Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. – Lin Yutang

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The trip back to Konoha took three days at ninja speed, compared to the week it had taken us to get there with Tazuna. That still put our total mission time at just under a month, though.

We'd been gone for a long time and we were all eager to get home.

So it was with excitement that we clocked in with the gate guards and headed to the Missions Assignment Desk to report 'Mission Accomplished'. For our D-ranks, closing the mission had been a simple affair. We'd shown up, reported our task accomplished and been paid.

It wasn't quite so easy this time. The client's information had been falsified, we'd been attacked by enemy ninja - upping the rank from C to B then to A - and independently decided to proceed with the upgraded mission. There needed to be a debriefing.

The Hokage's pipe puffed contemplatively as Kakashi-sensei reported that there had been complications.

"I'll take this, Iwashi," he said calmly standing from behind the desk and escorting us out of the main room. There were separate debriefing rooms not far away, to keep from holding up the process in the Assignment room. It was a bit of a surprise that the Hokage himself wanted to debrief us, but he did take a heavy interest in the new Genin teams and Naruto in particular.

Instead of letting us try to muddle our way through explanations like he normally did, Kakashi-sensei took over, explaining concisely and exactly what had happened over the mission. Actually, hearing the summary of how things had gone, it didn't really sound that bad. We'd actually managed to tie things up very neatly what with Gatou being killed, Wave Country respecting us and the friendly semi-alliance we'd built with Haku and Zabuza.

If you ignored Sensei's chakra exhaustion and Sasuke nearly dying, we hadn't even come out of it with injuries.

Now that was impressive.

"I see," the Hokage said, picking up a brush to make on note on some paper. "I will have a representative sent to the Land of Waves to renegotiate mission fees. I'm sure with this outcome, they will be more than willing to pay." Given that there were negotiators on staff with tongues so silver they could convince you to give up a first born, that really wouldn't be a problem. It was actually fairly common for mission contracts to be rewritten in the field so to speak, as new information or circumstances came to light. Konoha negotiators were also fairly lenient when it came to payment, it didn't have to be upfront in cash - trade increases, payments over time, concessions in this or that, these things benefited us too and they had the added bonuses of not making us seem greedy.

"Given the inclusion of a missing-nin such as Zabuza Momochi, your mission has been upgraded post-completion to that of A-rank. You will be paid as such. Congratulations on your first successful A-rank mission." He smiled.

Naruto cheered. "Take that! I bet none of the other teams have done an A-rank yet!"

The Hokage chucked. "Indeed not. It's quite an achievement. But before you go, there is some paper work that needs to be filed to validate your mission upgrade. I'll have it sent in to you."

Sensei groaned.

"Aww, man," Naruto complained. "I wanted to go tell Iruka-sensei! Maybe he'd buy me some ramen."

"Administrative duties are also part of being a ninja," the Hokage explained on his way out of the room. "A distasteful, unpleasant part, but important all the same."

"Can't get paid without the paperwork," I translated, with a smile. "Maybe you can buy your own ramen then."

Naruto pouted.

There wasn't really all that much paperwork to do, anyway. A Chunin brought the file - and some pens - into the briefing room and left us to fill it out. It was pretty simple, in the end. Name, ninja ID, team, number of members, assigned mission, assigned mission rank, rank upgrade to…, because of…, authorised by…, approved by…

The last one we left blank for the Hokage to sign and we trooped back out to the Mission Assignment desk. The Hokage flicked through the papers, signed them then handed them off to the payment desk.

Naruto eagerly got his payment in cash, but I requested a transferral slip.

"What's that?" Naruto asked, puzzled. "Aren't you getting your money?"

I blinked at him. "It's a type of payment slip. There isn't really any point in me cashing in here, since I have to transfer it through the clan anyway and pay dues. Clan tax," I clarified. "If I use payment slips, then they know the exact amount I was paid, where if I got cash they might say I lied about it."

"Clan tax?" Naruto repeated. "They take your money?"

"Well, sort of, I guess," I said. Even though our clan had a fair bit of income from our medicinal produce, it still needed support from active duty members. "We give them a percentage of the money we earn on missions and in return the clan looks after us. Housing, equipment, medical treatment, research grants… that kind of stuff." It wasn't a bad system. Certainly it was better than what some other clans did, or what lengths non-clan ninja had to go to for financial security.

