"There they are!" I exclaimed.

Kurenai and I rushed over to the three men who were laying on the ground with bad injuries. They were still breathing thankfully.

Kurenai tossed a medkit to me and I crouched down to the two jonin to help them heal some injuries so they could at least make it home without too much pain. She was already helping the incapacitated medical ninja.

I kind of recognized him. He was a newer addition to the medical team named Haruto.

"What happened?" Kurenai asked as she placed the body onto the ground.

The three men looked at it curiously.

Haruto responded weakly. "There were three men who came here and demanded that we give them a specific plant. I told them we didn't have it, but they didn't believe me and attacked us. That guy you just brought was one of them,"

The first jonin I was helping spoke up. "We did our best to try and take them down, but they were strong. They ambushed us and even used clones to throw us off guard. That was one of them"

He pointed towards the body.

"Well, he's dead now. Kurenai tried to get information out of him with her genjutsu and when he woke up, he used a cyanide pill. We were going to have ANBU come and get him from here so they can try to get information," I replied.

"Where did the other two go?" Kurenai asked again.

"They split up after they attacked us. That guy went towards the village and the other two went the opposite way. We didn't get a name, motive, or anything," The second jonin answered.

A cyanide pill over finding a plant seemed weird. There was obviously something bigger going on and I started to feel uneasy the more I thought about it. What was so special about that plant?

Kurenai helped up Haruto and I helped up the second jonin. We double-checked the base to make sure that there wasn't anyone else here or any stolen items and then started walking back to the village when everything seemed intact.

The sun started to set and I felt a little frustrated that there wasn't anything else we could do until we found more information.

"What was the plant they asked for?" Kurenai asked as we walked back.

"Water Hemlock," Haruto replied.

"I don't like the sound of that," Kurenai sighed. "Why would they want that one specifically?"

I looked over at her. "What's so worrying about that one?"

"It's very toxic for humans and can get mistaken for regular crops or other medicinal plants. Even a small amount of it is enough to kill you," She replied.

"And it attacks the nervous system too. It can cause a person to get convulsions and seizures too," Haruto added. "Touching it can cause someone to get a rash too if they have sensitive skin."

The rest of the walk was quiet now. Kurenai and I were both trying to figure out who those guys were and what they were up to.

It was starting to get even darker as we made our way back to the Leaf Village. We escorted the three ninjas to the hospital and then walked to Tsunade's office.

Kurenai knocked on the door, but there was no answer. I pushed the door open lightly and saw that both Lady Tsunade and Shizune were gone. Where were they?

"So I guess all we can do is wait then," Kurenai said and leaned against the wall in the hallway.

I nodded and stood next to her a bit awkwardly.

"Kasumi," She turned her head to me.

I turned to face her, raising an eyebrow.

"I hope there's no bad blood between us," She started. "I know you Asuma aren't on speaking terms, but I hope you know that I don't have any hard feelings towards you and neither does he,"

I didn't know to respond to that and I kicked my foot at the ground awkwardly, then finally found my words.

I couldn't help but wonder if she knew why we weren't on speaking terms. I also doubt he doesn't have any hard feelings. Our argument last argument was pretty harsh.

"I don't have any hard feelings towards you either. I just thought you were angry with me or something," I replied.

A small smile formed on her face.

"It's not my business to get into whatever is going on between the two of you. I can tell you were feeling awkward for the entire mission, so I thought I'd tell you that there's nothing to be worried about when you're around me,"

I nodded and felt as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

"But, I will say that I think you two need to talk it out,"

The weight suddenly came back as soon as she said that.

I avoided her gaze and looked off to the side. "I have no interest in reconciling with him. Can we please talk about something else now?"

She gave me an unsure look but nodded. "Okay, yeah. We can drop the subject,"

I really had no interest in talking to him again. I hated how he thought he could just control my life like that. He had no right to treat me like some little kid. He also crossed the line when he threatened to expose what was going on if I didn't end it.

Stupid me for getting caught with Itachi.

"Do you think this Akio guy is someone to be worried about? It's alarming that he was going back towards the village," Kurenai changed the subject.

I shrugged. "It's hard to say. I have an uneasy feeling about it, but there isn't anything we can do until we talk about it with Lady Tsunade,"

Tsunade and Shizune were walking down the hallway after I said that.

"Oh, sorry to keep you guys waiting," Shizune apologized. "We were evaluating Naruto's skills,"

I nodded. "You're fine, we didn't wait that long,"

We walked inside the office and Tsunade sat down on her chair. "So, what was the report?"

So we told her everything that happened and how these three men were looking for the Water Hemlock. Tsunade didn't like the sound of that either.

"Did you get any of their names?" Tsunade asked.

"Only one of them, he said his name was Akio Tanaka. I don't recall him being in the bingo book either so his name doesn't found familiar," Kurenai replied. "We left his body back at the base for the ANBU to come and get,"

Tsunade nodded. "Very well. I'll send the ANBU over there and I'll have them look into it as well. You two are dismissed now."

We left and before parting ways, Kurenai turned to me.

"Just take what I said into consideration, okay?"

"Okay."

She walked off after that and I let out a sigh.

I had no interest in making amends with my brother. I don't see it happening anytime soon, and I hoped that Kurenai wouldn't try to convince me to talk to him after this. I could tell she had more to say about it, but was holding back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just a slight change here too. I'm planning to rewrite Illicit when I finish rewriting another story, so the change here is that Asuma caught Kasumi with Itachi instead of her yelling it out lol and that they had a pretty bad argument after it happened.