🌻We had walked under the sun for hours and there were no sign of anyone coming. My Byakugan was still not advanced enough to see from a far distance, so it would not be useful to track people. Using Sharingan would also put a strain to Sasuke's eyes if used for a long period of time, so we resorted to depending on our luck.

"Wait." Sasuke stopped us from moving.

Naruto and I looked at him curiously.

"Whats is it, Sasuke?" Naruto asked.

He activated his Sharingan and looked around, "We're caught in a genjutsu." He held his hands together, forming a hand sign. "Release!"

When we looked around again, our surroundings completely changed. In our genjutsu, it seemed we had already walked for a far distance, but the building we were accommodated in was still in sight.

"Aw man!" Naruto huffed.

"We have to be careful from now on. It seems some genjutsu traps were made." Sasuke warned.

He did not deactivate his Sharingan, in fear that we would fall for another trap. He took the lead to scan the area and walked in front of us proudly. Until he came to a halt; his demeanour became slump.

I ran up to him and asked, "Sasuke, what's wrong?"

His eyes.

They were full of sorrow.

I placed a hand on his shoulder and felt his body trembling. He was never like this. Suddenly, his eyes widened into shock. He instantly pushed my hand away and began to rush towards a direction.

"Hey, Sasuke! Wait up!" Naruto clicked his tongue and rushed off to catch up with him and I followed quickly with my Byakugan activated. However, I still could not see what he was looking at.

We zipped around some huge rocks and small cactuses until three figures came into view. They were finally in my range and I recognised them as Toneri's team. They looked troubled.

Sasuke and I sped off faster and I finally saw what was bothering them.

They were stuck in quicksand.

I turned towards the blonde who could not see as far as Sasuke and I. "Naruto, there's quicksand in front of us and Toneri's team is stuck in it!"

He nodded his head, "Gotcha."

All three of us pumped chakra onto our feet and ran on the surface of the quicksand. Our chakra prevented us from sinking. While I pulled Toneri away from the quicksand, Sasuke carried the twin with braids, Miku, as I recalled. Naruto pulled out Miki and brought her to solid land.

"Thank you, Hinata." Toneri said in appreciation.

I smiled, "It's no problem."

🌸 Darn it! It's quicksand! I grunted.

"Master!" I called out.

"I know." He said calmly. "The more you struggle, the more it'll drag you in."

How do we get out of this??

As if sensing my panic, he said, "Someone will be coming to save us. They are nearby."

No wonder he was so calm, I thought he had surrendered to the trap already. However, I never expected him to fall for one. As someone who is blind, his senses were keen. He probably ran into this trap on purpose. Which meant the person who would save us would be..

Hinata.

I frowned when I thought about it. I did not want to owe her anything and neither did I want to see Sasuke again. If he did this on purpose, it must play a part in his plan; therefore I will obey and follow the flow of the incidents he had set.

Soon, my ex-teammates were headed for us with Sasuke on the lead. He sped up and pushed chakra onto his feet and ran on the surface of the quicksand. He swung an arm around my shoulders, another underneath my knees and lifted me up. My arms wrapped around his neck on instinct as he jumped onto solid ground.

I looked up at him and caught him staring at me with those same crimson red eyes from the day before. His Sharingan made me feel so insecure, as though he was seeing through me. And he was, he did. Despite assuring me that he would not speak a word about my true identity, I doubted him.

I tore my gaze away and he reluctantly lowered his body and let my feet touch the ground.

🌻 "To show our gratitude for saving us, please have our scroll." Toneri turned to the girl with braids, "Miku!"

At first, she was shocked to hear his offer; then, she glared at me. It looks could kill, I'm very sure I would be dead right now. Her gaze was extremely cold and full of hate. She hesitated in her steps, but she reached out to her pouch and put the scroll in Toneri's outstretched hand.

He took it from her and handed it to me with a warm smile.

I looked at the scroll and pushed it back to him.

"Thanks, but we have the same scroll."

"Oh? That's a shame." He muttered while facing down, as though he was looking at the scroll. He brought his face back up again, "Then let's join forces. It would increase our chances in combat."

"Sounds like a great idea!" Naruto grinned right next to me. I barely noticed he ran here from where Miki was.

"That's a deal then." I giggled at the sun kissed boy's enthusiasm. I turned to the ravenette after realising I should have his opinion too, "Hold on, what about you Sasuke? Are you fine with it?"

He looked at me with his onyx orbs, "Huh? Oh, yeah." He said with a small nod. I shouldn't be surprised when Sasuke is in a daze anymore. He has been like this ever since Sakura disappeared.

I looked back at Toneri and confirmed, "We have an alliance."

Even though he was smiling, it was very obvious that Miku did not seem happy about it. Thinking about it, she was never happy when I first saw her on the first day. I shrugged it off, I was probably giving too much thought about it.

🌸 I bit my lip when Master Toneri suggested that we join Hinata's group for the second exam. I was absolutely incandescent. But it would benefit him, his goals, I must obey his wishes, no matter how much I abhor the idea.

I glared at the ground while walking with them. Sasuke walked next to me and it made me uncomfortable. It also added to my anger. A growl boiled in my throat and I walked away from him, past Master Toneri and Hinata which led to me being in the lead.

Naruto snickered and elbowed the ravenette, resulting the latter to glare at him.

"Looks like she hates you." He laughed.

He turned to my clone, who was walking behind the boys.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Miki."

He pointed to me, "Is that your twin sister?"

She nodded.

"What did he do to make her angry?"

"Nothing. She's not angry."

My eyes widened in fury and appeared to the back in high speed which surprised the blonde.

"Shut the fuck up." I said to Naruto.

He pouted, "You're so mean."

"Don't say anything foolish!" I whispered to my clone.

She only shrugged her shoulders.

🌸🌻🌸🌻

Dedicated to foxyass for your recent comments!

I have a sad news for you readers. I don't know if you noticed, but the support for this story has decreased greatly and I have no one to blame for myself. It's probably because of my inactivity for nearly 2 years and it made my existence on Wattpad forgotten(?).

That is why it demotivates me to write this story or any at all. It took me a month from my semester break to start writing this story again, so I'm sorry updates hadn't been much compared to Konoha's Prodigies.

Another sad news, updates may be slow or none at all.. My semester starts today and I'll have hell to look forward to. While I was inactive, I was busy with exams and getting used to college. I wasn't in the mood to write at all today, but I did late at night because I want to give you just one more chapter before I start my hellish semester.

I will try my best to find time, but I really doubt it because of how heavy my assignments are. It takes at least 2 hours for me to write a chapter and I don't even have the luxury to sleep for 6 full hours when the semester starts. I sleep for 4-5 hours on average. But it'll only get worse in 2nd year(which is now rip).

~Joelle

Published: 21 May 2018