Chapter 84

"Ah, ah. You are not allowed to address a member of my team. If you have questions concerning the mission, please ask me." Before Sparkle face could finish his statement, I cut him off. I could see a vein or two, rise on his forehead. I pulled out my headband from my storage and fixed it on my neck. He glared a little more before breathing in to calm himself down. Aoi by the side looked to want to protest, yet at the same time, just as earlier, she looked to be struggling with something; It was beginning to look more like she was having an inner battle.

"Miss?"

"You don't need to call me by my name. Just call me 'Team Leader'" I answered him but that barely got a reaction from him. I was impressed. He really knew how to suppress his emotions when he wanted.

"Team leader. Please understand. It began as trying to catch the stalker, but after spending time with Miss Aoi, it had blossomed into something more. We truly do love each other and wish to be together." He spoke all in one breath with a smile on his face.

I frowned but ignored him. I had put up a large Silencing Barrier as well as a normal barrier. I needed to do it as secretive as I could; that was the reason I even bothered to speak to him in the first place There was also a chance there was someone versatile in seals and barriers around an I did not intend on alerting them. If there wasn't then that would be good too. Always plan for the unforeseen.

Once everything was set up, I walked to Aoi and lifted her head to look at me. I saw slight tears in her eyes and it broke my heart seeing her like that. Whatever was done to her, she was desperately fighting it and it was breaking her. I placed my hand on her head and chest and sent my chakra into her. Kouki had bloodshot eyes as he stood in front of us to protect us in case any of them wanted to attack us. He knew the situation was odd, just not this odd. He had never seen his sister cry; Not even when their father died, and certainly not when they were going through those life-threatening trainings with their master.

He wanted nothing more than to rip them all apart. He was raging inside, but continued to hold his stoic expression. He did not begin to attack yet because he had full faith in his elder sister Sakura.

"You're a shinobi trained by such monsters. How did you get yourself in such a situation, Aoi?" I whispered looking into her teary eyes. After searching a little while I finally found it. There was a small seal tucked away in the far back of her brain. I had never come across such a seal. It looked to be a control seal; Looking at it, it was poorly made, and rightly so, seeing how Aoi was forcefully resisting. I did not know if she had been at the beginning or she had been able to do so only now.

With a brief study I was able to understand how it worked. If left alone it would eventually fade over a short time. That meant whoever put this in her would constantly have to strengthen or 're-insert' the seal. I could completely destroy it with force but decided to carefully unseal it instead; It was not time to study the control seal. I erased the seal as Aoi collapsed, but I quickly caught her before she could hit the ground. She had a relieved look on her face as she smiled to me before completely passing out.

I picked her up and walked to Kouki. He already knew what I intended to do as I gently placed Aoi into his shadow. Surprisingly, the four people as well as sparkly face were still standing there. I assumed they would run, but they just stood there with straight faces.

"Kill everything in that village. Leave nothing alive. Ill deal with these four." I turned to Kouki and ordered. He nodded slightly and turned into a shadow on the ground and disappeared. 'That is a new one', I thought to myself as I watched him disappear towards the village.

The five (four old men plus sparkle face) people wanted to say something but they froze with a frown on their faces. It was no jutsu; I had moved fast and was already standing in front of them. With quick swipes four heads were off. The only one left was sparkly face, who fell flat on his butt when he saw the dead comrades by his side. I was not in the mood to talk too much; I just returned from a very long mission, and worse, Kurama had made me irritable. I broke both his legs and arms and watched him scream in pain, beg for his life and sometimes threaten me.

"If you don't shut up, I will rip your tongue out of your mouth." At least that got him quiet somehow. I dragged the whimpering fool to a tree and sat underneath the shade. I could hear the screams of the village, and knew Kouki was happily taking his frustrations out on them; I was angry, so I could only imagine what he was feeling. They had touched our sister, and they had to pay. I did not care if such a slaughter was over the top. I lay there humming the Adam's Family tune to myself for a while until I eventually heard nothing.

Silence.

Looking over the distance, I saw Kouki walking over with his katana dripping with blood in hand; I had to admit that his slow walk, stoic handsome face and the katana made him look badass. Tsk. I was not jealous. There was surprising very little blood splatter on his clothes or self too.

When he got to me, he saw that sparkly face was still alive and glared at him. He made no move because he knew I had left him alive for a reason. "We are taking him with us. We will let Aoi deal with his when she wakes up." He nodded and knocked him out before storing him in his shadow. I stared at Kouki whose angry eyes looked to have been slightly abated; I guess the slaughter served as a relief for him.

I did not think he actually had it in him to slaughter everyone in the village like that. Quite frankly, I was very surprised. I changed into the Chakra radar and began to search the village. Good thing I did else I would not have found the little mouse hiding there. I appeared behind her, grabbed her by the neck and moved back to my former place. "You missed one."

Kouki's eyes grew cold when he laid eyes on her. "She is the stalker we were supposed to find." The woman grew fearful when she heard Kouki's words, coupled with the cold look she was receiving, she immediately grew frightful. Who could blame her? She had just witnessed the monster murder the entire village she had only ever known.

"Is that so? Hello stalker." I grabbed her face, covering her mouth before she could start begging. "After a few days of investigation, you realized the whole place was a village of criminals who were up to something shady. It wasn't until Aoi was attacked and affected by whatever it was, did you finally call me for reinforcement. They suddenly attacked us with Aoi, so we had to retaliate, knocking our poor sister out before killing every single one of them. Such a sad and tragic event. We still had no idea what weapon they used to control Aoi. It would have been dangerous if we got captured as well; Who knew what we would have been sent to do to the village. Right, Kouki?" Still grabbing the face of the woman, I turned to Kouki who nodded without breaking a single eye contact with the young woman. I could not help but smile. He was a silent but smart kid. I liked that about him.