Tryst in Wave

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CkA : I'm glad you're enjoying the story, but unfortunately it only has one or two chapters left in it.

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Akihiko quietly listened to the third and final report from Kisho. Of course, his mole wasn't aware of that fact, but he soon would be. He may have recruited this man, but that didn't necessarily mean he knew which way he would jump when push came to shove. Akihiko knew that Kisho was bitter, he served under someone younger than himself; someone he thought was only promoted to that position because of past heroics. As the man had confided to him upon their first meeting when he was quite drunk, “I was there on the bridge too. We all were, but he gets the credit.”

Akihiko had not shared his opinion that an eight year-old organizing an armed mob was not impressive. He had made it a point of looking into that, as he had an interest in the fall of any missing-Nin. Then again, in his profession, age ment very little, it was experience and skill that determine one's rank. It was something that this National Guard of Wave had tried to copy, but without the culture in place, there was bound to be people like Kisho who chafed under a younger person's command. Of course, the man also had a financial motive. A million Ryo was apparently enough to sell out one's comrades these days.

“The overall feeling is pretty relaxed. Were all kind of tired too,” Kisho finished.

The missing-nin nodded absentmindedly, having tuned out and said, “All right, I'll attack tomorrow.”

His mole’s reaction was predictable. Shock quickly changed to anger as he leaned in and said, “You told me I would have a three day warning. I was supposed to feign being sick and then be absent on the day you attack.”

Akihiko let out a world-weary sigh. “Kisho,” he said in his best fatherly voice, “if you had done that, you would be almost immediately suspected. It's better this way. I'll take you out with a Genjutsu and when you wake up, it will all be over.”

“How do I know you're not going to kill me in the fight?” Kisho demanded as his eyes narrowed to slits.

The missing-nin shook his head amused. “Listen, I'm a professional. For you, this is probably an once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for me it's just another day. Despite what you might think, ninjas are not murderers. Ninjas are different from you, that is true, but my mission is to steal the blood pearls and one shouldn’t kill if it's not necessary. If you don't find reassurance in that, take solace in the fact that you're not paid enough to be killed.”

Akihiko tried to project a calm demeanor as he wasn't sure how Kisho would react. There was a possibility that as soon as he left this bar he would run to his superiors and confess everything, but that seemed unlikely. He wanted to ruin his superior’s career and anger towards his organization would probably prevent him from doing that. He would give himself fair odds that he would show up tomorrow like nothing happened and he would bet two to one that the man would simply not show at all.

“Fine, but the money better be there.”

“Of course,” Akihiko said congenially. He took a sip of his drink as the other man stood to leave. Once he was alone he permitted himself a small smile. Now everything was ready. After tomorrow's mission he would be a wealthy man.

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With one last thrust, Inari released into the condom that sheathed his member. From below, Konohamaru watched as his boyfriend's expression shifted from bliss to euphoric. After a moment, Inari started to lean down and he met him halfway. They kissed before they both wrapped their arms around the other. For a moment, they laid there like that, chest to chest. Then he started to roll the other and they ended up on their backs, holding hands, neither wanting to break the embrace completely.

Closing his eyes, Konohamaru thought back on the previous days. Both of them knew that their time together was coming to an end. His mission to Wave didn't have a definite end date, but they were closing in on four-weeks, which was on the high end of the estimate. Perhaps as a result, their evenings together always ended up with them in bed. It was nice, but as he started to feel the cold air wrap around his body he felt annoyed.

Ordinarily, he would just pull a blanket over himself right about now, but the blanket, comforter and pillows were on the other bed. After their first time Inari had suddenly become afraid that Akemi or her mother might become suspicious when they went to clean the room. He had insisted that they make up the bed. Now they just removed everything beforehand.

For the first time he was feeling annoyed that Inari insisted on hiding everything. Pulling his hand away, Konohamaru sat up and swung his legs out of the bed.

“You okay?” Inari asked.

“I'm fine,” Konohamaru replied walking around to the other bed where his clothes were.

“You don't seem fine. Did I hurt you?”

“No, it's just,” Konohamaru stopped himself and said, “never mind.”

Inari rolled out of bed and unconsciously Konohamaru eyed him. “Come on tell me.”

“Alright, I wish we didn't have to hide everything. It's not like I want a parade or anything, but this hiding everything is annoying.”

“I know, but-”

“But what?” Konohamaru demanded. “You're just afraid.”

Inari's jaw clenched at his words and said, “That's not fair.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said putting on his pants. Pulling his shirt over his head he added, “Well you can make the bed by yourself today.” With that, he stormed out of the room without another word.

