Categories > Anime/Manga > Naruto > Deceit
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
2 reviews"This is a robbery! If you do what we tell you to do, nobody will get hurt!" SasuNaru/NaruSasu.
0Original
Disclaimer: I don’t own Naruto.
‘Thinking’
[Edited 5.8.2009]
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Chapter 3.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
-----
It was late at night. Mitarashi Anko was walking through a gas station’s yard with her two associates. Even though she had known the two for many years, she couldn't call them her friends. She knew them all too well, what they are like and all the things they have done, to actually get close to them.
The one walking on Anko’s left side was a woman.
Her name is Tayuya. She has brown eyes and dark pink hair. Tayuya is the type of person who could kill without even blinking an eye. She has absolutely no problem with taking someone’s life. There is one word that describes her perfectly: ruthless. Tayuya is also fiercely loyal to those she deems worthy and respects. She would never betray the people who have helped her and taken care of her.
The one walking on Anko’s right side was a man.
His name is Kimimaro. He has green eyes and white hair and very pale skin that makes him look a little sickly. He has two tattoos on his forehead; one red dot above each eye.
Kimimaro is different from Tayuya. He isn't ruthless at heart like her, but what makes him even more dangerous is the fact that he is easily manipulated by others. If the ‘right person’ asks him to do something, he will do it, no questions asked.
When they finally reached the gas station’s store, they stopped in front of the door. Kimimaro turned around to face the women and spoke.
“Anko, you stay at the door and, if you see anyone coming, inform me right away. Tayuya, you keep an eye on the hostages and follow the plan. Is everything clear?”
Both women nodded.
“Good. Now, put your masks on.”
The only reason why they hadn't put the masks on earlier, when they had been in their car, was because they would have looked suspicious if someone had seen them skulking around wearing them.
Their masks were different from one another. Anko’s mask was plain white, while Kimimaro had a white mask with black pipe-like patterns on it. Tayuya’s mask was also white, but it had black lightning-like patterns on it.
When they were ready, Kimimaro turned around to face the store’s doors and spoke. “Okay. Let’s go then.”
Anko watched the man open the doors and disappear inside. She stood still until she saw Tayuya go after him, then she went in, too.
All she could think about when she followed her inside was how much she didn't want to be there and that she didn't want to do ‘this’ again.
”This is a robbery! If you do what we tell you to do, nobody will get hurt!”
-----
Everyone in the store was startled by the sudden appearance of the three masked people and the exclamation of one of them. It was as if time had stopped completely. Everyone was frozen in their place, just staring at the masked – and armed – people at the store’s exit.
Even though it felt like hours had passed until the man spoke again, only a second or two had gone by.
“We don't want to harm you in any way, but if you give us any reason to think otherwise, we'll not hesitate to do so. Just follow our instructions and everything will go smoothly. Understood?”
The robber got only a few dazed nods in response.
“Good. Now, everybody stay calm and move to sit in front of the check-out counter, please.”
Everyone that was not already there walked to the counter, still in a state of shock.
When they were all seated, the masked man continued to talk.
“I need someone to show me where the safe is.” He pointed a finger at Kiba. “You work here, so you must know where it is, right?”
Kiba nodded, a little reluctant.
“Okay, good. Get up and show me then.”
Kiba did as he was told and went to take the man to the staff room where the safe was. However, before they could leave, the masked man spoke again, looking at Naruto and the others.
“Don't try to play hero or do anything else as stupid while I’m gone. We truly don't want to hurt you, so just behave well.”
After this, he turned and motioned Kiba to go ahead. When they disappeared into the staff room, the other of the two remaining robbers went to stand near the people sitting on the floor.
The store became quiet, only light sobbing could be heard.
Sasuke was cursing his extremely bad luck. How did he manage to choose just the gas station that was going to be robbed? It wasn't like he couldn't have stopped earlier, but no, he just had to stop at this one. Just great. As if he needed more problems. First the death threats, and now this? He couldn't believe it.
‘Someone must really hate me up there.’
