Naruto : Hidden Cloud

Sato wiped the blood on his forearm while walking through the hospital hallways.

He had taken the antidote from Konoha Hospital and was currently moving towards Kiba's ward.

Step

From the corner of the corridor, Darui appeared and quickly joined Sato and Samui. He has a piece of paper in his hand that looked official.

After clearing his throat, Darui spoke.

"Sato sama, I have informed Konoha that we will be speaking with Kiba Inuzuka."

"They have given us authority to act; as long as we follow Konoha's rules, we are free to investigate."

Just now, Darui had gone to negotiate with Konoha, Sato was attacked by their Jonin after all. Konoha was forced to give the hidden cloud permission to act independently. 

"They are searching for Kurenai on their own too. They have made it clear, that they were not involved in this incident."

Darui finished summarizing the official documents for Sato. Sato was humming thoughtfully. 

"So it's true; I was worried for a second that Konoha had grown a spine. It's good that they are still cowardly."

Sato chuckled. If anyone knew anything about this world, they would know Konoha's true strength was pretty good.

Although the hidden cloud was very strong under Sato's command, Konoha was not a complete pushover.

"That's right. If it were us, we would use the 'rouge' Ninja Kurenai's name to eliminate threats to our village completely."

Samui agreed with Sato, Cloud Village was notorious for pulling shit like this. It was funny to her how Konoha didn't take this opportunity to kill them, and put the blame on Kurenai.

That was what she would have done anyway. But Sato didn't seem to care much about Konoha's thoughts; he shook his head lightly.

"It doesn't matter. In the end, the only thing that matters is that this is an independent decision taken by Kurenai."

"And we are going to find out why. Here it is—that is Kiba's room. Let's see what made Kurenai do this."

Knock

Knock

Sato knocked on Kiba's door; some shuffling sounds came from the room, and Kiba called them in.

"Come in; the door is open."

Sato didn't hesitate; he pushed open the door and walked in. Samui and Darui followed behind Sato.

"It's you. Why are you here?"

Kiba's face scrunched up; he clearly didn't like Sato, the cat god guy. 

"Don't make such a face, Kiba. You know your teacher is under suspicion right now; if you don't talk, she might be hunted down."

Sato grinned and threatened Kiba. It's not just Kiba who felt disgust from Sato. Sato's cat nature was also feeling a similar disgust from Kiba.

Although Sato was controlled enough to not show it on his face,.

"What?! What do you want to say?"

Kiba growled; he was gripping his sheets tightly. Sato wasn't intimidated; he simply chuckled and pulled up a chair. Sitting down on it, Sato folded his hands.

"Your teacher, Kurenai, poisoned me. Currently, we have no idea why she did such a stupid thing."

"She is about to be declared a rebel ninja by Konoha. If you care about your teacher even a little, it would be in your best interest to talk."

"Tell me, was she behaving any differently? Is there something that caught your eye?"

Sato bent forward and spoke seriously; his shadowed but glowing eyes were scaring Kiba. Kiba gulped and backed away a bit.

Before putting on a false bravado.

"Kurenai sensei would never do something like poison you secretly."

Kiba defended Kurenai first, then began to think a little.

"But she did disappear all day yesterday. She was supposed to come for our class meeting, but she never came."

Kiba repeated the same thing Shino was saying back at the stands. Sato narrowed his eyes and muttered.

"This might be important; Shino was about to say something similar, but Kurenai stopped him from talking."

"You know, Kiba, your teacher knocked out Shino, then ran away from the stadium because of this."

"You might as well tell me about her disappearance clearly."

Sato advised Kiba that maybe Kurenai's sudden disappearance yesterday, was hiding something sinister.

"Teacher knocked out Shino?! Why would she do that?"

Kiba muttered in a shocked tone, but quickly collected himself.

"There isn't much to say. Kurenai sensei vanished yesterday. Asuma Jonin was looking for her as well; he asked us about her once."

"When we said we didn't see her, he quickly left. He probably went to search for her."

"Actually, we didn't hear from sensei today either, but she suddenly showed up an hour ago."

Kiba recounted what had happened, and he continued with a frown.

"We asked her why she missed our class meeting yesterday; she told us she was feeling sick. I didn't think much of it."

"But now that I think about it, she was probably lying. Her scent was chaotic at that time."

Kiba lowered his head; he didn't want to say this about his teacher, but this was what happened.

Because Kiba trusted her, he assumed her sickness was why her scent was so chaotic.

He never would have guessed his respected teacher was lying to them.

"Why did Asuma Jonin go looking for her? Isn't he the Hokage's son?"

Darui asked Kiba, there was suddenly another guy in this story. It seemed suspicious to Darui. Although Kiba clarified Asuma's involvement.

"Kurenai likes Asuma sensei; they are a couple. Everyone knows, even if they try to hide it."

Darui and Samui quickly realized why Asuma would look for her so desperately. They knew this was a lover worried about his partner.

"How peculiar."

But Sato seemed to have noticed something that they didn't. He mused with a smile on his face.

"There was another thing I noticed back at the stands. Ino's team was alone; Asuma was nowhere to be found."

"Tell me, Kiba, when did you last see Asuma?"

Sato asked, and Kiba replied with a frown.

"We last saw him when he went looking for sensei."

Sato smiled, tapped the table chair, and closed his eyes.

"So this is how it happened. Kurenai disappears; Asuma goes looking for her; next morning, Asuma disappears, but Kurenai shows up."

"She suddenly decides to poison me, then runs away. Konoha is almost about to declare Kurenai a rebel, but Asuma still doesn't show up."

Sato chuckled, although he didn't receive a reply from his subordinates. The room around him was silent.

Very silent.

Sato didn't seem to mind this; he continued with his eyes closed.

"I thought the third Hokage had called Asuma for his protection, and that's why he was absent. But it's probably a different story."

"Wouldn't you agree, Kurenai Jonin?"

Sato said something weird. He couldn't see anything as his eyes were closed, but his sharp ears heard the tapping noise of high heels. 

Tap

Tap

They were coming from the bathroom of Kiba's room and were quickly approaching his position.

Sato's still kept his eyes closed; the world was dark for him; all he had to go by were the footsteps rapidly approaching him.

But Sato didn't move; he sat quietly on the chair. And soon, the tapping of high heels vanished, that's when Sato felt a hot breath in his ear.

"You closed your eyes. How did you know I was going to use a genjutsu?"

Placing a Kunai on Sato's throat, someone asked him a question. This voice was familiar to him. It was Kurenai's voice.

"I had a hunch. People can do crazy things when their lover is in danger."

Sato spoke slowly as there was a Kunai touching his throat.

But when he said this, the Kunai trembled slightly. Sato could smell salt in the air.

Tears, he thought. 

"They held me captive."

Kurenai choked.

"They knew Asuma would come to save me. And when he came, they kidnapped him as well."

"They let me go after that, but they gave me a mission. I needed to kill you. If I don't do this, they will kill Asuma."

"I have to do this, I have to do this."

Kurenai's grip over Kunai tightened; her fingers had turned white. She knew doing this was practically a death sentence, but she was desperate.

And when desperate, humans do crazy things.