Chapter 94 - Orochimaru vs Kakumei

                                    

                                          
Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Kakumei – Arc 4: Might Makes Right
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Chapter 94 – Orochimaru vs Kakumei
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In  the land of Water, a week has passed since the reported death of the  7th Hokage. Having answered a call for action by Konoha, the Mizukage is  mobilizing his ninja forces to participate in a counter attack on  Kakumei. United in the main hall of the elite training center of the  village is the younger able generation of Chunin and Jonin.
In  front of the troops, Chojuro is wearing his hat and haori. He looks  through the crowd, counts the effective, and thinks of what advantage he  can bring to the Union. He's joined by Suigetsu Hozuki, the wandering  mercenary hunter who serves as his right hand. Having received word  about the case of Sasuke's son, the swordsman interrupted his missions  and returned to provide his help.
In the hall, Teru Uchiha is  happily chatting with Mio, his teammate. They're simply talking about  little matters and futile things but find a feeling of comfort in such  discussions. Next to them, Mariko Uchida tries not to pay attention to  them and maintains a soulless face expression, hiding the awkward  impression she has to be third wheeling in this squad.
To  interrupt the chat, Mizuno, sensei of the team and mother of Mio, walks  in the scene and gets her daughter's attention. Pulled out of this  conversation since his interlocutor is being distracted, Teru makes a  grumpy face and looks around to find something else to occupy his mind  until Mio can get back to him.
As he gazes across the room he  notices another much more experienced and talented team than his. Kaori,  Yukiko and their sensei Kokoro. What gets his attention is the fact  that the 3rd and last member of the team, Takeshi Minamoto, is also here  even though he's out on hunter-nin missions most of the time.
Teru  sees this young man silently staring at the ceiling, worried by  internal thoughts. He then sees him look down to see the Mizukage and  Suigetsu, and promptly disappear only to reappear next to these two,  barging in their conversation. These 3 ninjas, among the bests of the  nation, are likely talking about the motivation, cause and purpose of  the global offensive they're setting up.
After a little minute of  serious discussion, Takeshi lightly smiles and raises his hand to lay it  on the Mizukage's shoulder, whom he already surpassed in size, to thank  him. He then turns around and looks in Teru's direction. Suddenly he  disappears again. But this time, attentive enough, Teru can notice that  the Minamoto is starting a forward movement before vanishing, which  means he's simply moving too fast for the eye and not using any illusion  or transportation.
Teru looks around to find him quickly, but  fails to follow. When he brings his attention back to his team, he  notices Takeshi standing right behind Mariko and covering her eyes with  his hands.
"Guess who?" he asks her with a flirty voice.
She  doesn't answer but quickly guesses, which makes her smile  uncontrollably. A smile that she hurries to hide away to keep her cold  image in front of her teammates. Takeshi steps away from her and simply  nods to greet Mizuno, whose attention he got by blitzing in.
"Uh...  What's happening?" Teru asks, confused by the young jonin's behavior.  "Why are you doing that with Mariko? You act way too familiarly."
"Keep calm, mini Kobo!" Takeshi answers. "She's my girlfriend."
At  this information, Teru reacts by simply raising an eyebrow. Mio makes a  little jump up, out of surprise. Mizuno was already aware. Mariko just  looks away, embarrassed that the character she is to her teammates gets  broken with this news.