There was a short pause before Temari answered in a surprised voice, "Yes, Gaara?"
"… I'm…sorry, for the way I treated you two." Gaara apologized. The words felt foreign, but at least he had said them.
"…Don't worry about it Gaara," Replied Kankurou, though from his voice it was obvious he was shocked.
Gaara sighed, realizing this would be harder than he thought. Still Uzumaki had never given up; he had lived a life like Gaara's. If the blond could do it, then maybe he could too.
"Kakashi!"
Said ninja blinked as he looked up from his porn, "Asuma, Kurenai." Kakashi greeted the two ninja with an eye smile, dutifully ignoring the way Kurenai wrinkled her nose at his precious book, "What brings you two here?"
"Oh you know, just in the area," Asuma replied.
"Really?" Kakashi went back to his book, "I thought you two would be on a date or something."
The pair blushed a bit before Kurenai seemed to get a hold of herself, "What about you? What are you doing here?"
Kakashi sighed, "I'm just waiting for Sasuke to show up."
Within the dango stand behind the trio one of the two figures, both of whom were wearing straw hats and black cloaks with red clouds, who were sitting there shifted at the mention of Sasuke, an action which did not go unnoticed by the three Jonin.
"This must be a novel experience for you then," Asuma joked. "Having to actually wait on someone for a change."
Kakashi just gave an overly dramatic sigh, "Things like this do tend to happen on rare occasion."
"Kakashi!"
The three Konoha ninja turned to see a scowling Sasuke walking up to them. He took one look into the restaurant to see it empty, before turning back to his sensei, "You know I hate sweets. Now what did you want? I have to get back to my training, so unless you're going to help with that, speak up."
Kakashi and the two other Jonin frowned at the boy's attitude. Ever since he had woken up after the battle for Konoha, the kid had been in an almost permanent bad mood. It had only gotten worse after he had heard of Naruto's victory over the demon Shukaku. In truth, Kakashi was worried that the boy might have once again become a flight risk; something that he had felt would not happen since he had at least for a time, been getting along decently with Naruto.
Sighing Kakashi looked over at Asuma and Kurenai, giving them a nod and receiving one in return before they took off. He turned back to Sasuke, "Well, I do have a scroll with some jutsu on it. I have to report to the council, but I'll give you that to work on and come by later to see how much progress you've made."
Sasuke scowled at the thought of learning jutsu from a scroll. Why should he do that, when he could just copy a jutsu with his Sharingan? Still, it was better than nothing so he supposed he would have to take what he could.
The two mysterious people who had been in the restaurant were now walking in one of the many parks of Konoha, one of the few ones that had not been destroyed by the battle between Gaara and Naruto. As they did they were stopped, by Asuma and Kurenai.
"You know, you two don't look like you're from around here," Asuma spoke as he took a drag of his cigarette. "Seeing as how there's not much to do, what with the invasion and all, I have to ask…what are you two doing here?"
The smaller of the pair stepped forward, keeping his hat down so that it did not show his face, "It's been a long time Asuma-san, Kurenai-san."
"You seem to know us," Asuma spoke, and though his tone was lazy, there was an underlying edge to it. "And yet, we don't know you. Who are you?"
The shorter man said nothing, instead choosing to raise his hat, revealing a pair of red eyes with three tomoe in each.
Asuma sucked in a breath, "You're…Uchiha Itachi. You've got some nerve coming back here…after what you pulled."
"Well these people seem to know you quite well, ne Itachi?" The larger figure spoke up in an amused voice. "I guess it would only be right for me to introduce myself as well." The man removed his hat to reveal blue skin with three gills on each side, shark like teeth and eyes. "The name's Hoshigaki Kisame, a pleasure to meet you."
Both Asuma's and Kurenai's eyes widened. Kurenai looked at the two of them in surprise as she spoke, "You're a missing ninja from Kiri, wanted for the murder of Kirigakure's Daimyo, and the destruction of several minor countries. What are two S-ranked criminals doing here?"
"If I had to go by their outfits, I'd say they've got some kind of purpose." Asuma said, "Well? Why are you back here? You know that after the incident you caused, you were listed in our bingo books with a kill on sight order."
Itachi seemed to ignore the pair's question, "I would like to ask the two of you two step aside. We've got no quarrel with you, and I would prefer not to have to kill my former comrades."
Asuma snorted, "That's rich coming from you."
Itachi narrowed his eyes, but said nothing.
"Ne, Itachi? Can I kill them?" Asked Kisame as he stepped forward, grabbed onto the large bandaged object behind him and pulled it off, slamming it on the ground. Most would probably find it odd that Kisame was actually asking Itachi for permission to do something, but they had decided that Itachi was the brains of this operation. And Kisame respected the younger ninja's skills and tactical expertise.
Itachi closed his eyes before speaking in the monotone he was so well known for, "It seems that they will not let us leave without a fight…however, try to keep it down. Your fighting style tends to attract too much unwanted attention."
Kisame grinned as he hefted the large object back up, and then charged at Asuma. Said Konoha Jonin took out a pair of trench knives in response and blocked the attack. Meanwhile, Kurenai began going through several hand seals, right before her form wavered and vanished.
A genjutsu, Itachi thought as he found himself bound to a tree, he knew this genjutsu, one of the ones that Kurenai had made famous.
A little ways away, Asuma was struggling to hold the giant object, which he now recognized as Kisame's sword, Samehada, back. What ridiculous strength. He can pressure me with just the tip of his sword!
"You should know," Kisame started with a toothy grin as Samehada landed on Asuma's shoulder. "That my sword Samehada doesn't cut, it shaves!"
The bandages unraveled as scaly protrusions stuck out of the sword, sinking into Asuma's skin. Kisame grinned as he dragged the sword along the Konoha Jonin's shoulder, watching in satisfaction as it tore off a good chunk of flesh.
Asuma grit his teeth as he held onto his wounded shoulder, "Damn…Kurenai, I need you to hurry and finish up."
Itachi looked up as Kurenai appeared above him, holding a kunai in her hand. "It's over," She said as she got ready to slit Itachi's throat.
"Nice genjutsu," Itachi said, and Kurenai was shocked to find their positions were now reversed. "But you should know that level of genjutsu doesn't work on me."
He countered my genjutsu! Kurenai thought in shock, before she bit her lip and used the pain it brought to override the genjutsu's affects. She was just in time too, since Itachi had already sent a swipe at her with his kunai. She managed to duck under it, however, Itachi had already known she would do that and sent a kick at her. Kurenai saw it, but realized she would not be able to dodge. So she did the only thing she could do in such a situation, crossed her arms and hoped to lessen the blow as much as possible.
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