Someone Was Coming

Sora Uchiha put his mask back on, took a few pills from his pocket, and held them out to Tsunade.

"Here."

Tsunade took the pills suspiciously. In the glow of the chakra, she recognized them as soldier pills, supplies that ninjas carried on missions.

"Your injuries are so severe you can't even gather chakra. You must have gone a long time without replenishing your strength," Sora Uchiha explained.

Tsunade ate a soldier pill. To be honest, they were just compressed food, bland and tasteless to chew, like gnawing on wood. Sora Uchiha didn't like eating them.

But Tsunade seemed to be enjoying hers. She probably hadn't eaten in a long time.

"Cough, cough!"

She ate too quickly and suddenly started coughing. "Water."

Sora Uchiha hurriedly handed her the canteen at his waist. Without even looking, she pulled out the stopper and drank.

After a while, she returned the canteen to Sora Uchiha. At last, a little color had returned to her pale face.

"By the way, why were you being hunted by Takigakure?" Seeing that Tsunade was feeling a little better, Sora Uchiha asked.

Tsunade leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. The surrounding noise seemed to die down, and the thin air made their breathing slightly louder. Sora Uchiha said nothing, quietly waiting.

After a long while, Tsunade opened her eyes and chuckled. "You little brat, is that any way to talk to me? Show some respect.

"Never mind. Since you came to save me, I'll be the bigger person and let it slide. Next time, remember to address me respectfully."

Then she gave him a brief account of the danger she'd faced.

"I was on a secret mission to investigate Iwagakure. Who knew I'd be discovered? They started chasing me, and I fled across the border from the Land of Earth into the Land of Waterfalls.

"Unexpectedly, something major had happened in the Land of Waterfalls too. Their Hero Water had been stolen. I happened to arrive there, so they decided I had to be involved. Caught between a rock and a hard place, I ended up like this."

Well, she really didn't have to be so brief.

Sora Uchiha complained inwardly. Her explanation was as good as no explanation at all. She hadn't given him a single useful detail.

"Why didn't you just submit to an investigation by Takigakure and clear your name?" he asked in confusion.

Tsunade gave a cold laugh. "If only it were that simple. I agreed to an investigation, of course. They couldn't find anything on me because I didn't do it."

"Then how did you end up like this?" Sora Uchiha frowned.

"Kid, maybe their Hero Water really was stolen. But from the moment I entered this village badly injured, their target was always me, whether the Hero Water had been stolen or not." Tsunade stared intently at Sora Uchiha, a hint of gloom in her eyes.

Sora Uchiha froze. Whether or not the Hero Water had been stolen, the moment the badly injured Tsunade entered the Land of Waterfalls, the Takigakure ninja had set their sights on her.

What did that mean?

What was Takigakure hoping to achieve?

Weren't they afraid Konoha would retaliate?

Suddenly, a flash of insight crossed his mind, and his pupils contracted.

The Land of Waterfalls occupied a very special location, between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire. During the Third Shinobi War, the Land of Earth was the Land of Fire's main enemy, so the fighting was largely along the borders of the Land of Waterfalls, or even within its territory.

In other words, the Land of Waterfalls was already at the center of the war, caught in the crossfire.

"You mean Takigakure wants to offer your head as a token of allegiance?!" Sora Uchiha blurted out.

"Heh, not bad. You've got a brain." Tsunade scoffed. "If I hadn't been injured, they naturally wouldn't have dared. But once I was hurt, they started thinking along those lines."

Sora Uchiha mulled it over. So the crux of the matter was that Tsunade had been badly injured. If she hadn't been, none of this would have happened.

"How'd you get hurt?"

Sora Uchiha was a little puzzled. When an investigation mission went wrong and you were discovered, the first thing to do was run. If Tsunade focused on escaping, there weren't many people in Iwagakure who could stop her. It couldn't have been old man Ōnoki himself, could it?

Tsunade pursed her lips. After a moment, she said, "I was ambushed."

"By whom?"

"I don't know. Someone wearing a mask. Very strong."

Several faces surfaced in Sora Uchiha's mind, but he dismissed them one by one. There were so many people in Naruto; how could he possibly figure out which one it was right away?

The only thing bothering him now was whether the butterfly effect he'd caused was responsible for Tsunade's serious injuries. Unfortunately, he had so few clues that he knew nothing.

He shook his head. Too much to think about, too little he could do. Even if he figured anything out at this point, he couldn't do anything about it, so he'd set it aside for now.

Besides, his top priority was protecting Tsunade. He could think about the rest once they got back to Konoha.

The two fell silent. Only the occasional drip of water from the stalactites broke the quiet. They hadn't eaten for most of the day, and now he was starting to feel hungry.

There was nothing to be done. Under the circumstances, all he had to eat were tasteless soldier pills. He lifted one corner of his mask and grimaced as he swallowed one.

Sora Uchiha had a sweet tooth; otherwise, he wouldn't have made a bet with Kurenai Yuhi and Rin. Soldier pills were simply impossible for him to stomach. He secretly vowed to come up with better flavors for them once he got back.

"Kid, what's your name?" Tsunade suddenly asked.

Sora Uchiha glanced at him. "Shichi."

Tsunade frowned slightly. "I asked for your real name, not your codename."

Sora Uchiha answered as if it were obvious, "I'm not allowed to reveal any information during a mission. I'm a man of principle."

"Heh, you took off your mask not long ago." Tsunade scoffed. "Some principle you have."

"I thought you were really going to hit me then," Sora Uchiha muttered.

At that moment, Sora Uchiha suddenly thought of something, and his eyes lit up. "If you want to repay me with money, I can tell you."

After buying the Explosive Tags, he was completely broke.

"Forget it. I don't have any money to give you. You can have my life instead," Tsunade said with a cold laugh.

Sora Uchiha pondered for a moment. "No money's fine too. You could gamble with me."

Tsunade eyed him suspiciously. "You gamble?"

"No."

"Then what the hell are you talking about?"

"Because you lose every time you gamble."

Silence settled over them like a river in Cambridge at night. Sora Uchiha thought he could hear someone grinding her teeth. "Kid, has anyone ever told you that you're asking to get punched?"

All Sora Uchiha could say was that she was getting worked up.

Suddenly, a small Katsuyu crawled out from Tsunade's cleavage and whispered something in her ear.

Tsunade's expression changed. She said sternly, "Kid, how many others from the Anbu came besides you?"

"Uh, four more."

"Can they get here soon?"

"No," Sora Uchiha answered instinctively. "Why?"

Tsunade stood up and stared quietly toward the path they'd come from.

"Someone's here."