127. Cat Supremacy

(Powerstones please)

"Nah, I have the contract, but I haven't signed it. I don't really need a bunch of overgrown felines," Sasuke shrugged.

"Hey, now. Cats are cool, even if they are lazy," Sora tried to defend the honour of the cat species.

But unfortunately for him, he was fighting a losing battle.

Sasuke deadpanned at him. "First of all, they are unloyal."

"That definitely depends on the individual cat. You can't just generalize it to the entire species," Sora said, and Sasera nodded at his words.

"Okay, let's say they are loyal. Even then, due to their laziness, their hygiene is definitely not something anyone would like."

"That is also individual-specific. You can't generalize that to the whole species," Sora insisted, and Sasera nodded again, satisfied that she hadn't pooped on Sora's head... yet.

Sasuke deadpanned, "Let's even say that's true, but they're moody and picky eaters, and they're generally spoiled."

"That's fine. It's not really a demerit—it just requires specific maintenance, like many other animals," Sora said, as Sasera ticked that box in her mind.

"You humans can't understand the greatness of our species," Sasera thought. As the queen representing her kind, she believed it was her duty to defend the honor of all cats since Sora had clearly failed.

"Oh, the cat can talk," Sasuke was internally shocked but didn't show it on his face.

"We're lazy, not because we don't like to work, but because we don't waste our time on pointless things that you humans find valuable," Sasera continued her speech.

"Not only that, but we offer smart solutions. That means cats, as a species, are smarter than you humans, whose intelligence is comparable to monkeys," Sasera didn't stop there.

"As for being picky eaters, it's just that we like high-quality stuff. We don't eat just anything because we have standards, unlike your lowly species," Sasera finally paused and took a breath.

Sasuke was speechless. He wondered whether it was worth continuing the argument with this cat or if it would just be a waste of time.

Fortunately for him, they had arrived at the cart, where a camp had already been set up.

"Sasuke-kun~ Did you miss me?" Ino lunged at Sasuke.

Everyone present rolled their eyes.

Sasuke was wondering whether he should sidestep or not.

If he sidestepped now, would she continue to chase him until she hugged him? If that were the case, would her hug last longer than what she was about to do?

Sasuke sighed. He didn't sidestep.

"Yo! Kakashi-sensei? How's the seal I gave you earlier working?"

"It's working well, thank you. It's helped me tremendously, if I dare say," Kakashi eye-smiled while holding his trademark book (reference to Chapter 91, where Sora was working on the seal).

"Yeah, I could feel your chakra increasing a lot compared to the last time I saw you," Sora commented. He was also sensing something different about Kakashi, but he couldn't quite pinpoint what exactly it was.

"Anyway, what are you guys doing here?" Kakashi asked.

"Seal-seeking, what about you?"

"Same."

"Anyway, I'll make dinner while you guys talk about why you've been missing for the last three months," Kakashi said, bringing out all the tools to make curry.

Everyone took a seat in a circular formation.

"Well..." Sora looked at Shikamaru.

"Is it confidential?" Kakashi asked.

"Well, kind of. We don't know how the mission details will be classified because we had an interesting experience. Even Baa-chan doesn't know about it yet," Sora said.

"Yeah, so I don't know if it's right to inform you first or not," Shikamaru shrugged.

"What about your original mission?" Kakashi changed the question.

"Well, it was to track and capture Dorobou Hikari," Ino said, still sitting close to Sasuke. She finally got a chance to one-up Sakura.

She wasn't going to miss the opportunity.

"Dorobou, huh. That seems like a difficult mission. I guess it was for experience only," Kakashi easily deduced the real objective of their mission.

"I guess," Shikamaru shrugged, confirming Kakashi's theory that the mission was for practice.

"So, you guys went to the Land of Hot Springs, and something happened that made you disappear for the last three months," Sasuke mused.

"We did some investigating too, and it seems the last time people saw you, you were looking into the Zashiki Warashi," Kakashi commented.

"Yeah, then something happened. Well, now we're heading to the Land of Waves because someone told us his current location is there. Plus, we want Baa-chan to remove the missing posters before we head back to the village," Sora explained.

"Hmm, I see. So something happened, I guess," Kakashi said, thinking quickly.

He had one of the highest mission completion records in Konoha and had seen a lot of things in his life.

He was trying to remember something bizarre from his past.

"Still, Sora seems to have been slacking for the past three months," Sasuke informed Kakashi, indirectly teasing Sora.

"Hey, now. I didn't get any time to train properly, you know," Sora protested while eating his food.

Kakashi had made the meal fast.

Then again, they were ninjas, so food should be made quickly... right?

Kakashi paused mid-spoonful.

After a few seconds, everyone looked at him.

"You didn't get enough time, huh?" Kakashi commented, staring at Sora carefully.

Shikamaru had a bad feeling about this.

"I see, that makes sense," Kakashi nodded to himself and continued eating.

"What makes sense?" Shikamaru asked.

"Not being able to train due to a lack of time, duh." Everyone did a double take.

They had thought he was going to say something surprising or profound.

Shikamaru deadpanned at Kakashi, who was eye-smiling.

He really enjoyed messing with people.

"You came to that conclusion, right?" Shikamaru asked Kakashi.

"I don't know what you're trying to say," Kakashi replied, playing dumb.

"What conclusion?" Sasuke asked. He didn't like being out of the loop.

"That these guys time-traveled," Kakashi stated his deduction before Shikamaru could get irritated and reveal the answer. There was always a chance Kakashi's guess could be far off from the truth.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, that wasn't the case—Kakashi had hit the nail on the head.

Sasuke choked on the soup he was drinking.

Ino rubbed his back.

It was a normal reaction to hearing such things.

It was especially shocking to Sasuke, given his Mangekyō Sharingan abilities.

After calming down, Sasuke looked at Sasera. "And this cat is somehow related to that?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?" Shikamaru asked suspiciously, wondering how Sasuke had reached that conclusion. 'Did Sasera show some new abilities or something?' he thought.

"I just had a feeling," Sasuke replied, looking at Kakashi. The two exchanged a glance.

They were communicating something wordlessly.

Talk about how cool, secretive people were.

"Anyway, that's not the main point. You guys time-traveled, and that's the main point," Sasuke changed the topic.

"Nah, the main point is how Kakashi-sensei figured out that we time-traveled," Sora said, eyeing Kakashi suspiciously.

He wouldn't have been surprised if Sasuke had come to that conclusion, as Sora was already suspicious that Sasuke could read his thoughts.

"Mah, mah. I've been on a lot of missions and seen various bizarre things. Anyone in my place could have come to that conclusion," Kakashi humbly bragged.

"Wait, you've been on a mission related to time travel?" Now everyone was shocked.

Even Sasuke hadn't known about this.

"Well, yes, I was on one when I was a kid, with Yondaime, Choza-san, and Shibi-san," Kakashi said, recalling the mission in Roran.

"Wait, my dad?" Choji was shocked to hear that his father had been on a time-travel-related mission.

"What happened in that mission?" Shikamaru asked, despite knowing the details were probably confidential.

"I don't remember," Kakashi's answer left everyone speechless.

It felt like they were watching a mystery movie, only to be told at the end that all the events were just coincidences, with no mastermind involved.

They were blue-balled.

"What?" they all asked.

Kakashi smirked. "Well, my memories were either sealed or erased by a seal created by Yondaime. I only know there's a gap in my memories during that time because of the time-travel-related mission."

"Ohhh," Sora deflated, really wanting to know what had happened.

"It was probably related to the future, in that case, if he decided to seal the memories," Shikamaru suggested.

"I guess," Kakashi shrugged.

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