"How much is it?" Sasuke asked, intrigued, as we walked outside. That was kind of a rude question, but I didn't get offended. Sasuke was probably too young at the time to know what kind of system his own clan had had.

"Mmm, I'm not sure. Probably around 40% for me, I think. It depends on a lot of factors like your rank and the mission rank and… well stuff like that." Like if you were single or married or had dependents or … well there were thousands of qualifiers. Everyone in the clan had their own tax rate which got recalculated every few months baring significant events. Like loss of limbs.

We stepped out of the Tower into the sunshine. I breathed in deeply, glad to be home. I couldn't wait to get back to the clan grounds, to see Mum and Dad and Shika. It'd be nice to see them all again after so long.

I glanced at my team mates and felt a twinge of guilt. None of them really had anyone to go home too. Empty rooms and empty cupboards were all that awaited them.

I was lucky.

"Did you guys want to come to my place for dinner?" I offered awkwardly, impulsively. "To celebrate our first successful mission and all…"

Naruto looked uncharacteristically nervous. "Wouldn't your parents mind?"

I shook my head. Dad wouldn't and I could talk mum around if she did. We had a pretty lax policy about guests at home anyway. Ino and Sakura often came home with me, and Chouji and Shika were inseparable. "Nah, they'll be cool with it." I cast my gaze from Naruto to Sasuke to Sensei. "Only if you guys want to. You don't have to…"

"We'd love to!" Naruto said hastily, accepting for all of them. "I bet your mum and dad are awesome."

I nodded. "They are!" I assured them. "It'll be great."

"Well, mission accomplished, team." Kakashi-sensei smiled. "You've got tomorrow off, so make the most of it. We'll start training again after that."

"Yes, sensei," we chorused, looking forward to doing just that. It had been a long mission, even if there had been no excitement after Zabuza left.

Kakashi-sensei fell into step beside me. "I'll walk you home," he offered. "I need to have a word with your father."

I nodded. "Of course, sensei." Call it paranoia or hubris, but that 'word' was probably going to be about me.

"Tadaima!" I called as I entered the foyer and shucked off my shoes. I'm home!

"Okaeri," Mum responded, coming out of the kitchen. She looked incredibly happy to see me.

"Sensei needs to talk to dad," I explained. "Is he home?"

"Out playing shogi with your brother." She rolled her eyes. "Can I get you some tea, Hakate-sensei?"

I left Sensei to mum's mercies and padded over to open the sliding door leading to the veranda. "Hi," I said softly, taking in the game. Shikamaru was losing, of course.

Dad stood, glancing over my shoulder. "Welcome back. I'll go see what your sensei needs. Why don't you stay here and keep Shikamaru company?"

I wondered if Sensei had signalled him for a private conversation. It didn't really matter. "Sure," I said, plopping down beside Shika and leaning into him, trying to plot possible tactics on the game. Shika was a better Shogi player than me, so he'd probably already noticed them all.

Dad slid the shoji door shut behind him. Of course, that wasn't exactly going to stop me listening in. I channelled chakra to my ears to enhance my hearing. It was a trick I was only just starting to manage with any reliability. Hearing was easier than sight and more useful than smell. To me anyway, I doubt the Inuzuka would agree, but my sense of smell has always been rather poor naturally.

"What about a rising silver?" I asked, point to one of Shika's pieces on the board and naming a common tactic. If I could hear them, they could hear us. Best they heard something mundane.

He snorted. "Are you kidding? And walk into that trap there?" He motioned at some of dads pieces.

"Hmm, I see. But if you did it in combination with-" Only half my concentration was on the game, which was why I wasn't coming up with anything brilliant.

"- nightmares often?" Kakashi-sensei was saying.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and took over our conversation because he knew exactly how nosey I was.

"Fairly frequently. Is it interfering with her missions?" Mum sounded… anxious? Worried, maybe.

"Not exactly." He paused. There was a creaking sound. Sensei leaning back in his chair? "There was an incident on this mission. Naruto used… his special chakra. It affected her badly."

I winced. I'd frozen up in the middle of a fight, been completely useless, and had nightmares. Badly was an understatement.

There was a weighty silence inside. "But your knight…" I said to Shika offhandedly.