When he had gone several blocks his righteous rage started to vanish. Konohamaru thought back on what had just happened and realized he might have overreacted. Turning back around, he fully intended to apologize to Inari. Running back to the Inn, he collided with Akemi upon entering. She had been sweeping and the collision sent both of them to the ground.

“Sorry,” he said climbing to his feet and offering her a hand up.

She glared up at him before reluctantly taking his hand. Konohamaru was just about to head upstairs when Akemi said, “Did you two have a fight?”

He paused and answered, “Sort of. Why?”

The girl shrugged and went back to her work as she said, “He didn’t say goodbye to me when he left. I figured you had something to do with that.”

“Oh,” he replied wondering if he could find Inari before he had to go back to the site. He knew where Inari's house was, but it was pretty far from where he was now and even if he took to the roofs he probably wouldn't have enough time. Reluctantly, he resigned himself to apologize in the morning when he felt the bottom of the broom hit his leg. “What?”

The girl rolled her eyes, “I asked what you two fought about.”

Not knowing what to say, he said the first thing that came to mind, “The drop rule in Shogi. It's a little different from where I'm from.”

“That's a pretty dumb thing to argue over,” she said going back to her sweeping.

“Yeah it was,” Konohamaru said quietly.

Heading back to the campsite, he wasted no time climbing into his sleeping bag, but he didn't go to sleep immediately. Instead, he tried to figure out why he had brought that up now. It wasn't like it really mattered. Up until now, he hadn't minded keeping it a secret, so why? The answer didn't come to him and instead he started to think about the good qualities Inari had. He was easy to talk to, fun to be around, interesting and of course, good-looking.

After a half-hour lying there he thought maybe that was the problem. He liked Inari, he liked him a lot. Maybe the prospect of losing him so soon after meeting him was what was really behind his anger. Was he in love? Konohamaru couldn't tell. He thought that love was something that was supposed to hit you all at once, but if he was in love with Inari, it had sort of crept up on him. Still unsure about what he was feeling, Konohamaru formed the hand signs and found peace in the oblivion of sleep.

The next morning, when he awoke, for the first time in a long time he didn't feel a need to quickly climb out of the tent. Still, in the end, he was a ninja and this was a mission. Reluctantly, he opened the tent and climbed out. The morning passed as they all did. Inari showed up with the rest of his shift and the handoff went off without a hitch, just like every other day. The only thing that distinguished it from any other day was that Inari didn't so much as glance over at him once.

That little detail annoyed Konohamaru and he wondered if perhaps he felt more for Inari then the teen felt for him. So for the first two hours of his shift, he more or less stared at Inari's back, hoping he would turn around, but Inari stubbornly stared out at sea the entire time. Eventually, Konohamaru swallowed his pride and made his way over to his boyfriend.

Hopping up onto the rocky outcropping he said, “Hey.”

Inari glanced at him from the corner of his eye for a moment and quietly said, “Hey.”

Konohamaru grimaced to himself, he wasn't good at apologizing. “Listen, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell or anything like that. I'm not even sure why I was so angry, but I like spending time with you, so will you forgive me?”

The other was silent for a moment and then he turned and smiled, “Fine, but you have to buy me dinner.”

The young ninja chuckled, “All right”

Inari turned his attention back to the sea and Konohamaru joined him, leaning against a rock. Neither of them spoke for a minute and it was Inari who eventually broke the silence. “I don't think I'll ever tell my mom or grandpa.”

Konohamaru hesitated not knowing what to say to that, but eventually said, “Why?”

Inari let out a long breath, “I told you about the bar, right? The one where some fishermen go to if they've been out to sea for a while.”

“Yeah, you did.”

“Well, if I told anyone they would think I would go there and have anonymous sex with just about anyone. I'm not like that and I don't want my mom to even think I'm like that.”

“But your mom knows you're not like that. I mean, I know you're not like that and I've only known you for a few weeks.”

“It doesn't matter,” Inari said interrupting. “That's the image everyone has and even if my mom and grandfather don't think of me that way others will and I don't want to deal with that.”

Konohamaru looked at his feet, if anything, feeling more like a jerk then before. A second later he noticed movement by his toe. There wasn't much dirt inbetween the rocks, but there was a little and right now some of it was moving. Curious, he stared at it, wondering if some insect was about to emerge, but when it did it appeared to be a small flower. Before his eyes it grew to about two inches and started to open rapidly. As it opened, it revealed white petals and seemed to scatter golden pollen.