The silence lasted only about five minutes, until Naruto gained his bearings. After the initial shock wore down, he was actually more saddened by the robbery than scared. He didn't think Sarutobi deserved this; the gas station was already struggling. He didn't know what would happen to it if all the money from the last week’s sales was stolen.
Naruto was also very worried about the other people in the store. He looked around himself, at the people sitting in front of the counter, and decided that he should try and lighten the mood a bit.
He saw a blonde woman sitting her back against the counter. She was holding a shaking petite, black-haired woman in her arms.
“Is she okay?” He spoke, motioning at the shaking woman with his hand.
Apparently this had been a mistake because, right after Naruto had finished saying this, the robber keeping an eye on them was standing in front of him, pointing a gun at his face.
To say that Naruto was a little startled was a huge understatement.
“You should shut your mouth, brat, if you don’t want this – the robber wiggled the gun a little – to go off.”
Before Naruto could react in any way, his view of the woman was suddenly blocked.
Apparently one of the other ‘hostages’ had moved in front of him, shielding Naruto from the robber’s gun.
“Please, don't hurt him. The boy wasn't trying to act against you. He was just worried about the woman’s condition. There's no need to be violent. We don't pose any kind of threat to you or your partners.”
The robber’s mask covered her face, but the fact that she was annoyed was clearly evident in her voice.
“Fine, talk. But keep it quiet. And no funny business. I’m not afraid to use this.” Once again the woman wiggled her gun.
The man between Naruto and the robber nodded, smiling. “Thank you.”
The woman just nodded, going to stand a little further away from them.
Naruto was amazed that someone he didn't even know had protected him. He was touched.
The man turned to look at Naruto, giving him a kind smile.
Naruto smiled back.
“Wow... I can’t believe you just did that, mister...” He really wanted to know the name of the man who might have saved his life a minute ago.
“Yakushi Kabuto.” The grey-haired man offered his hand to Naruto. “And you are?”
Naruto took the offered hand and shook it firmly. “My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Thank you for what you just did, Kabuto-san.”
Kabuto smiled again. “There's no need to thank me, Naruto-kun.”
“Of course there is! You just saved my life!”
“No, really, I just did what anyone else would have done.”
Naruto was just about to object, say that not that many people would just jump in front of a gun to protect someone they didn't even know, but he was interrupted.
“Just be grateful, usuratonkachi, and stop arguing with the man.”
With great speed, Naruto whirled around. He looked at the owner of the very familiar – and taunting – voice. A vein throbbed on his forehead.
“Shut up, bastard. This has got nothing to do with you.”
The dark-haired boy just smirked and ‘hn’ed. This angered the fuming blond more, but before he managed to start shouting at the other boy, and anger their guard in the process, Kabuto spoke.
“Please, this isn't the time to start fighting. We have enough to deal with as it is.”
Naruto looked away in shame, while Sasuke did nothing. “Sorry.”
Kabuto smiled again. “It’s okay, Naruto-kun.”
Suddenly a worried look replaced the smile on Kabuto’s face and he started scanning the other people around him.
“Now, is everyone alright?”
The first to answer was a man with black bowl-cut hair, big round eyes, and huge eyebrows.
“My girlfriend is alright, and so am I. Nice to meet you, Kabuto-san. My name is Rock Lee, and this – he placed his hand on the knee of the woman sitting next to him – is the greatest love of my life, Sakura-chan.”
Sakura, who had short pink hair and green eyes, blushed a little at his boyfriend’s embarrassing words. She nodded.
“Nice to meet you all. Too bad we had to meet under these kind of circumstances, though.”
Kabuto smiled and then looked at the blonde woman holding the shaking black-haired woman.
“What about you two?”
“I’m alright, Kabuto-san.” The blue-eyed blonde glanced at the woman in her arms and continued “But I’m not so sure about Hinata.”
For the first time since sitting down, Hinata lifted her head up, looking at Ino with pale lavender eyes. She didn't like the fact that Ino thought she was so weak that she would break down so easily. The fact that she was shaking didn't mean that she couldn't handle herself anymore. Yes, she was afraid, but many other people would be afraid in this kind of situation, too.