"No. See here…"

"I see," Dad said. "Shikako is extremely sensitive to chakra. She feels it very strongly. It was unexpected that she learnt to use it at all. Given the nature of … that chakra, it isn't surprising that she was affected."

"Even that day, she was strongly affected by it," Mum added, sounding distant. I could picture her worried face, see her clenching and unclenching her fists. "We were very worried. A lot of people… never recovered, particularly young kids. They just gave up and died. We thought… we thought she might be one of them. She was very loud before then but afterwards… she didn't make a sound."

"She said she remembered that day," Sensei said carefully. "And she recognised that chakra for what it was. Named it, even."

"She knows?"

Sensei made an affirmative sound. "She guessed. I felt it better to clarify than allow her to make any further conclusions on her own."

"She always has been very clever," Mum said, but she sounded shocked.

"And will that affect her team placement?" Dad asked.

"Not unless you have objections. She hasn't shown any indication to being affected by the information but you may want to talk with her. Particularly to emphasise the secrecy around the issue."

I sighed, resting my head on Shikamaru's shoulder. Right. S-class secret. Can't tell anyone. Though Shikamaru could probably work it out pretty easily, given the right clues. Not that I'd do that, either, but it wouldn't stay secret forever.

"Thank you for alerting us," Mum said and their conversation degraded into pleasant goodbyes. I cut the chakra to my ears when I heard the main door open and shut. Just in time too, as Dad opened the sliding shoji door. There wasn't any physical give away for enhanced senses, but I still suspected that Dad would be able to tell. Maybe because he was a ninja, maybe because he was a parent. Either way, I'd probably be in trouble.

"Teaming up on me?" He asked, amused.

"Nah," I said, standing with a stretch. "I invited my team around for dinner, so I better go and tell mum. Besides, the game's nearly over."

"Traitor," Shikamaru muttered.

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"So how did your mission go?" Mum asked as we puttered around in the kitchen.

I froze, casting a glance through the door. Shika and Dad had migrated into the living room after the end of their Shogi match and, yup, they were listening too.

My first reaction was to lie. Lie like the world was ending. I squashed that thought. Not only were my parents ninja and would probably notice, Dad was Jounin Commander and could look up mission reports, and I had invited my team mates around for dinner. It would not stay secret with Naruto here.

In fact, them putting together what had happened by offhand comments would make them react worse than if I straight out told them.

And they'd be disappointed.

Very disappointed.

So that was out.

I couldn't claim that I couldn't tell them. Yes, it was A-ranked, but secrecy hadn't been one of the requirements. Telling them that would actually be much worse, because things were only classified if they were highly sensitive and Genin had no business being on those missions.

That didn't mean I wasn't going to tell the truth carefully. If I managed to say it right, it would sound much less dangerous than if I didn't watch my words. Of course, Sensei had already given the game away a little bit. I'd need to be a professional spin doctor to get myself out of this.

"Well, our C-rank mission was to escort a guy to the Land of Waves," I began before the silence could draw out and make them too suspicious. "He was a bridge builder and…"

I wove the tale carefully, mentioning the ambush but leaving out that Sensei had left us to fight it. I told them Tazuna had been targeted by the local crime boss, but left out that that boss was Gatou. It was a famous name. I had to mention Zabuza by name, since there was really no way around it.

"Zabuza Momochi!" Mum yelped. "He's an A-rank missing nin! What was he doing there? You couldn't possibly have fought him! That's not C-rank!"

"Sensei fought him," I said soothingly, not mentioning the water clone. At all. "He used his Sharingan. Sasuke was really surprised that he had one, but it was pretty awesome. I think he hypnotised Zabuza with it or something, because he really freaked him out. They both used these huge water dragons… it was really impressive." I carried on a bit about the fight I'd only partially seen. Hey, Sensei had been awesome, and Mum was buying the 'if Kakashi-sensei was fighting, we weren't' implication.

There was a heavy stare on my back. I glanced out into the living room to meet Dad's eyes. Okay, Mum might have been buying it, but I don't think Dad was.

"Sensei almost got him, but then Zabuza was rescued by his partner, who was pretending to be a Hunter-nin. Since we were more concerned about protecting Tazuna than chasing him down, he got away." because Sensei was out of it, I did not add. No way was I stating, saying, or even implying that we had been left pretty much defenceless against an unknown opponent. I could see the explosion that would cause.

