I glanced out the window as a shadow passed through the mid morning sunlight for the third time, not moving my head from Aiden's chest. My eyes narrowed as I spotted the bird circling overhead.

"I have to go," I told Aiden, standing. "The Hokage has summoned me."

I went to leave, but was held back by Aiden, who'd—most likely instinctively—grabbed my arm.

"Be careful out there, you hear?" He was worried, though this was nothing new. With me being a jonin, he should be used to this by now. 

Reassurance was odd for me, but he seemed to want knowledge that I would be just fine. So I studied his worried face for another moment, recalled exactly how he'd done it last time, then leaned down and kissed him hard on the lips. After a brief hesitation, most likely induced by surprise from my actions, he reciprocated eagerly, opening his mouth to mine and reaching up to thread his fingers into my hair behind my head and bring me closer to him. I freeze, unsure of how he wished me to proceed, and in that moment Aiden let go.

"Wait, sorry, hold on," Aiden pulled back, letting out a hurried breath to steady himself. "You've never kissed me before."

I frowned. "That's blatantly untrue."

"No—I mean, yes—yes, we've, uh, kissed before, but.... but I've always kissed you, you've never—"

Understanding dawns over me. "Been the first to initiate physical contact," I filled in.

"Uh, yeah," Aiden agreed. "So, I just wanted to know, what was, you know, different about this?" His voice pitched up into a squeak at the end and I suppressed the urge to raise an eyebrow.

"You seem to enjoy physical contact with those you... care about," I said slowly. "You hug Aisa frequently, are comfortable touching strangers when assisting them, and have initiated affections with me on a number of occasions."

"So you decided to do this because you thought I would want it?" He asked slowly.

"Precisely." I nodded. "And it seemed as though I was correct. Was I?"

"No—I mean, yes, I did, enjoy, that, I meant that no, that's not the point I'm trying to—Cashile, did you want to do that? Do you enjoy when I hug you and sit next to you and, kiss you?"

My next words stuttered and died in my throat before even fully forming. "I... I'm not... i don't..."

His face shuttered and eyes withdrew, but his words didn't match the emotion I was seeing. "Cashile, it's okay if you don't like it. Have you only been doing this because you think I want it, not because you want it? It's perfectly okay, Cashile, you are under no—"

"I," I spoke up again, cutting him off even though I wasn't sure what I wanted to say. "I don't... know. I don't understand."

Aidens face was still carefully guarded, eyes dark as he studied me before speaking. "What don't you understand?"

"What you mean. You wanted, and I was, willing, and I wouldn't if I wasn't okay with it, but I don't know why, and I enjoy your presence, I enjoy you, you're warm and smart and you don't swear in front of your brother and you make me tea and I like it when you hug me and I just don't understand."

I know I hadn't explained myself well, and for some reason I couldn't meet his eyes the entire time, but it was the best I could do so I shut up and let him digest what I'd said.

He took a breath in. "....okay," he finally said. "Okay. I think I get it. I think. Just, if you ever have questions, or don't understand something, or you aren't comfortable with something going on, just... tell me, right?"

I nodded my head several times in lieu of speaking, and he let go of where he was still holding onto my arm, and with a brief smile from Aiden and a quirk of my own lips in return, I left.

***

"You requested my presence," I stated dryly, appearing in front of Tsunade.

"Cashile," she greeted tersely. I narrowed my eyes, studying her posture. She was very serious about something. With all the events leading up to now, I can only guess...

"Well, shit." I murmured.

"We're anticipating that the akatsuki members who killed Jiraya will come for Naruto soon," she said, confirming my suspicions. "We need all jonin to prepare for immediate response in case the village comes under attack. Inform your genin to stand by for evacuation of the villagers need be," She ordered.

I nodded without a smart remark to follow, as I would normally respond with. My genin would know that their place in any attack was evacuating citizens, not fighting the enemy unless absolutely necessary.

"We've decoded the message that Jiraya left us," she said. "'The real one is not among them.' Any thoughts?"

I thought about the situation. Them. The toad had informed us that Jiraya was killed by six akatsuki members, all related by the name Pein.

Then it clicked, like a light switch lit up in my brain. "They're puppets," I said, particularly amused by the enemy's method of attack. It was clever--really clever--and would take an enormous amount of chakra and control. Tsunade folded her hands in front of her mouth, clearly skeptical but not shooting my theory down immediately.

"Think about it," I continued to explain. "'The real one is not among them'. Even if all of them were killed, the real one, the one behind the curtain and drawing the strings, would still be alive, making the probability of success for his opponent drastically lower, despite who that opponent may be. Even someone as powerful as the nine tails."

"Of course," Tsunade muttered. "Cashile, do a   perimeter sweep of the village and report back to me."

Tsunade was asking me to do the perimeter sweep? She must be expecting an attack soon. I nodded and made my way to the edge of the village briskly. ANBU black ops would have already been around the perimeter several times today. My specialty however, was tracking. Tsunade understood that, as I understood her request.

