Chapitre 89: 89. Neko-neechan
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Chapter 27: Echoes of Time
Sora's eyes fluttered open, his vision blurry and unfocused. The harsh white of the hospital room assaulted his senses, causing him to blink rapidly. As consciousness slowly returned, a dull ache throbbed in his right arm, phantom pain from memories he couldn't fully grasp.
'The room is so white that it's glaring at my eyes,' he thought, chuckling internally at his own joke. The antiseptic smell of the hospital filled his nostrils, confirming his location. Sora's gaze fell on the IV drip connected to his left arm. 'Glucose... was I out for long?'
His eyes darted to the large stand holding the IV bag. 'I could use that as a throwable weapon. The other party wouldn't expect-' Sora paused, shaking his head. 'What am I even thinking?'
Turning his attention to the medical equipment beside the bed, Sora noticed wires attached to his body, monitoring his vitals. With a mischievous glint in his eye, he pressed a few buttons on the machine. "Let's see... my vitals seem normal for the last few hours. It should be safe to remove these."
Without a second thought, Sora detached the monitoring wires. If anyone questioned it later, in case this machine broke, he could always claim they were like that when he woke up. Or he could just make a quick escape.
Eyeing the IV stand once more, Sora grinned. 'I feel weak, so let's not remove the glucose. Should I carry just the pack or the whole stand? Hmm... let's take the whole thing. It could be a makeshift weapon. That would be hilarious.'
Chuckling to himself, Sora carefully got out of bed, IV stand in hand. He approached the wall, attempting to stick his foot to it with chakra. To his surprise, nothing happened. Confused, Sora spread out his sensor field and detected a seal on the wall, preventing direct chakra manipulation.
'Interesting,' he mused. 'This could be useful for containing prisoners or preventing activation of explosive tags. Though with all these detection seals, they'd probably be found anyway.'
Undeterred, Sora made his way to the window, IV stand in tow. He placed his palm on the outer wall, only to find the same chakra-blocking effect. With a sigh, he muttered, "Well, back to the old days when I used to do this without chakra."
From his right shoulder blade, Sora summoned a rope with a grappling hook. With practised ease, he swung it upward, the hook catching securely on the railing of the hospital's roof. "Bullseye on the first try," he grinned. "Looks like I haven't lost my edge."
Using the rope and his own agility, Sora climbed from ledge to ledge, eventually reaching the roof. He stood triumphantly on the metal railing, glucose standing beside him, as he surveyed the village.
His gaze fell on the Hokage Monument, and he tilted his head in confusion. "Why does the Fourth Hokage have such a serious expression on his stone face? If he could prank ANBU, shouldn't he be more of a fun guy?"
As Sora pondered this, in one fluid motion, he summoned a shuriken from his right shoulder blade, letting it fall into his hand before lazily tossing it towards a seemingly empty corner of the roof. The projectile moved with surprising speed, enough to catch even a veteran chunin off guard.
A metallic clang rang out as a sword intercepted the shuriken mid-flight, its tip threading perfectly through the weapon's centre hole. Sora smirked, recognizing the ANBU's skill.
"Long time no see, Neko-neechan," he called out cheerfully. "That sword looks like a dango stick. Now I'm hungry."
The cat-masked ANBU stepped out of the shadows, her voice controlled and monotone. "Yes, it has been a while."
Despite the ANBU's neutral tone, Sora, who prides himself on reading the expressions of stoic individuals like Kakashi and Sasuke, reading their eye expressions or their emotions through "Hnn" could detect a hint of annoyance in her tone.
"Did Jiji tell you to monitor me? Did that shadow clone you created earlier go to report that I'm awake?"
The ANBU's posture shifted slightly. "So, you knew about my presence from the start? Also, when did you weave hand signs for the shape-shifting jutsu you used to increase the projectile's speed?"
Sora grinned cheekily. "I asked first, you know."
"No," the ANBU replied. "I was appointed by Lady Tsunade to watch you."
Nodding, Sora explained, "Yeah, I noticed you when I tried to stick my chakra to the wall. As for the hand seals, I weaved them while swinging the rope. Your attention was probably momentarily on the anchor."
The purple-haired ANBU's eyes widened behind her mask, impressed by the young ninja's observational skills and quick thinking.
Sora's brow furrowed as a thought occurred to him. "But weren't you technically part of Jiji's guard? Shouldn't he still have ANBU too even after retiring, since that scary elder with one eye seems to have his own force?"
The question caught the ANBU off guard. "How do you know about Root?" she asked, her tone carefully controlled.
Sora looked genuinely confused by her reaction. "Why are you shocked, nee-chan? Doesn't everybody know about Root? They just pretend they don't."
The ANBU's posture stiffened. "That didn't answer my question."
"Well," Sora began, his expression thoughtful, "I found out about them when they tried to kidnap me. It happened before the Chunin Exams, I think."
"Wait, what?!" A new voice cut through the air, startling both Sora and the ANBU. Tsunade had appeared on the roof, her face a mix of concern and anger.
The ANBU immediately raised her guard, while Sora, caught off balance, leapt off the railing with the IV stand in tow.
In mid-air, Seeing that it was Tsunade, he formed a quick hand sign, creating a shadow clone that used a mini Gale Palm jutsu to guide him back to the railing gently.
Acting as if he hadn't been surprised at all, Sora continued, "Well, this isn't technically something I was told to keep secret explicitly, so yeah. One day I was training, and I got kidnapped. Well, technically, I let them kidnap me. Some things happened, and I ended up painting the whole main base of Root white, including that scary elder. The old guy was preaching something about darkness, so I had to show them the light, right?"
Sora tried to end with a joke, but Tsunade's expression had grown serious. The cat-masked ANBU remained silent, though Sora thought she was stifling a laugh behind her mask.
At least this was what he told himself to make him feel that his joke was funny.
Tsunade's voice was stern as she spoke. "We will talk about this incident later. For now, why were you out of your room?"
Sora squirmed under her gaze but quickly composed himself. "Well, I wanted to make sure I was in Konoha. Plus, sensing someone watching me made me think it was better to confront them in an open area, in case they were hostile." Sora said while nodding.
He was impressed by himself that he came up with such an excuse on the spot, and even believed that it was his intention from the start.
Tsunade nodded, unable to refute his logic even if she suspected he had concocted the excuse on the spot. She dismissed the cat ANBU, and within moments, Naruto, Sasuke, Jiraiya, and Kakashi arrived on the roof.
Naruto's voice rang out, filled with concern. "What happened, Sora? Why were you in the hospital?"
The others present shared the same question, their expressions a mix of worry and curiosity. Sora's face paled slightly as he instinctively clutched his right arm. Kakashi and Tsunade exchanged knowing glances, their initial suspicions seeming to be confirmed.
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