Kon'nichiva/ Namaste dear reader! [^_^]

Disclaimer – I do not own Naruto.


"Friends" Kisame chipped in. No way in hell was he going to become the henchman of someone who wasn't another Kisame! No, he was the kind to 'have' the highest numbers of henchmen globally, not the kind to become one.

Itachi sighed. He was rather comforted by Kisame's abstruse interruption. At times like this he was glad that the time will pass no matter what.

They only got a single moment of peace, in that kind of condition even that was a luxury to them.

Too bad, they were unaware of the fact that Kairou was ready to bombard them with questions "But I have never seen or heard about you. Forget me; even Sarada-san has no idea about you guys! And we know that Kurasu isn't the kind to befriend anyone out of the blue, hell that creep will never befriend sane people!"

Kairou's statement ignited conspiracy, her Yamanaka teammate was agitated by it. Inojin placed his agitation into a whisper "Hey Kairou you don't address a problem child as a creep..." as a futile attempt to 'correct' his teammate's mistake.

"Silence" He was interrupted by Sarada, who had a very clear vein popped on her forehead. What ninjas...I can hear them loud and clear "...then, can you please tell me where you are from? Because, I am sure that you are not registered ninjas from Konoha, Suna or Ame at least..." The suspicions she had were grave, adding up to it, it was 'that' face which she just wasn't sure if she was ready to face yet.

"Well..." a smile crept its way on Itachi's face, he took out his half of the thread. "We are from a different village."

"Yes, we are" Kisame stated his unnecessary approval along with the thread dangling in his fingers.

That is... Sarada cocked an eyebrow and a directionless 'Ah...' escaped from her lips. "I see. It's justified then." She said with not much noticeable change in her tone.

"Mind me, telling the name of this 'different village' of yours'?" inojin inquired, pointing the question more towards Sarada.

She smiled an uncanny smile so bright, capable of causing tan right away. "Well, did you not hear it? It's 'a different village'."

"But that's not the name of a village, right?" He said with bubbling curiosity like that of a child, painfully unwary. Not quite picking up the clear voice behind those words.

But Kairou was sharp; she nudged him hard in his rib and covered his mouth, quite inhumanly; not even letting him let his wail out. "Of course it is! How foolish...hahaha!"

He struggled to be free; he had too many questions left to be answered. But Kairou dragged him away from the company. "It's almost dark. We have to...uh... take a look at the damage. We'll be right back."

Sarada gave them an assuring nod and mumbled "There was no need for a team of 15 like this in the first place. I told him that it was wastage of commodities..." Nobody seemed to take her suggestions seriously and it tired her.

Silence settled in.

She took a good look at the team. This is squad 46...my squad...Yet why does it not feel like it? There was no face other than Kairou and Inojin that was familiar to her. They were all busy, doing their parts of job. Their wandering gazes sometimes clashed with hers, followed by a smile out of courtesy. Maybe that's why she moved her gaze to the sky I feel like a leftover of the mighty history.

"Back to Earth?" Kisame hovered his hand in front of her face. He was curious and finally he had someone capable of answering his questions, someone who was fairly close to an adult and seemed to be quite assuring to him. "Spacing out in bright day light isn't a very good sign."

"I hadn't spaced out." She replied sternly, it had kind of hurt her pride.

"Who are you?" Itachi said, his voice turning hoarse.

"This place is not good for me to lift that matter. I don't want any uproar about this. But...I can assure you that, you'd be treated accordingly to your intentions." She answered with a considerable change in her facial expressions. The once calm features were now somewhat in an inexpressible turmoil.

She cleared her throat "Then...can you give me a brief insight of your condition? We need to move fast."

Kisame had a bad feeling about this "May I ask, for what good reason you are asking about that?"

"Well...on a second thought, I should just see it for myself." She closed her eyes and opened them gently, revealing the crimson red eyes. Like this I can confirm my theories... hmm... Their chakra flow is disturbed; the colour of their chakra is clearly growing dim... "It's a wonder that you guys are still conscious. So, it was true after all..." someone who knew how to open my safe and knew how to use this was involved in this... On one hand she was infuriated but on the other... It sure narrows down the list of suspects to just 2 such people who can pull off this stunt.

Itachi observed her...It was still unbelievable for him that such a thing was possible. "What is true?"

She deactivated her sharingan "We can talk when we get home."

It sounded a tad unfamiliar to Itachi. Home... It had been a while since he had heard the word itself. However it didn't have a similar ring to it for Kisame, he placed words to his suspicions, his sanity depended on it after all. "And 'how' are we going to this 'home'?"

There...Sarada hoped that, this part will go unnoticed till the end. "Well..." she placed a smile on "[Teleportation] sure is tough in the beginning but as you get use-"

"I refuse to travel anywhere with you." Kisame stated clearly. He had made a solemn oath with himself that he will never touch a black thread other than the one which led straight towards his old life.

Sarada sighed "Then you can chose, whether you want to die because of exhaustion or face some short-lived dizziness."

"We will go." Itachi declared while giving her a promising look.

He placed Kisame in an awkward situation from where he had no way out. Itachi-san, at this rate you are going to get me killed! Itachi made sure to not to look back at him.