Track down the enemy. Find out how far away they are from the village. Find out the most likely areas for the attack to begin. Report back.

I knelt down on one knee, studying the grass. He controlled six puppets, and they would probably enter from different areas around the village. The moment they entered, their numbers would be given away, so to undermine that they would scatter our forces.

But the important thing was to find out where the real one was.

Nearly thirty minutes had passed, and I knew I would soon be approaching an outpost. I could ask them if they had seen any suspicious activity, or find out if they'd seen any activity without realizing it was suspicious.

I skidded to a stop before drawing into view; something was off. I couldn't quite place it, didn't know what had made me so suddenly wary, but I knew better than to dismiss it. Slinking into the shadows, I moved forward and froze as I spotted something shoot into the sky toward Konoha out of the corner of my eye. Peering around a tree, I spot several orange haired akatsuki members standing over Konoha ninja corpses just before they disappeared with a puff of smoke.

I stared. Of course, of course, there were multiple of them, but there were ways of getting inside of the village without setting off the barrier, such as being summoned by someone already inside. The attack was beginning now, Konoha would think there was only one intruder, and the destruction was about to begin.

Right on cue, the only remaining person--a woman with purple hair--dissolved into paper squares, and an explosion shook the ground.

I turned and ran. Tsunade wouldn't need my report to know that the assault had begun. My priority was to either take down a puppet, find my genin and make sure they were doing their job, or find the real one.

Entering the village, I almost immediately spot my genin. "Report!" I snapped when I was within hearing range. Even with explosions shaking the ground and people running and screaming, my genin jumped to my side, wide eyed but under control.

"Unknown number of attackers," Michiko began. "The attack began about four minutes ago."

I nodded. "You know your jobs?"

The three genin nodded. "Evacuate citizens, avoid the enemy because we're just genin and don't stand a chance on our own," Aisa replied, scanning our surroundings constantly. "Are you sure you don't want us with you, Cashile-sensei?" he asked, worried. "We can help."

I shook my head. "You'll be most useful by evacuating citizens," I told him. The three genin nodded seriously. "Now go. And don't get killed."

Kento nodded grimly, Michiko shot me a wry smile, and Aisa met my gaze with a flippant salute that didn't match the serious look in his eyes.

I disappeared into the shadows, traveling speedily to my next destination. I appeared in front, but out of sight, of the heavily guarded shelter, meant for the citizens of Konoha that were not ninja.

I observed Aiden ushering women and their children, scooping up a little girl who couldn't walk fast enough on her own, accompanied by a mother trying to shush her baby. He would be safe here, which meant I would be free of distraction when fighting a puppet.

I turned on my heel and jumped on top of a building, scanning the surrounding areas for the attackers.

One, two, three... three were visible from my current location. Kakashi had one attacker under control, with backup on the way; he would be fine. Ibiki was handling the other one -- in fact, he seemed to be having fun with the summoning doll.

The third attacker had been confronted by mere chunin... and a genin, hidden around the corner. I observed the battle before me, but it wasn't much of a battle at all. The two chunin had been caught in the puppet's grasp, wide eyed and choking from his grip on their throats. I could have stepped in at any moment, but observing the events unfold before me, and witnessing the opponent's power firsthand would be much more beneficial to my forthcoming battle.

"Where is the Kyuubi?" It asked. I raised my eyebrows as both claimed to not know, even though I was certain one of them at least had an idea. Since when did anyone care about Naruto enough to stand by his side in something like this?

"You will be judged," the puppet responded, as the chunins' bodies starting trembling... in fear? Yes and no. They were looking at something, trembling and drooling, that I couldn't see, and then the chunin on the left went completely limp.

Fascinating.

He looked to the chunin on the right. "It seems you were telling the truth," he intoned, dropping both of them. The dead one hit the ground hard, eyes rolled back and mouth gaping. The other, the one on the right, spluttered, choking, gasping for air, clearly exhausted by whatever the puppet had done to them.

He would be most vulnerable now, after his jutsu, and I had the information I needed on him. Not to mention the idiot genin was going to draw attention to himself and cause a problem I didn't want to have to solve if I waited any longer.

He was a puppet, but not controlled with chakra strings, like they do in the sand village. No, he had to be controlled long distance by something else.

It had to be the black rods in his body; they were a common trait in all the dolls, according to the intel given to all the jonin earlier in Tsunade' office. They were sending signals to the real enemy, who was controlling the puppets behind the scenes. Fortunately, taijutsu was my best skill set. Unfortunately, it seemed that if I let him touch me, I would be done for in this battle, whether I survived or not.

I engaged the enemy before the genin had a chance to interrupt, delivering a swift kick to the side of his head. He skidded to the side and rolled over from the power of the blow, but stood up with too much ease. I frowned. This was going to be hard.

I narrowed my eyes at him, studying his moves. He had been caught off guard, but he recovered fast. I sprinted towards him, engaging in hand to hand, mindful that his hands could be the death of me. In response, I grabbed my twin blades and swung at him viciously, assuming my old fighting forms.