“N-no, I-Ino, I’m a-alright, too. Thank you f-for asking, Kabuto-san.”
“No need to thank me, Hinata-san. I’m just glad you're fine.”
Kabuto turned his attention to the two men that hadn't answered his question yet.
“What about you two?”
“We're fine.” Sasuke answered for them both. Shino nodded to confirm it.
“Good. And I assume you are alright, too, Naruto-kun?”
Naruto nodded vigorously, smiling widely. “Yeah.”
When the others had started to speak to each other, Shino turned to look at Sasuke.
“I’m sorry, Uchiha-san.”
“Why?” Sasuke asked, a little confused.
“Because I'm your bodyguard, Uchiha-san. It's my job to protect you from everything and keep you safe. I-”
Knowing exactly what the man was getting at, Sasuke interrupted Shino before he could say anything else. He spoke in an indifferent voice.
“No, Aburame. First of all, I can very well take care of myself. And second, you couldn’t have prevented this from happening.”
Shino was grateful Sasuke wasn't blaming him, but he still wasn't happy with himself for letting himself and Sasuke wind up in a situation like this.
-----
Almost twenty minutes had gone by since Kiba had left Naruto and the other people, going to show robber man where the safe was.
The masked man had been trying to crack the safe ever since they had come to the staff room, but he hadn't succeeded in opening it yet.
Kiba, who was sitting quietly in a chair beside the masked man, felt himself become more and more anxious as the time went on. When will the robber finally get the safe open? And when will they finally go away and leave him and the others in peace? Kiba just wanted to breathe freely again.
A couple of minutes later, his train of thought was broken by a loud shout coming from outside the room.
“A man's coming towards the store!”
Immediately after hearing this the robber fiddling with the safe was up and running out of the staff room, towards the front of the store from where the shout had come from.
Kiba followed the robber out of the room, but stopped beside the check-out counter because he didn't want to do anything that could anger the robbers.
When Kimimaro reached the front of the store, he stopped next to Anko, who had been keeping watch at the doors, and spoke in an unconcerned voice.
“We'll pretend this place is closed. Lock the doors and hide yourself after you've done it.”
Anko nodded and went to do as she was told.
Satisfied with his plan, confident that it would work, Kimimaro walked away from his partner in crime, stopping in front of the people at the counter. He spoke with a threatening voice.
“You'll stay hidden, too, if you know what's good for you.”
He didn't wait for an answer and walked behind the counter. Kiba was already there, crouching.
Kiba hadn't seen the man that was coming to the store; he was too far away from the window. He had a very bad feeling about the whole thing, though.
When the man reached the doors, everyone waited for him to turn around and walk away after trying to open the doors and finding them locked.
But, to everyone’s surprise, this didn't happen. Instead, after a moment, the doors’ locks opened with soft clacks and the man stepped into the store.
At that instant, Kiba knew who the man was. He confirmed his suspicions by peering at the front of the store from his hiding place. He saw an old man with white hair and beard, a brown pipe in his mouth.
‘Sarutobi.’
-----
Sarutobi was in the middle of making his weekly visit to the gas station he owned.
He could see that the lights were on in the store, but when he tried to push the doors open, they didn't budge. Apparently the doors were locked.
‘Well, that’s odd. What on earth are the boys doing?’
Sarutobi fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the doors. After putting the keys back in his pocket, he pushed the doors open and stepped inside.
There was an ominous silence in the store.
Usually the boys would come to greet him, to ask how he and his family were doing, or, when the boys were busy with something, they would at least yell their ‘hellos’ to him.
When nothing of the sort happened, Sarutobi started to think that something was very wrong.
Cautiously, he walked a little deeper into the store. He stopped in his tracks, though, when he saw a masked man appear from behind the check-out counter.
“Who are you? What’s going on here?”
Sarutobi got no answers.
Before he could even begin to grasp what was going on, much less do anything about it, another masked person appeared behind him. He was trapped.