After letting Inojin, the actual captain of the team, know about her plans she buckled up to leave. Inojin seemed to be a bit sceptical about her reasoning but did not ask any further due to the immense faith between them...She placed a gentle peck on Kurasu's forehead and tied him on her back. Enough, wastage of time has been done.

"Everyone ready?" She asked for the last time when she was done tying up the threads. She was answered with a nod by her two co-travellers. As she had instructed them to, they all three held one end of each thread and after making some swift hand signs, they disappeared in the similar fashion.

[At the old Uchiha Manor]—

The land was already the embodiment of darkness; it had been a while since someone had stepped into the house

"Mmm...this house seems to be just perfect." Came a voice from a shady figure, he had just opened the back door. The lock was really complex; it took me a whole 10 minutes to only figure out the pattern. The owner must be a psych, to place a lock like that in such a ghostly empty house. He lifted up the small bag from the ground. Anyways, It is perfect to stay here in this commotion, funnily enough no-body seems to be even trying to search me around this house, are all konoha-nins such idiots? Little did he know about the owners of that house...

He was a new visitor in the village with the occupation which is considered to be the most noble among all the dark professions of the society – Theft.

His first step inside was followed by a crashing sound, right behind him. He turned around with utmost agility only to find two men unconscious on the ground and a hooded lass barely able to stand up.

Damn... Sarada had just lost a gamble. I am so done with it... A few days ago, an idea had plagued her mind. She had been studying the teleportation threads to increase their efficiency. She thought – What if...I use some mild chakra flow variations instead of sharp ones? The teleportation might get a bit more comfortable and could open the doors for ill people in case of emergency.

She decided to try out her theory. But instead of making it go comfortable, the teleportation almost failed, she had to increase the intensity of chakra flow to tackle the situation or else they might have gotten thrown out in the middle of the journey. They succeeded in reaching the designated destination but, it was a much rough journey. And there the result lay right in front of her.

She used palm pressure points to control the nausea. She stood up; the world appeared to be shaking like a guitar string. In the midst of the blurry vision, she saw a dark presence. "You..." Her eyes inspected his frame. No, it's not him. He's much bigger. This man also has a kunai out... "Who are you?"

"Me?" He kept his kunai up for defence. How can a young girl like this appear out of the blue? I did not feel any presence beforehand. "I am...uh...first tell me who you are."

Her eyes inspected his face with the blurriness gone. Ah...I know this face. Hatoshi Rahane. She had read his profile while narrowing down the number of suspects of the robbery. He's the well-known lock breaker from Amegakure...

"Well," she removed the hood "I live here. And you?"

"Um..." Wait, I don't know why, but I feel like I have seen this face somewhere before. She does not look dangerous; I can have my time squeezing in some sense into them later.Causing some uproar now, could make him lose his place for night stay, so he decided to play safe. "I came here to meet you...miss..."

She smiled "Sarada."

He laughed meekly "Yes, yes. Miss Sarada..." Sarada? God, tell me I am wrong...

"By...Breaking into the house?" She smiled.

"Well...nobody was answering the door so..." He tried to make a joke out of it.

"So, you thought that you can break into the house." There was a constant smile on her face.

"No. I mean, I thought something was wrong..."

"Because, the door had been manually locked and appeared to be fairly normal. Hm?" She really felt it, the amateur con-man was faltering. It is fun...

"I was...uh..." He felt somewhat hot in the month of November. Think fast Hatoshi!

"It's justified. Hatoshi Rahane"

"What?" He was confused whether his ears heard right or not.

"Why don't we talk after you help me out in getting them inside?" She pointed her finger towards Kurasu and other two partners on the ground, with the same smile etched on her face.

So, she knows. Huh? His face turned stern "And...Why do I need to do that?" He injected some chakra into the kunai.

"Well, why not?" Not lowering the intensity of her smile at all.


[A/N] – I hope you enjoyed. It was not a very long chapter but it wasn't very short either. I would really like to know whether you like my pacing or I need to move things a little fast. I feel like I am going a little too slow. I had intended to introduce, 4 of my own characters - Kairou, Vinashak, Bhuta and Hatoshi (The characters which will have effect on the plot.) and its done.

I use a lot of dialogues because...I'll confess, I am hopelessly directionless on the matter of what I should do to move from one scene to another scene. I have liked writing dialogues and that's what I have always written, till I entered fanfic-verse. Yes, you did hit my nerve dear anonymous reader by the name of ' '. I am quite confused on the matter myself, it's the horror of my writing career till now which is that of a novice. And it's been clear for years that I need some guidance, though I'll work on it no matter I get it or not.

I thought about this story months ago and the ideas kept on piling up and I am having a little hard time putting it all on paper. So, I am barely going with my original plot which is idiotically ironic, lol. (Fanfictions are tougher than I thought. *a solemn salute to those who write awesome fanfictions*) I think I am in a serious need of some serious scolding. (I think?)

Well, I didn't go through this chapter, so there might be some mistakes and typos. Let me knnow if you find any. I wasn't able to upload because of some internet issues. I hope I won't have them till my next life. (I mean, who wants to pay bills.)

Anyways, whether you liked it or even if you hated it, please leave a review. [^_^]

Next chap – Catch the time!