Chapter 92

Suddenly Jiraiya's face changed into what looked like sadness as he pulled me into his embrace. I was too shocked to move or react to it. I had no idea what was going on. "Um? What is happening right now?" The silence prevailed as he continued to hug me. At least they were not attacking me so that was a good thing. After what felt like an eternity of awkwardness, for me at least, I finally heard him speak. "To think you kept this kind of burden to yourself, weighing you down so much." He finally pulled me out of his embrace and looked me in my confused face.

"Such a burden has caused you to stay on guard for so long, not knowing who to trust." It seemed my vigilance had not escaped his eyes. Seeing I was still confused Kakashi explained, sort of. Turned out they came to find me to ask a few questions when they saw me collapse and cry by the tree. To them, it looked like I felt a little relief telling someone of what I had finally been trying to shoulder on my own for so long. It seemed me freezing up in there when I was asked the question of who the great enemy was earlier, looked to them as if I was hesitant on letting them know.

So, seeing me in my current state led to more misunderstandings. My vigilance against them caused them to overthink things even more. "A child should not shoulder such a burden. You are not alone." I looked to Kakashi who nodded to me. My panic attack was returning. Things were getting out of hand. The tears came back and the body shaking intensified. Of course, the two men seeing this misunderstood once more as Jiraiya pulled me into his embrace once more.

I had to admit; Misunderstandings and panics aside, it felt nice. It felt grandfatherly. There was nothing I could do; Especially after all this had happened. There was absolutely no way I was going to explain myself. What was I going to say, 'Haha. It was a joke?' Or 'There is no Thanos? He is made up?' I could only ride the wave at this point. After chanting that for a long while, my body finally calmed down a bit. Jiraiya pulled me out of his hug with a smile. I managed out a 'Thank you' which made both of them smile while Kakashi patted my shoulder a few times as well in comfort.

"Can you take us to the place?" Jiraiya finally got to the reason why they came to me in the first place. I looked at both men back and forth before I answered, "I can't. It's gone." My response made them frown slightly.

"I tried to bring the documents out, but when I did, it turned to sand. Right after, the whole place just turned to sand; the underground rooms, The ruins, everything. By the time everything was over, the whole place looked like the was nothing there in the first place." More bullshit on bullshit.

"Jiraiya thought for a while before speaking, "It makes sense; If even the information of something as powerful as a stone of universe proportions got out, imagine what people would do. And if by chance the stone was found and got to the wrong hands, I am afraid of what would happen. It might have been a mechanism that was triggered when you tried to bring out those documents". The gears in my head were spinning at a crazy rate. I was beginning to think of ways to cover any spots I might have missed; that was when it hit me.

"What I don't understand is, why such information was still around; I was surprised the Land of Sands had not yet stumbled on it." Best defense was attack, and I had thrown the attack first.

Jiraiya nodded his head before answering. "There could be many reasons; The concealment finally wore off, or it was triggered to reveal itself. Either way, it was a good thing you found it and not someone else." Both Kakashi and I nodded in response. "We will keep an eye out for the location of the stone. Do you know which type?"

"Uh, the Reality Stone?" I just said the first thing that came to mind. Honestly, I was surprised I did not mention the Time or Space Stones. "Mm. Sounds dangerous. Its best we all keep an eye and ear out." Jiraya spoke to end things when he noticed Naruto and Sasuke approaching us from behind.

"Ready to go?" I asked them when they got to us to which they both nodded. The two of them gave us suspicious looks but were ignored. The two men bid us farewell and left us to do our thing. Before they left, they both patted me on the shoulder with a smile before leaving.

The boys looked at me suspiciously, as if waiting for me to explain things but I completely ignored them; I was praying to whatever that brought me here to not let what I had started would not come crashing down on my head anytime soon.

Seeing they were not getting anything out of me, we proceeded on our way towards Akari's home. When we got there, I had to say; I was absolutely awestruck. It was a mansion. If I had not been told it was just her and her parents, I would have believed the place to be a clan compound; That was how big the place was. The whole place had a royalty kind of feel to it. The set up had a very old-style Japanese setting. I was beginning to wonder how I missed such a place; Not like I went searching for it.

Standing at the gates, I was wondering how we were going to alert them inside since I was not seeing any doorman. On cue, Naruto walked to the gates and pushed a button. An intercom. It was a fricking intercom. The technology in Narutoverse was weird. "Hello?" A voice sounded out from the intercom. It was Akari's.

"Akari-chan, can you come out please?" Naruto spoke through the intercom. "Naruto? What do you want? Go away I'm busy." I could hear her tired and annoyed voice over the intercom. I did not know if it was because of Naruto or something else.

"Sasuke is here with with me." Naruto immediately drew the big guns. "I'll be right out." Then we heard a click sound. Naruto turned to us with a V sign. I could only roll my eyes at him for using his friend like that.