I chattered on about the bridge, and the people we'd met and how Kakashi-sensei had taught us a few jutsu, trying to draw a picture that said 'it wasn't dangerous at all, honest'. I had a whole two weeks of material to draw on, and Tsunami had shown me how to make a few traditional Wave Country dishes when I'd offered to help her with the cooking.

Mum was relaxing, just a bit. "Oh? Snapper Yakizakana? That sounds nice."

"Oh, it was. Tsunami was a very good cook." Particularly with the minimal ingredients that she had to work with at the time. "She let me copy most of her recipe book too."

The last bit was the really delicate bit to tell.

"Zabuza and Haku, that was the fake Hunter-nin guys name, tried to attack Tazuna again once more. Kakashi-sensei fought Zabuza again, and Naruto and Sasuke took on Haku. I didn't really see what happened, but Sasuke got knocked out and we thought he was dead. That made Naruto really angry."

Mum and Dad could read in between the lines there.

"We won the fight and were about to tie them up," or whatever Kakashi-sensei had intended to do. I didn't really know. "when the crime boss showed up. He must have thought they were dead or injured or something, because he started insulting them and said he wouldn't pay them."

There was a snort from behind me. My lips quirked into a smirk. "Yeah, they weren't too happy about that either. They said that they didn't have a reason to fight us anymore, so we let them go. Then they killed him." I shrugged. "That pretty much solved all our problems."

"Neat," Shikamaru said. I think it appealed to him, having all your problems solved without having to do anything.

"Just like that?" Mum asked.

I nodded. "Pretty much. We had to stick around for another week till the bridge was finished, but there was no other attacks. The villagers thought we were heroes; they even named their bridge after Naruto."

"After… Naruto?" Mum blinked. Okay, without the full story, that probably came a little out of left field.

"He makes an impression on people, you know? The villagers all liked him."

They didn't know. They'd never really met him. Sure, Shika and I had hung out with him at the Academy, but we hadn't been awfully close and he'd only come around once or twice. That wasn't a lot for them to base judgement on.

Story time over and with no explosions I let myself relax, just a bit.

"A little extreme for your first C-rank," Dad commented idly.

I shrugged. "Luck of the draw, I guess. At least we had Kakashi-sensei." It wasn't like there was anything I could have done about that.

"Too much excitement for me." Shikamaru shuddered.

I smirked again. "Ino make you take a C-rank?" I asked. If they'd got a shorter one, they could have accomplished it in the time we were gone.

"Yes," he groaned. "It was troublesome. We were delivering messages to all these outposts… so much running…"

I laughed, feeling lighter than I had since we'd taken the Wave Mission.

It was good to be home.

It was around six o'clock when the doorbell rang, the first of my team mates to show up.

"I'll get it," Mum said, drying her hands off, as I was elbow deep in peeling vegetables for dinner.

"It's Naruto," I said. After spending so long with them, their chakra signatures were so familiar to me I could pick them out of a crowd. Telling who was on the other side of the closed door was easy.

To her credit, Mum only hesitated for a second. "Good evening. Welcome to our home," she said, politely as she opened the door. I leant sideways, just a little, so I could see what was going on.

"Um, I got told it was polite to bring a gift, so … here! Uh, thank you for inviting me, Nara-san." Well, that was uncharacteristically polite of him. If he'd found Iruka-sensei like he said he was going to, he'd probably been given a lecture on politeness.

Mum blinked at the potted plan that was thrust at her and Naruto's nervous expression. I could see what she saw in that instant, scruffy and unkempt but with a good heart underneath. Without really trying, he had won her over.

"That wasn't really necessary, but thank you anyway, Naruto. Please call me Yoshino, there are too many Nara's here for formalities." She gently took the plant from him. We weren't exactly gardeners, but it looked well cared for. "Please, come in. Shikako is in the kitchen at the moment."

"Hey, Naruto," I said, waving through the doorway. "Shika is in the living room. You can go bother him for a while, if you like."

"Ah… do you need any help?" he asked.

"No, we're fine," I smiled. "Don't worry, I'll be done soon. Just have to start everything cooking and all."

Sasuke arrived shortly after and Mum shooed me out of the kitchen to go talk to them. I tried to keep the conversation light, asking about what they were going to do with their day off and such, but Shika ruined it for me, lazily asking Naruto what our mission had been like.