Suddenly, he felt very sleepy, as the world became unfocused. There was a part of his mind that recognized this was a Genjutsu. Stopping the flow of chakra in his body, he sent a surge of chakra through himself, finishing the Genjutsu Cancel. The world snapped back into focus around him. He turned to look at Inari to see if it affected him and found him sprawled on the ground. Kneeling next to him, he brought Inari back to consciousness.

“What happened?” Inari asked, climbing to a knee and wiping some blood away from his lip.

"We're under attack" Konohamaru replied before jumping onto a rock. He scanned the ocean for an enemy, but seeing nothing; he turned around and saw that the other guards had fallen where they stood. That could only mean one thing, it had been a wide field Genjutsu. Whoever had done this was not going to be a pushover.

“Konohamaru get the divers.”

His head spun around at the sound of Moegi’s voice. He was grateful that she had managed to ward off the Genjutsu, but he didn't understand what she was shouting about. He followed her finger to one of the little boats and it suddenly clicked in his head. If the diver had been underwater when the Genjutsu had been cast they could very well drown. Without a word to Inari, he leapt onto the water and ran over to the boat, looking down the entire time.

Fortunately, the water was clear and spotting the diver, he dove into the water. The diver was maybe ten feet under water and Konohamaru was able to reach him quickly. The man had a tight grip on a rock, which explained why he had not floated to the surface. It took Konohamaru a second break the grip, but once he did, the man started to float upward, but being impatient, he grabbed him and pulled him up. Breaking the surface, he channeled chakra to his feet to stand on the water again and dragged the man over to the boat before attempting to revive him.

Konohamaru had done okay with first aide, but he had no idea if you could revive someone who was under a Genjutsu who also might have drowned. Airing on the side of safety, he broke the Genjutsu before breathing air into the man's lungs. It took several attempts, but then the man coughed, spitting out water and rolling to his side, rocking the boat. He looked over at Konohamaru and said, “What?”

“We're under attack,” Konohamaru said interrupting, “Stay in the boat and don't move. If you do that you'll be all right.” He didn't know that for sure, but what else was he going to say. The man nodded, clearly scared, and Konohamaru left him there.

He scanned the trees as he made his way back to Inari. His two teammates were crossing the water over to him, both looking around for the enemy. “What do you think they're waiting for?” He said as his two friends came closer. As if in response to his question, there came the sound of two outboard engines in the distance.

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Akihiko crouched in a tree, watching the three ninjas and one guard respond to his Genjutsu. It wasn't the most organized response, but then their security hadn't been all that impressive either. He had transformed himself into a squirrel a mile away from the site and had scampered his way inwards. It appears now he had been overcautious. He was pretty sure that the ninja on duty had not even glanced at the woods once. Still, lax security wasn't necessarily an indicator of their skill. If they were all combat types, this could still be tricky.

The sound of the two motorboats approaching had the desired effect. They turned to face the obvious threat and he broke into a run, making hand signs the entire time. Breaking out of the woods he stopped at the shoreline as water rose up in the shape of a dragon. It shot towards the three ninjas who were still in a tight group.

They scattered a second before it impacted. The water dragon rebounded off of the surface and he sent it after the closest one who was wearing a scarf. The teen retreated across the water and ducked into the woods, the dragon close on his heels. Once the target was out of sight he allowed the dragon to control itself. It smashed through the woods, snapping branches and trees in half in a relentless pursuit of its target.

Neither of the other two ninjas had been standing idle. They moved in a pincer movement, coming towards him and almost simultaneously throwing three kunai each. He dodged them easily enough, going so far as to catch one of the weapons and throw it back at the girl. As she dodged her teammate put on a burst of speed and he turned to block his attack only to curse and jump to the side.

The bespectacled teen had chakra surrounding his hand. Akihiko had never actually seen a chakra scalpel used in combat before, but he could imagine the damage it would've done to his arm.

Upon landing, he had to jump again, this time to avoid a hail of shuriken, but while in the air he heard and then saw an exploding note attached to a kunai above him. Twitching his arm, a kunai slid into his hand from his sleeve and he threw it, neatly severing the flaming note, rendering it harmless.

Okay, he thought to himself, he might have underestimated them just a little. Clearly they were not only talented, but used to working as a team and that easily tripled them as a threat. Of course, he thought to himself upon landing, that could be easily countered. Forming a single hand seal, he created five Water Clone and prepared to triple team them.

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Konohamaru loved Jutsu. He loved learning about them, seeing them done and learning to do them himself. It was something he had probably inherited from his grandfather, but it was also very useful. For example, he knew that the Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet could be guided by the person who created it or if the target was out of sight it could guide itself. However, when it did that it could be easily tricked.

