章節 11: Chapter 11: Hell Hath no Fury(1)
I sometimes wonder if my talents are nothing more than a curse. Why was I, someone so young, given the ability to understand things with such clarity?
Time and time again, I find myself regretting the power I was given. Why me? The need to be a monster grows more and more with each passing day. The more I try, the more I find ways that I am what I claim to be. Be it mentally, physically, or spiritually. So why is it that I usually end up a hero?
At the end of the day, I ask myself these very questions, and reply with the very same answer.
Who cares?
I am a monster, be it Nezumi or Naruto.
And every day, I become more and more okay with it.
When Mei returned to where Neko and her team were on standby, the young blond that accompanied her was now Nezumi. He'd had his fun. It was time to put the mask back on and act like he wasn't a monster.
Neko smirked under her porcelain mask, the way the leader of the Resistance kept glancing at her kohai told her all she needed to know. The woman had witnessed, with her own two eyes, the power Konoha had at its beck and call. Good. Now they'd pay attention to what her and her team said. Ah, the benefits of knowing a monster.
"I take it Nezumi was more than efficient in proving that you have been given four operatives who are more than capable of fighting the Mizukage's forces." Neko said somewhat smugly. Having Mei actually say that her kohai's were only worth half an agent really bothered her, and to see how the woman reacted to Nezumi's actions made her feel more than a little smug. Nezumi knew as much, even without his abilities to feel others. Her tone said it all.
Ah, the benefits of being a monster.
"Indeed." Mei finally said reluctantly. "I'll make sure not to underestimate you or your team again." She bit out. "You have my word. I'm," the woman actually looked to be in pain, "sorry." There! She said it, now it was time to move on and forget it. She would be hard pressed to admit that she was wrong and apologize to a Konoha-nin again. She loathed having to do it a first time.
"Apology accepted, Mei-san." Karasu replied with a respectable nod of his head. "You didn't know if you could put your faith in us." Wow, this was the most the auburn-haired woman had heard the black-haired boy speak the whole time he'd been with the Resistance. "Now you know you can."
Mei nodded slowly. Having children talking to you like they were adults would take some getting used to, if she could ever get used to it. Really, what was that village feeding its youth?
"Did your general get the information he was tasked with recovering?" Neko asked, wanting to know if Nezumi had been used for nothing or not. For the purple-haired woman, breaking people out who were already defeated and imprisoned wasn't the best way to spend their time. She hadn't planned to spend too horribly long in this war-torn country. She had a special someone waiting for her at home after all.
"Yes." A blue-haired man finally spoke up. "The factory is underneath Shio." Ao revealed. "That bastard stuck it somewhere impossible for us to get to without losing too many of our own."
Mei's fist hit the earth-made wall. "Damn it!" She all but snarled. "He really doesn't want to lose that damn place." She ran a hand through her long hair and sighed. "We really needed to hit that base. It's our greatest way to cripple his armies."
Neko thought it was a smart idea. Taking out the man's weapons factory would slowly make his men's supply dwindle down, causing more of them to lose battles with the Resistance, not having the equipment to properly fight back. More deaths would lessen moral, which would then cause even more deaths. It was slow and subtle, but it was a smart move. The smallest of bug bites could fall a giant and Team Ro knew it. Nezumi was practically the epitome of that very saying.
Very small.
And very deadly.
Very.
Saru looked at Neko, a silent request to speak. He was given it in the form of a nod. "Mei-san, if I may, I have a proposal you should consider." Nezumi smirked. Saru might not be very lazy, or constantly spam the word 'troublesome' like the rest of his clan, but the pineapple-shaped hair was a dead giveaway. The man was a Nara, through and through. And no other clan in the world could claim to be more tactically and strategically proficient than the deer-herding clan of Konoha.
Nezumi turned his gaze to Mei and smirked under his mask when he felt her nervousness. "Mei-san," he began, "Saru is our team's greatest strategist. You should take whatever he says serious." He felt Saru's gratitude at the kind words. "It could help liberate your country."
Mei nodded, not wanting to argue with the boy's words. She had underestimated the small cell from Konoha once already, and that had proven to be a bad idea.