“What do you want?”
Finally the masked person, who was now standing beside the counter, answered his question in a mocking tone of voice.
“What do you think we want, old man? We're robbing this place, so I guess the answer would be ‘money’, of course.”
Sarutobi panicked. They were robbing the store? What would happen to his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson if the robbers managed to do that? They were already having a tough time as it was, but what would happen if, or when, they lost a whole week’s income?
And then another frightening thought flooded his mind. What about the boys? What has happened to them? Where are they? Are they alright?
Just then Sarutobi saw Kiba come into view from behind the counter, too.
‘Thank god Kiba's alright, but where's Naruto? Have they hurt him?’
Sarutobi felt helpless; what was he supposed to do?
The robber at the counter was speaking to him, but he was too lost in his own thoughts to actually hear what the man was saying.
‘I can’t let them do this. I can’t. I have to try to get away, so I could go and get help.’
With that thought in mind, he quickly turned around, pushing the robber behind him, making her stumble backwards and fall down on the floor.
Sarutobi made a beeline for the doors.
-----
Kimimaro had been trying to convince the old man of the fact that, if he just did what he was told, they wouldn't have to hurt him, but it seemed like the man wasn't even listening to him.
When he saw the man push Anko and then start to run towards the doors, he let loose a colourful stream of curses.
‘What an idiot.’
If the old man got away from them now, their plan would have to be postponed. That just wouldn't be acceptable, so Kimimaro concluded that there was really only one thing that could be done.
He would have to use his gun.
Kimimaro wouldn't shoot to kill the man, though. He would make sure the gun wound wasn't fatal and that it only slowed the old man down.
Kiba had been watching the robber near him the whole time the man had been trying to talk to his boss. And, when he saw him raise up his gun and aim it at Sarutobi, Kiba moved before he could even think about what he was doing.
He lunged at the robber, trying to grab the gun from the man.
Kiba’s sudden attack made Kimimaro lose his balance. He had to take a few steps back, so that he wouldn't fall down. This made him lose sight of his target.
While the robber tried regain his footing, Kiba lunged at him again.
This time Kiba was able to grab the gun, but the other man had no intentions of letting go, so they ended up struggling for it.
A shot was fired.
-----
End of chapter three.
‘Thinking’
[Edited 5.8.2009]
-----
Chapter 3.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
-----
It was late at night. Mitarashi Anko was walking through a gas station’s yard with her two associates. Even though she had known the two for many years, she couldn't call them her friends. She knew them all too well, what they are like and all the things they have done, to actually get close to them.
The one walking on Anko’s left side was a woman.
Her name is Tayuya. She has brown eyes and dark pink hair. Tayuya is the type of person who could kill without even blinking an eye. She has absolutely no problem with taking someone’s life. There is one word that describes her perfectly: ruthless. Tayuya is also fiercely loyal to those she deems worthy and respects. She would never betray the people who have helped her and taken care of her.
The one walking on Anko’s right side was a man.
His name is Kimimaro. He has green eyes and white hair and very pale skin that makes him look a little sickly. He has two tattoos on his forehead; one red dot above each eye.
Kimimaro is different from Tayuya. He isn't ruthless at heart like her, but what makes him even more dangerous is the fact that he is easily manipulated by others. If the ‘right person’ asks him to do something, he will do it, no questions asked.
When they finally reached the gas station’s store, they stopped in front of the door. Kimimaro turned around to face the women and spoke.
“Anko, you stay at the door and, if you see anyone coming, inform me right away. Tayuya, you keep an eye on the hostages and follow the plan. Is everything clear?”
Both women nodded.
“Good. Now, put your masks on.”
The only reason why they hadn't put the masks on earlier, when they had been in their car, was because they would have looked suspicious if someone had seen them skulking around wearing them.
Their masks were different from one another. Anko’s mask was plain white, while Kimimaro had a white mask with black pipe-like patterns on it. Tayuya’s mask was also white, but it had black lightning-like patterns on it.