Luring the dragon into the woods was easy enough and once he knew he was out of sight of the creator, he created a shadow clone of himself. Diving out of the way, the dragon followed, not being able to tell the difference between the two of them. His clone was quickly pinned against a tree and destroyed.

The water quickly collapsed back into its natural state and he was running parallel to the bay. Moegi and Udon could hold off and probably take down any ninja, but he was concerned about those boats. Konohamaru had no idea how many blood pearls had been harvested, but judging by the amount of clams that had been bought to the boat, he guessed a lot. So, either those boats would be used to transport the pearls or they were transporting non-ninjas to hijack the boat itself.

When he emerged from the trees, he was on the outside of the Bay, but further away than he thought he would be. Still, he could see what was going on. There were two boats, each of which had four people in them. One seemed to be trying to get past the chain by forcing it down while the other was trying to get close enough to the rocky outcropping to land the men, but Inari was keeping them at bay by slashing whenever they came close.

In the back of Konohamaru's mind, he wondered why they were attacking there. Was it because it was where Inari was guarding or were they trying to detach the chain. That last part seemed unlikely as they wouldn't know which end it was attached to unless they had inside knowledge.

He pushed that thought aside when he saw the predicament his teammates were in. They had been cut off from each other and surrounded by what was most likely water clones. For second, he hesitated, but thanks to Naruto he could be in two places at once. Creating two shadow clones this time, he sent one to help Inari while the other one stayed with him.

Running across the water with his clone at his side, Konohamaru approached the second boat which was trying to make it over the chain. It was tempting to just throw an exploding note on it, but then any element of surprise he had would be ruined. Instead, he and his clone jumped together and landed on the side of the boat. It was only a small fishing vessel, hardly much bigger than a rowboat and the sudden unexpected added weight on one side capsized it.

He didn't spare a glance over his shoulder. Instead, Konohamaru eyed the attacker, trying to determine if the real one was among them. A lot of people who use clones usually hung back and let them do the work, but that wasn't a rule.

Then he saw it. There was one that, while fighting like the others, was also the only one in a position to oversee the entire battle. With the aid of his clone, he created a rasengan and zeroed in on his target.

At that moment he was thankful they were standing on the water as it made for a much quieter approach than dirt or stone would. He aimed the spinning ball of chakra so it would impact dead center in the man's back. Konohamaru was six steps away, then five, then four.

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Akihiko had learned to rely on his instincts long ago and didn't hesitate when something told him to jump, but it was too late. In midair, he felt something collide with him. He was twisted in midair and smashed into the water. The next thing he really remembered was the pain from his leg and after a second of sinking, he consciously headed towards the bottom. There, he twisted around and examined his leg. His leg looked almost burned and when he tried to move it the pain increased tenfold. The scream he let out was muffled by the water.

He pulled back knowing he would have to regroup. Fortunately, his clones covered his retreat, keeping the three busy. That teen had come in from behind and he needed to check on his two boat crews because he needed at least one of them to operate the boat and get it out of here. He started to make his way across the bay on the bottom.

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Konohamaru cursed as his rasengan only delivered a glancing blow. Still, he found satisfaction in knowing it hit the right target and charged the next water clone. With two of the enemies dispatched, his teammates and himself made quick work of the remaining ones. He watched as Udon dispatched the last clone, and then he suddenly received the memories from his clone he had sent to help Inari and fear gripped him.

His clone had picked off the men in the boat by throwing kunai one at a time at each of them. However, unnoticed at least one of the men from the boat he capsized had made it to the shore and in a confusing battle had taken out his clone.

He ran towards Inari. Konohamaru couldn't see anything from where he was and that terrified him. The distance seemed to take forever to clear, but it couldn't have been any longer than when he had run to save his friends. With assistance from his chakra, he jumped up onto the rocks with a kunai drawn, prepared for a fight.

When he looked down he saw blood. The man who had taken out his clone was lying face down and Inari was down too, holding his thigh. Even given the pressure he was applying on his wound, dark red blood was slipping through his fingers. Konohamaru turned and shouted for Udon, “Medic.”

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Akihiko analyzed the situation. One boat had capsized and three of the men were currently holding onto one of the buoys for all they were worth. The fourth was dead while the other crew were equally as useless. His leg probably couldn't support his weight. In conclusion, the mission was over.

If it hadn't been for his leg he would've tried to continue, but in the end this had just been a job and he wasn't going to die over it. Without a sound, he disappeared under the surface, not intending to inform his employer that he had failed.