If his hands could threaten me, then I would take them.

I seized the slightest moment of opening and, in one move, cut off his right hand, ignoring the blood that sprayed everywhere. There was a choked gasp of horror and I couldn't help but glance toward the sound, mind analyzing any threat that could possibly be around me. From the corner of my eye I spotted the wide-eyed genin, his hand hovering over his mouth.

In that moment I felt my throat closing in, as fingers wrapped tightly around it. I glared at the enemy in front of me, who had caught me by the throat. Stupid little idiot genin. This is why they were supposed to do their jobs and not try to be the fucking hero.

Half a moment of distraction—half a fucking moment—was all it had taken for him to catch me. I gasped in a breath, hands automatically going up to where he held my neck.

I looked down at his arm. I couldn't reach a pressure point farther up his arm that would cause pain to shoot through the entire limb. Instead I went for the one in his hand, shoving my fingers into the median nerve. No reaction.

Well, shit. What had this guy done to the other ninja he'd captured? He'd asked where Naruto was; that's clearly what these guys were after. The ninja had refused to tell him, loyal to a fellow Konoha ninja to the end. I had seen the results of that, though. One had lied, and he had ended up dead.

If I could reach for the black rods and rip them out...

Suddenly, my body became rigid, paralyzed entirely, and the trembling began.  Behind the puppet, a demon head--some sort of summoning--appeared. So that's what the chunin had been staring at.

I was stuck. And no one was coming to help.

"Where is the Kyuubi?" The puppet asked, ringed eyes narrowed and glaring at me.

I stared at him for a long moment, opened my mouth, and told him, "Naruto Uzumaki, jinchuriki to the Kyuubi, is currently training with the frog sages at Mount Myōboku as far as I am aware. I believe it takes several weeks of treacherous travel to get there by foot."

No point in holding back. I didn't want to risk death for Naruto. Not to mention that Naruto was weeks away by foot for these puppets, but could be summoned back to Konoha the instant they arrived.

Another choked gasp could be heard from my audience, the genin who, apparently, was oh-so-stunned by my willingness to give up that information. I glanced in his direction, wondering why he hadn't run, and saw him holding a kunai. He had perhaps been about to attempt to save me, the fucking idiot, and now he stood frozen instead of running away like someone who had an ounce of common sense.

The puppet stared at me for half a beat longer, and I thought that if it had the emotional capacity to do so, it would have also been surprised that I'd given it an answer.

The demon's mouth opened, and I choked as something--my tongue?--shot from my mouth to the demon's. Several seconds passed, and, just as suddenly, my tongue retreated into my body. The puppet let go and I collapsed on the ground, coughing and swallowing several times as I reacquainted myself with a suddenly normal sized tongue. Trembling from exhaustion, I grasped my blades, ready to continue the fight even though I couldn't really feel my fingers or toes.

"It seems as though you were telling the truth," the puppet informed me. "We have the information we came for."

And all the puppets began their retreat.

____________________________________________________________

Okay am I the only one here that is perpetually fucking pissed that Konohamaru defeated a Pain Path? Like wtf show several chunin/konohamaru's own sensei couldn't defeat him but one little old genin comes along with a rasengan never before used in real battle and like fucking one shots him? I don't think so.

This is the leader/not leader fake leader idek leader of the akatsuki and a genin took him out? I don't fucking think so. Don't OP a character just to make him relevant and be like what yeah he's strong. Like that's unrealistic no fuck off booooo

like maybe it wasn't the strongest path or something that konohamaru defeated but KAKASHI with HELP got pretty soundly beat up on by one of the paths

anyhow sorry for the longer wait but shit went down per usual aka moving into my apartment setting up utilities getting job etc. But here's another chapter! And slightly longer than usual!

Oh also update for this of you who know I'm double majoring in creative writing and political science but the other day my professor from my gen ed 300+ person philosophy class who is also the department chair of philosophy emailed me??? And I was like hello yes?? And the email was like "hey you didn't suck at this class have you thought about major/minoring in philosophy" and I was like BOI existentialism and I have been friends for a long time and so now I'm also maybe kind of minoring in Philosophy?

IF MY FOUR YEAR PLAN IS CORRECT AND ALL THOSE CLASSES ACTUALLY FIT IN which I think they do.

SO YEAH

Hope you enjoyed! Comment long and beautiful comments for inspiration!

gaara119

Yes we changed the story a little, but it's okay because this book is about Cashile not Konohamaru, she doesn't even know his name and also realistically Gaara119 said it all.

Here's an update that isn't too late!!

Good things are happening ya'll :) I hit a bit of a rough spot after my hip surgery, but it's all gonna be okay. I decided to double minor in clinical psychology and rehabilitation sciences while I heal up for nursing and all it's associated clinicals :)

Anyways! Hope you enjoyed the chapter! We had a bit of a hard time deciding where she would be during the pain attack, but I think we did a pretty decent job in our decision.

Comment!

-S

Comment, Vote, and Fan!

Ja ne!

Insomniac_Lullabies