When they were ready, Kimimaro turned around to face the store’s doors and spoke. “Okay. Let’s go then.”
Anko watched the man open the doors and disappear inside. She stood still until she saw Tayuya go after him, then she went in, too.
All she could think about when she followed her inside was how much she didn't want to be there and that she didn't want to do ‘this’ again.
”This is a robbery! If you do what we tell you to do, nobody will get hurt!”
-----
Everyone in the store was startled by the sudden appearance of the three masked people and the exclamation of one of them. It was as if time had stopped completely. Everyone was frozen in their place, just staring at the masked – and armed – people at the store’s exit.
Even though it felt like hours had passed until the man spoke again, only a second or two had gone by.
“We don't want to harm you in any way, but if you give us any reason to think otherwise, we'll not hesitate to do so. Just follow our instructions and everything will go smoothly. Understood?”
The robber got only a few dazed nods in response.
“Good. Now, everybody stay calm and move to sit in front of the check-out counter, please.”
Everyone that was not already there walked to the counter, still in a state of shock.
When they were all seated, the masked man continued to talk.
“I need someone to show me where the safe is.” He pointed a finger at Kiba. “You work here, so you must know where it is, right?”
Kiba nodded, a little reluctant.
“Okay, good. Get up and show me then.”
Kiba did as he was told and went to take the man to the staff room where the safe was. However, before they could leave, the masked man spoke again, looking at Naruto and the others.
“Don't try to play hero or do anything else as stupid while I’m gone. We truly don't want to hurt you, so just behave well.”
After this, he turned and motioned Kiba to go ahead. When they disappeared into the staff room, the other of the two remaining robbers went to stand near the people sitting on the floor.
The store became quiet, only light sobbing could be heard.
Sasuke was cursing his extremely bad luck. How did he manage to choose just the gas station that was going to be robbed? It wasn't like he couldn't have stopped earlier, but no, he just had to stop at this one. Just great. As if he needed more problems. First the death threats, and now this? He couldn't believe it.
‘Someone must really hate me up there.’
The silence lasted only about five minutes, until Naruto gained his bearings. After the initial shock wore down, he was actually more saddened by the robbery than scared. He didn't think Sarutobi deserved this; the gas station was already struggling. He didn't know what would happen to it if all the money from the last week’s sales was stolen.
Naruto was also very worried about the other people in the store. He looked around himself, at the people sitting in front of the counter, and decided that he should try and lighten the mood a bit.
He saw a blonde woman sitting her back against the counter. She was holding a shaking petite, black-haired woman in her arms.
“Is she okay?” He spoke, motioning at the shaking woman with his hand.
Apparently this had been a mistake because, right after Naruto had finished saying this, the robber keeping an eye on them was standing in front of him, pointing a gun at his face.
To say that Naruto was a little startled was a huge understatement.
“You should shut your mouth, brat, if you don’t want this – the robber wiggled the gun a little – to go off.”
Before Naruto could react in any way, his view of the woman was suddenly blocked.
Apparently one of the other ‘hostages’ had moved in front of him, shielding Naruto from the robber’s gun.
“Please, don't hurt him. The boy wasn't trying to act against you. He was just worried about the woman’s condition. There's no need to be violent. We don't pose any kind of threat to you or your partners.”
The robber’s mask covered her face, but the fact that she was annoyed was clearly evident in her voice.
“Fine, talk. But keep it quiet. And no funny business. I’m not afraid to use this.” Once again the woman wiggled her gun.
The man between Naruto and the robber nodded, smiling. “Thank you.”
The woman just nodded, going to stand a little further away from them.
Naruto was amazed that someone he didn't even know had protected him. He was touched.
The man turned to look at Naruto, giving him a kind smile.
Naruto smiled back.
“Wow... I can’t believe you just did that, mister...” He really wanted to know the name of the man who might have saved his life a minute ago.
“Yakushi Kabuto.” The grey-haired man offered his hand to Naruto. “And you are?”
Naruto took the offered hand and shook it firmly. “My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Thank you for what you just did, Kabuto-san.”
