30 - Shadows Unseen

Tsunade was seriously wondering if Sun Star was as dangerous as Fuyuka and Yozora claimed.

She sat, sipping tea from a shiny red crystal cup, as Hoka, Rina, Kessho and Kitanai duelled each other in custom Cards Against Humanity.

"'My signature ability is...'" Kitanai read, placing a black card on the table. He eyed the three answers, 'burning down houses', 'cutting off genitalia', and 'making 3D sculptures of porn', dubiously. "I'll have to give this one to Kessho."

Rina shot the silver haired sculptor a dirty glare, before taking her turn and placing a card. "What should Sun Star's recruitment strategy be?"

She hesitated between 'death threats', 'UNO duels', and 'terrible singing.' Kessho's terrible singing was honestly funnier, but she wasn't about to give a point to her worst ene-frene-ene-frenemy. "UNO duels it is, Kitanai, you get the point."

"Death threats are always the answer," Hoka complained, taking her turn. "Ooh, this one's funny. 'What keeps Akatsuki members up at night?'"

'Trees', 'yaoi fanfiction' and 'trembling in fear of Sun Star' cards were played. Hoka frowned. "Man, you can't make me pick... okay, fine, Rina, yaoi fanfiction wins. I can absolutely see those guys doing freaky stuff."

"Yes!" the dark pink haired girl cheered with a smug smirk. Kessho's turn was next, the sculptor playing a 'What is Konoha's dark secret?' card.

'1 AM video gaming' and 'Sharingan eye contacts' cards were played by Hoka and Rina. Kitanai took a moment before playing 'Tsunade Senju's boobs', earning a choking sound from said blonde.

"Pfft- sorry about that, Hokage-san, but Kitanai gets this point," Kessho announced with a chuckle. Hoka scowled, complaining about having no points so far as the game rotated back to Kitanai. The sand manipulator smiled slightly at the card he played. "I never truly understood blank until blank."

'Technology' and 'Icha Icha movies' were played by Kessho, earning a concerned eyebrow raise from everyone else. Rina and Hoka played 'depression' and 'dead hamsters', and 'true happiness' and 'Orochimaru's bath water.' Why they would make such cards was beyond Tsunade and Shizune. Hoka earned a plethora of laughs and a point.

"My zodiac sign is..." Rina read.

'Scorpions' came from Hoka, which was her actual zodiac sign, while Kessho and Kitanai played 'blond men' and '47 year old cockroaches'.

"Sand boy, you are a comedic king," Rina announced, as Hoka took her turn. "Another Akatsuki one, why do I keep getting Akatsuki ones? Who made the Akatsuki ones? 'What does the Akatsuki go to war for?'"

'Ugly birds' and 'Icha Icha' were played by Kessho and Kitanai, while Rina's answer was 'cloud themed poetry.'

"Yeah, Rina gets this one," the fiery haired girl decided. Before the game could go on, though, Kyomu strolled into the cavern. "Rina, Kessho, I need you two to investigate something."

"Hey, I'm not investigating anything with this guy!" the shadow thread manipulator argued, her earlier expression shifting into a scowl.

Tsunade raised an eyebrow at the blind man's announcement. "And what might that be? It better not be some scheming against the Hidden Villages."

"Don't panic about it," Kyomu waved her off, turning back to Rina and Kessho. "It's about Makoto of the Masquerade."

Tsunade frowned, having never heard the name before. Any criminal, she would have heard of, especially if they had their own title. "And who might that be?"

"A mysterious puppeteer, who seemingly created 'remote' puppets, hence being nigh impossible to track down. From what we've heard, she apparently creates 'beautiful' puppets, being able to channel her chakra through them without being even near them," Kitanai explained while Kyomu tried to stop Rina and Kessho from screaming about chopsticks. Where did chopsticks come into a conversation about remote puppets and investigations?

"Henka is not a fighter, Hoka is still tired, Kitanai is more suited for combat, and Yurei is... best not separated from the group," Kyomu reasoned. It made sense, unfortunately, causing Rina and Kessho to scowl and glare at each other.

Several days had passed, with Fuyuka doing absolutely nothing the entire time. It's like she's an OC insert in a fanfiction by an author who doesn't want to change the story. Ridiculous.

Danny/Sassy/puppet guy/old man/apparently not old man who Fuyuka didn't get to meet was dead, while Kakashi sucked bomb blondie's arms off or something. Gaara was revived by Chiyo, who died due to using her special jutsu.

Now Sakura was trying to convince Tsunade to send the team to Tenchi Bridge to meet with Sassy's (until Sakura actually told Fuyuka what the guy's name was, Sassy it is.) spy. Since Sasuke was still adios and Kakashi was hospitalized due to doing some fancy Sharingan trick, that meant they needed placeholder teammates for a mission.

She had also heard of Tsunade's hesitant 'alliance' with Kyomu, who she still did not trust at all. Yozora frankly took the news with more maturity than her, but it was clear none of them trusted the blind man and his totally copying Shadow Star name for his group.

To Fuyuka's luck, she didn't have to work with Sun Star, and she didn't see Sakasa and his fruit dragons in Suna either.

While another mission would be tiring, Fuyuka really hoped she'd get a good fight this time. Also, she had the gut feeling like a fanfiction character who got sidelined by other characters. But again, that's ridiculous.

"Yozora, how many summons can you do at once now?" the blue haired asked, chewing on some fish jerky. The two were now headed to the rendezvous point to meet the two substitute members.

"Two, three if I spread out my chakra," the boy replied, casting a glance at the hospital across the town. He did that often ever since Nemuri's death years ago, as if worried the same thing could happen to Shigetsu any moment. Despite Kyomu's 'alliance' with Konoha, Fuyuka didn't exactly trust him to not make any fishy moves either.

By the time the two arrived, Naruto was having a glare-versus-smile-off with a pale boy with short black hair. A brown haired man with weird eyes and a Konoha style green flak jacket with full flak jacket ugliness stood beside them.

No seriously, the Konoha flak jacket sucks.

Sakasa sat at a restaurant in the middle of nowhere because the author is lazy, no particular motive in mind. He was just a traveller, he didn't need to have a reason to go somewhere. The political stuff in Suna was so tense he turned tail and left ASAP, especially after hearing explosions from somewhere.

His attention was once again drawn by a really cold wind- sign of the door opening. Man, he knew why nobody sat in this area of the restaurant now. It's really cold.

Two people entered. One was a girl with short dark pink hair and blue eyes. She looked to be about 16, but Sakasa's gut instinct told him that she was definitely not 16. The second was a man with silver-gray hair and pink eyes, who looked older than the girl but probably wasn't.

This restaurant was a prime gossip spot, which appeared to be their goal because they took a seat at the bar seats, chatting up random people. Well, the guy chatted them up. The girl glared at people and demanded answers.

After a while, they moved on to speaking to random people at tables.

"Hey, you, have you heard of Makoto of the Masquerade?" Sakasa looked up in mild surprise as the guy walked over to his seat, his 'talk talk talk' personality kicking in.

"Oh, hi! Who are you? Can't say I've heard of someone like that, sounds cool. Makoto is a girl's name, right? Masquerade- sounds cool! A criminal? A ninja? Hm, doesn't-"

"Right, uh, okay," the silver haired male interrupted, turning around and walking off.

'Makoto of the Masquerade', that sounds quite interesting.'