularly dislike that, so Veronica guessed it would be fine to do so again.

"Why? It's pretty clever if you ask me."-Tanaka

"Yes, ninja should be quick and efficient."-Ohta

Ura sweat dropped at his Genin ganging up on him. He didn't realize when they'd all gotten so close to each other. He guessed it was a good thing.

They all quickly moved out the village. She had informed Kakashi of their survival exercise and she could see him being quite suspicious of this. A newly formed Genin already going out of the village and it wasn't even for a mission? It was practically screaming that this team was not normal.

Well, it wasn't her problem she guessed. She would just do whatever she set out to.

After some time, Matatabi seemed to decide on asking the question which has been bothering her for a while.

[Are you really going to make your only blood relative in this life die? And worse, by your hands?]-Matatabi

She took in a breath at that. The question seemed to not only come from the curiosity of Matatabi but also seemed like a warning. A warning stating that there would be no turning back if she did this. One wrong move could make her live the rest of her life in regret.

'So, what if he is the only blood relative I have? It doesn't make a difference. I'll do what I want to do.'

The Genin team was still following after their teacher into the nearby forest, their speed was quite slow.

"We'll practice our water walking on a river from here which would lead us to the land of waves. It's a pretty desolate place these days but danger lurks in the most common corners. Remember to be on guard."-Ura

'Land of waves, huh?'

[Are we sure he isn't doing this because he knows?]-Matatabi

Veronica glanced at Ura from the corner of her eyes as she continued to think of the different possibilities this could relate to.

'Maybe I should just... No... There's no point in thinking about that. He couldn't have known about Team 7's mission. Even if he's got his eye on the team, it's probably because of Naruto being the jinchurriki and Sasuke being the last Uchiha.'

Shaking her head slightly at her useless thoughts, she focused on the road ahead of them.

"Sensei."-Veronica

"Yes?"-Ura

He turned around to face his youngest student.

His chakra slightly shook at the question which Veronica noticed the Aburame boy had caught. She made sure to remember that.

Her question though was obvious: Being Genin, can we go in such a place?

"Ninja don't question what mission they're given. Their only duty is to follow it."-Ura

The strict tone in his voice made Ohta and Tanaka flinch a little. They pursed their lips as they knew that what their sensei had said was true. They had seen the older ninja not even questioning their orders most of the time.

[Do whatever you want. It isn't as though you were a ninja, or will ever be one at heart.]-Tobirama

'I know. I'll just follow my own ways.'

Ura looked at Veronica and knew that she had completely ignored his words. Although she had remained silent like the others, her eyes were still clear and telling him that she will not bow in front of any power.

He hated those eyes.

It reminded him of the naïve brat he had once been. It reminded him of his dark past he would sometimes wish he could just forget. But he knew that there was a part of him that wished he could remember it forever.

After all, that was the time when he had met Saki.

[Look at him, looking at you like those idiotic villains do.

I bet he's thinking of how naïve you are.]-Matatabi

'If that were so then, I would be thankful. At least I would know that he's an idiot who can't even tell a person's true nature. Plus, I bet he'd underestimate me that way.

It would be easy to manipulate him.'

Veronica followed Ura along with the rest of her team. She had to remind herself to stay on guard around these people.

[Even Tanaka?]-Matatabi

'It'll take time to see that he isn't someone who will betray me.'

Tanaka knew that his team was far from regular. He had observed how intense their training sessions were. He had even estimated that they were as strong as new chunin by now. After spending more than half of his life hiding his talents and observing people, he knew for a fact that this village was just like any other. Hiding it's dark secrets under the pretext of being friendly.

"Veronica..."-Tanaka

He finally remembered why she had seemed too familiar. She had been the one to save him from this so-called 'righteous' village. She had saved him from Danzo.

Flashback~

He had been one of the top students at his current school. He wasn't in a ninja school but he would soon get enrolled. He had already started his practice with his mother.

He still had a family back then. A loving and strong mother who took care of his every need and a bed ridden father who would do his best every day to make him smile.

"Bye mama!"-Tanaka

"Be careful! And remember that I'll be gone till tomorrow so-" -Tanaka's mother [A/n: Yes, I didn't bother naming her.]

"So, I have to take care of my own and father's meals till tomorrow. You've said it a thousand times already mom!"-Tanaka

"I'm just worrying about you. Now go."-Tanaka's mother

The child went out and towards the park.

Nothing was out of the ordinary for the family.

*So what? When the worst is going to happen, it will happen.*

He hung out with his friends and started to head back towards his house.

That was their first meeting.

"What are you doing here so late? You should go back home by now."-Tanaka

He was worried for her. His mother had told him to be careful these days and warn his friends that some people were abducting children.

Veronica looked towards the boy; she was about to say something but then paused before taking out her notebook. She forgot she couldn't speak. Again.

"What? What do you mean by that? I have to go and take care of my father."-Tanaka

He decided to ignore this strange girl standing in the middle of the path after warning her once. He could smell a weird but familiar scent around her.

He couldn't figure out where he had smelled it before.

Veronica smirked slightly at the thought of things going exactly as she had planned. It's not like she wanted to help him. It's that he had been unlucky enough to be chosen by Danzo and her.

She slowly hummed a song and ran off in the direction of her new 'home'.

Their next meeting was when his father died protecting him.

"Are you going to give up?"

She clearly didn't care for him. He didn't understand why she would come to help him. She wasn't with those masked men either. She had killed all three of them.

He noticed the deep stab wound she had on the side of her stomach and her arm which seemed to be broken. The stab wound traveled all the way to her back. He didn't know just how she was standing with such a wound. Focusing back to her question, he didn't know what to answer her.

"I want to. But I can't."-Tanaka

He realized that familiar smell was blood.

Flashback ends~

--- --- --- --- ---

Karasu was walking the streets of the fondly called, 'blossom area' of the village. It was rare for her to go to this area but it wasn't entirely unusual.

"H-help!"

A woman, who she later learned was called Kumi, screamed, before her voice became muffled. After helping the woman, she noticed the woman had a bruise on her ankle.

"Please, let me help."-Karasu

Offering the woman a kind smile, Kumi eventually caved in and allowed her carry her back to her work place and heal her.

In return, she got to know that a chunin by the name, Mikuna, is deathly scared of dogs. Even the sight of one could make the man shake in his boots.

Quite a few days later, a reputation of Karasu was built in the flower district. She healed quite a variety of wounds in the time, bruises, scratches, sprains and a few broken bones as well. Of course, she always got quite a lot of black mail material on all sorts of people in return.

Unfortunately [Or fortunately?] Karasu does not use the henge she usually had on and the image of Veronica going in the flower district may or may not have disturbed quite a few ninjas, although it didn't seem to have reached Kakashi's ears so she wasn't bothered by it particularly.

Veronica did not know how to tell Matatabi and Tobirama that she had managed to create an information network in the flower district.

'Oh well, I guess nobody will ever know of this.'