When Naruto launched into a spirited retelling, aided by comments from Sasuke, of all the fights I'd left out of my own tale… well.

I sighed. Should have figured this would happen, I thought, ignoring the fact that I had anticipated it. Regardless, despite Dad's raised eyebrow and Mum's disbelieving reactions, it didn't actually go down that badly. The fact that it didn't contradict anything I'd told them probably helped.

Naruto seemed gratified that they were listening to him, and Sasuke shot down most of his embellishments, so if you ignored the 'Genin facing off against A-rank nin' aspect, it didn't sound too horrifying. We went, we fought, we won. Simple. Expected.

Yeah, maybe not, I thought, eyeing Mum. She was going to have words at me later.

Kakashi-sensei hadn't shown up by the time the food was ready, and it didn't look like he was going to anytime soon, so we started eating without him. It was a fun dinner, with plenty of lively conversation. It wasn't that we never talked at the table, it was just we tended to have pointed short conversations about something in particular.

Naruto just talked.

And before you knew it, everyone else was talking too. It was a kind of charisma, I guess, one that didn't rely so much on being nice but on being real.

Dinner was over and I was clearing plates off the table when I felt something that made me grin. It drew out for a long moment and my grin faltered.

I stared at the door. Kakashi-sensei's chakra hovered on the other side of it. Was he going to knock or just stand there? Maybe he thought coming was a bad idea and was just going to turn around and leave. Should I open the door anyway?

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!"

I slammed the door open and chirped, "Hi, sensei!"

He blinked, hands deep in his pockets. Even though he was in his usual lazy slouch, I thought I could read his awkwardness. "Sorry, I'm late. I had to rearrange my garden gnomes, Timothy and Sir Bedevere aren't getting along so I had to separate them."

I blinked and then giggled at the image of Kakashi-sensei having a set of garden gnomes that he'd given names and personalities. They would probably have little headbands and Henohenomoheji capes like his summons.

"It's okay, sensei," I said, leading him into the house. "We just finished eating, but I can heat you up some leftovers."

"Ahh, that's not really necessary," he said, shrugging uncomfortably.

"Sure it is," I grinned. "There's lots of leftovers and I helped cook it specially. You can't turn that down."

"Guess I can't," he said, eye crinkling with a smile.

I piled a plate high and zapped it in the microwave. "You can bring it out to the living room or eat in here or whatever. Just leave the plate on the counter when you're done," I offered, not sure if Kakashi-sensei really was as pedantic about his mask as everyone made out.

"Ah, thanks." He scratched his cheek through his mask. "I'll eat in here."

"Okay." I left him there and went back into the living room

"Ne, ne, Shikako, come play with us!" Naruto said excitedly. I blinked to see him sitting next to Sasuke and across a Shogi board from Shikamaru. "We'll play Team Seven verses Shikamaru!"

I grinned. "Sounds awesome," I said, sinking down between the boys. It was a little crowded but not all that bad. "Prepare to be beaten."

Shikamaru scoffed. "Troublesome girl."

Sometime through the game, Sensei came into the living room and settled onto the sofa behind us at our urging.

"I'll get Dad to help me," Shika threatened.

"What's the matter? Feeling scared?" I taunted.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see mum standing with the family camera. Technology was a little strange in this world. It was only the elite that had access to a high level of technology. Something handheld like Mum was using took extreme connections to get, even if I considered bulky and consistent with like the nineteen seventies. Heck, the camera that administration used for ID photos looked like it was from the eighteen hundreds.

If I thought about it, it was probably more societal than due to any lack of skill. They had fireworks so they clearly had gunpowder. They had radio, they had cameras and TVs. There was at least some people capable of building cameras.

But instead of saying 'how can this help the public' or even 'how can we sell this' like my world, they hid it. Not just the plans and blueprints, but everything. No one shared anything. Added to the fact that these were things that ninja wouldn't like - concealable cameras, radio and video that can be sent across the entire nation? No, they wouldn't like that at all. And things that ninja didn't like had a tendency to disappear. Not only that, but everyone that had heard of them mysteriously vanished or forgot they'd ever heard of it. Ninja might be able to adapt, but they'd prefer to shut it down before it got to that stage. The status quo was reasonably good to them.