Kabuto smiled again. “There's no need to thank me, Naruto-kun.”
“Of course there is! You just saved my life!”
“No, really, I just did what anyone else would have done.”
Naruto was just about to object, say that not that many people would just jump in front of a gun to protect someone they didn't even know, but he was interrupted.
“Just be grateful, usuratonkachi, and stop arguing with the man.”
With great speed, Naruto whirled around. He looked at the owner of the very familiar – and taunting – voice. A vein throbbed on his forehead.
“Shut up, bastard. This has got nothing to do with you.”
The dark-haired boy just smirked and ‘hn’ed. This angered the fuming blond more, but before he managed to start shouting at the other boy, and anger their guard in the process, Kabuto spoke.
“Please, this isn't the time to start fighting. We have enough to deal with as it is.”
Naruto looked away in shame, while Sasuke did nothing. “Sorry.”
Kabuto smiled again. “It’s okay, Naruto-kun.”
Suddenly a worried look replaced the smile on Kabuto’s face and he started scanning the other people around him.
“Now, is everyone alright?”
The first to answer was a man with black bowl-cut hair, big round eyes, and huge eyebrows.
“My girlfriend is alright, and so am I. Nice to meet you, Kabuto-san. My name is Rock Lee, and this – he placed his hand on the knee of the woman sitting next to him – is the greatest love of my life, Sakura-chan.”
Sakura, who had short pink hair and green eyes, blushed a little at his boyfriend’s embarrassing words. She nodded.
“Nice to meet you all. Too bad we had to meet under these kind of circumstances, though.”
Kabuto smiled and then looked at the blonde woman holding the shaking black-haired woman.
“What about you two?”
“I’m alright, Kabuto-san.” The blue-eyed blonde glanced at the woman in her arms and continued “But I’m not so sure about Hinata.”
For the first time since sitting down, Hinata lifted her head up, looking at Ino with pale lavender eyes. She didn't like the fact that Ino thought she was so weak that she would break down so easily. The fact that she was shaking didn't mean that she couldn't handle herself anymore. Yes, she was afraid, but many other people would be afraid in this kind of situation, too.
“N-no, I-Ino, I’m a-alright, too. Thank you f-for asking, Kabuto-san.”
“No need to thank me, Hinata-san. I’m just glad you're fine.”
Kabuto turned his attention to the two men that hadn't answered his question yet.
“What about you two?”
“We're fine.” Sasuke answered for them both. Shino nodded to confirm it.
“Good. And I assume you are alright, too, Naruto-kun?”
Naruto nodded vigorously, smiling widely. “Yeah.”
When the others had started to speak to each other, Shino turned to look at Sasuke.
“I’m sorry, Uchiha-san.”
“Why?” Sasuke asked, a little confused.
“Because I'm your bodyguard, Uchiha-san. It's my job to protect you from everything and keep you safe. I-”
Knowing exactly what the man was getting at, Sasuke interrupted Shino before he could say anything else. He spoke in an indifferent voice.
“No, Aburame. First of all, I can very well take care of myself. And second, you couldn’t have prevented this from happening.”
Shino was grateful Sasuke wasn't blaming him, but he still wasn't happy with himself for letting himself and Sasuke wind up in a situation like this.
-----
Almost twenty minutes had gone by since Kiba had left Naruto and the other people, going to show robber man where the safe was.
The masked man had been trying to crack the safe ever since they had come to the staff room, but he hadn't succeeded in opening it yet.
Kiba, who was sitting quietly in a chair beside the masked man, felt himself become more and more anxious as the time went on. When will the robber finally get the safe open? And when will they finally go away and leave him and the others in peace? Kiba just wanted to breathe freely again.
A couple of minutes later, his train of thought was broken by a loud shout coming from outside the room.
“A man's coming towards the store!”
Immediately after hearing this the robber fiddling with the safe was up and running out of the staff room, towards the front of the store from where the shout had come from.