"What is it you wish to suggest?" She asked him genuinely. She wanted her home out from underneath Yagura's cruel reign more than anything. If she had to play nice with the Leaf then she would. Her ego meant little if her people continued to stain the shores red. Mizu was more than ready to leave war behind and enter the nice long vacation that was peace. Too many innocents had died already.
Saru once again glanced at Neko for approval. After seeing Nezumi show her so much respect, he would be damned before he showed her anything but the same. His age didn't matter; the blond boy was Saru's hero. After receiving another movement of his captain's head to continue, the Nara ANBU operative began to explain the plans he had created in the seconds he had heard them bring up the problem they were facing.
He knew it was a good idea to familiarize himself with the geography of Mizu no Kuni before leaving for the mission. That, added to his already brilliant mind, was truly nothing to laugh at. He wondered if this made him what Nezumi called a 'monster.' He sure hoped so.
After his explanation was finished, Neko and Mei were confused when they saw Saru staring at the base's ceiling, obviously lost in his own thought, and Nezumi nodding slowly at said monkey-faced man in an approving manner. Why did the blond have both of his thumbs up? Did they miss something?
Karasu, like always, was watching the happenings with indifference.
Nezumi sighed in content when he fell down on the bed Mei had said he was free to use, both mask and shirt forgotten on the floor. It was the most comfortable thing the young agent had felt in a long time. The ANBU's commendations were meant to be functional and nothing more. Comforting things apparently dulled the senses. Nezumi thought it was such a load of bull. He loved Hokage-jiji, he did, but the man was such a cheapskate.
Another sigh left his small lips, the bed really was comfortable. He had a whole ten hours to rest his body for tomorrow's assignment, which relied heavily on him and Karasu.
The rest was very welcome. The young blond was a juggernaut in many cases, stamina being one of them, but even he got tired. The small team had only stopped twice in the three day trip to Mizu no Kuni. They didn't even take a boat; Neko had the team run the entire ocean that lay in between Water Country and Hi no Kuni.
Afterwards, he had been sent to singlehandedly take out an entire prison. Yes, he had volunteered to do so, but that was a moot point. The Resistance needed to be shown what they were given. He was the only one who could show them properly.
So when the beautiful woman had accepted Saru's plans and shown them to where they would be sleeping for the majority of the time they were in Mizu – after the small tour of the subterranean base – the blond had been more than thrilled. When she revealed that they had separate rooms, he had been surprised.
The woman must have been really impressed by his actions, because now she was treating them almost like royalty. He may have been over exaggerating though, because even lower class citizens had their own rooms and beds. But it had been years since he moved into ANBU HQ and the small closet that was considered a room and the paper-thin mat he slept on was beginning to get old.
He willed his eyes open, his ANBU training not letting him fall asleep until he inspected the room he was in. Even though he knew they wouldn't turn against them, the years of training had drilled into his brain that non-Konoha shinobi were always the enemy.
He was in an average-sized room, the same color as the earth it was made from. The bed took up a lot of the space, being four times the size of his mat back home. Now that he thought about it, it was a bit strange. Why did he have a king-sized bed?
There were two medium sized nightstands on each side of him, both having random things thrown on them like someone used them regularly; also confusing. The right side of the room had what Nezumi thought to be a walk-in closet. He couldn't tell from his position propped up on his elbows, but he would wager that it was full with someone's clothing.
He didn't know why, but it seemed like he was given someone else's room. It could have been on accident, or maybe the person was gone for the night or was no longer with the Resistance. Whatever the reason may be, he didn't really care at the moment. He was exhausted and ready to drift off into slumber for the remaining time he had left for relaxation. In his tired state, he had forgotten to check on his team's position, like he always did when he was out of the village with comrades.
Not five minutes after he had closed his eyes to try and relax did the door to his temporary room slide open. His eyes opened and he went upright. Of course he had to accidently be given someone else's room, nothing could just be easy, could it?
Before he could sit up completely, he was gently pushed back down into the soft sheets of the bed covers. "Where do you think you're going, cutie?" A female voice purred in his ear. He immediately recognized the voice as Terumi Mei, the leader of the Resistance. If he couldn't feel the emotions of the woman he would already have killed her three times over by now. He'd never been so grateful of his abilities.
"I was going to go find myself a new room to sleep in." He replied with a perfect poker face. He couldn't afford to show emotion and give her the wrong idea. "This one obviously belongs to you."
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