And yeah, I'm a little glad, because I never want to think the words 'ninja' and 'atomic bomb' in the same sentence ever again.

Kakashi-sensei made his escape after the shogi game, leaving the three of us with ruffled hair.

"Come late and leave early," Naruto muttered. "That's sensei."

I shrugged. "I'm glad he come at all. I didn't think he was going to." I was actually really delighted that he had, to be truthful.

We kept talking until Naruto yawned, loudly. "Oops," he muttered, casting a wide eyed glance at Mum and Dad. He didn't seem to know how to act around them.

"It's okay." I smiled. "It is getting pretty late. I think Shika is sleeping with his eyes open."

"Hey," said brother objected, proving me wrong.

Naruto snickered and said his goodbyes, Sasuke following him. I sighed and leant backwards, contemplating going to bed until I noticed that Mum's eyes were trained seriously on me.

Crap.

I looked for Shika for support, only to find him halfway up the stairs. He'd already made his escape.

Double crap.

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I sat at the kitchen table, sipping green tea and writing up my mission report.

Mission reports were a bitch to write. The level of detail you had to include was pretty extreme. The thing was, all mission reports got passed through the Intelligence Division and stashed in the Archive and those little details might play an important role in some other mission. We were all the little pieces that contributed to the big picture they looked at.

…encountered two missing nin; identified as Momochi, Zabuza and 'Unknown', Haku. Momochi Zabuza: Skin tone, shade two; facial structure, type three, partial coverage from bandages - nose to chin -; eye shape, type five; eye colour, brown; eyebrows, light to none. Outfit consisting of: headband, Mist standard, plate at left temple; pants, grey; leg warmers, black and white camouflage; forearm bands, black and white camouflage…

I yawned. For those of us without drawing skill (that is, most of us) we identified people by a series of standardised facial features. It was rather like an Identikit that the police used to create suspect pictures.

We'd learnt memorisation techniques in the Academy in order to remember this level of detail. At the time they'd been rather fun, involving cut out cards of various facial parts and contests to see who could make the right face. Actually, a large proportion of time at the Academy had focused on memorisation techniques.

"Oh, there you are," Mum said in relief as she bustled into the dining room. "I thought you might have already left."

"Mission report," I explained. "We've got the day off anyway. Did you need something?"

"Well, I just had the thought that if you were going to be going on missions like that, and honestly," she frowned. I hoped she wasn't going to start ranting again. "What were they thinking? I told your father that he ought to step up your training, for both of you, but he just mumbled at me!" She huffed. "Said you wouldn't be ready for the next step until you were Chunin anyway."

I made a noncommittal sound. For all Dad had a lackadaisical approach to training, if he said we weren't ready we probably weren't ready.

"But well, I do have a few skills of my own," she continued. I perked up. Sure, there was more to being a ninja than cool jutsu, but they sure helped. "If you have a few hours to spare to train with your Mum."

"Of course I do," I assured her. More training was always worth it. Supervised training was even better. "Actually, I've been meaning to ask, do you know the Earth Walking technique?"

Earth Walking might have sounded like it was the next step after Water Walking, but it wasn't. That might have been Snow Walking or Sand Walking which Konoha didn't exactly have an abundance of. What Earth Walking was was the precursor to Jutsu like Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole, Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, Underground Fish Projection Technique, Tunnelling Technique… basically anything that required you to move underground.

It was a pretty basic skill in theory. The ground wasn't just one solid substance. It was a mass of fine particles packed together. And between those dirt particles were air spaces.

You projected chakra from the surface of your body, pushing the dirt in front of you around like a breaking wave. It was easier in aerated soil, harder in packed ground and near impossible in stone. If you had the skill, you could take some of that air and hold it to your mouth, increasing the amount of time you could remain underground.

The more advanced levels of techniques involved turning the dirt into substances that were easy to move, such as sand, around the body to enhance your ability to move.

It was also incredibly useful, particularly since I preferred to stay out of sight and then attack.

"I do." Mum nodded slowly. "It's fairly chakra intensive, you know."

"That's okay," I said brightly. "Even if I can only use it for a short period…"

It would also help in reaching other people that were hiding with it. You can't attack what you can't get at.

"Alright. We'll start on it this afternoon," Mum said firmly. "And make sure you bring your brother."

I smirked. Take that, Shika. "Of course."