Kiba followed the robber out of the room, but stopped beside the check-out counter because he didn't want to do anything that could anger the robbers.
When Kimimaro reached the front of the store, he stopped next to Anko, who had been keeping watch at the doors, and spoke in an unconcerned voice.
“We'll pretend this place is closed. Lock the doors and hide yourself after you've done it.”
Anko nodded and went to do as she was told.
Satisfied with his plan, confident that it would work, Kimimaro walked away from his partner in crime, stopping in front of the people at the counter. He spoke with a threatening voice.
“You'll stay hidden, too, if you know what's good for you.”
He didn't wait for an answer and walked behind the counter. Kiba was already there, crouching.
Kiba hadn't seen the man that was coming to the store; he was too far away from the window. He had a very bad feeling about the whole thing, though.
When the man reached the doors, everyone waited for him to turn around and walk away after trying to open the doors and finding them locked.
But, to everyone’s surprise, this didn't happen. Instead, after a moment, the doors’ locks opened with soft clacks and the man stepped into the store.
At that instant, Kiba knew who the man was. He confirmed his suspicions by peering at the front of the store from his hiding place. He saw an old man with white hair and beard, a brown pipe in his mouth.
‘Sarutobi.’
-----
Sarutobi was in the middle of making his weekly visit to the gas station he owned.
He could see that the lights were on in the store, but when he tried to push the doors open, they didn't budge. Apparently the doors were locked.
‘Well, that’s odd. What on earth are the boys doing?’
Sarutobi fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the doors. After putting the keys back in his pocket, he pushed the doors open and stepped inside.
There was an ominous silence in the store.
Usually the boys would come to greet him, to ask how he and his family were doing, or, when the boys were busy with something, they would at least yell their ‘hellos’ to him.
When nothing of the sort happened, Sarutobi started to think that something was very wrong.
Cautiously, he walked a little deeper into the store. He stopped in his tracks, though, when he saw a masked man appear from behind the check-out counter.
“Who are you? What’s going on here?”
Sarutobi got no answers.
Before he could even begin to grasp what was going on, much less do anything about it, another masked person appeared behind him. He was trapped.
“What do you want?”
Finally the masked person, who was now standing beside the counter, answered his question in a mocking tone of voice.
“What do you think we want, old man? We're robbing this place, so I guess the answer would be ‘money’, of course.”
Sarutobi panicked. They were robbing the store? What would happen to his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson if the robbers managed to do that? They were already having a tough time as it was, but what would happen if, or when, they lost a whole week’s income?
And then another frightening thought flooded his mind. What about the boys? What has happened to them? Where are they? Are they alright?
Just then Sarutobi saw Kiba come into view from behind the counter, too.
‘Thank god Kiba's alright, but where's Naruto? Have they hurt him?’
Sarutobi felt helpless; what was he supposed to do?
The robber at the counter was speaking to him, but he was too lost in his own thoughts to actually hear what the man was saying.
‘I can’t let them do this. I can’t. I have to try to get away, so I could go and get help.’
With that thought in mind, he quickly turned around, pushing the robber behind him, making her stumble backwards and fall down on the floor.
Sarutobi made a beeline for the doors.
-----
Kimimaro had been trying to convince the old man of the fact that, if he just did what he was told, they wouldn't have to hurt him, but it seemed like the man wasn't even listening to him.
When he saw the man push Anko and then start to run towards the doors, he let loose a colourful stream of curses.
‘What an idiot.’
If the old man got away from them now, their plan would have to be postponed. That just wouldn't be acceptable, so Kimimaro concluded that there was really only one thing that could be done.
He would have to use his gun.
Kimimaro wouldn't shoot to kill the man, though. He would make sure the gun wound wasn't fatal and that it only slowed the old man down.
Kiba had been watching the robber near him the whole time the man had been trying to talk to his boss. And, when he saw him raise up his gun and aim it at Sarutobi, Kiba moved before he could even think about what he was doing.
He lunged at the robber, trying to grab the gun from the man.
Kiba’s sudden attack made Kimimaro lose his balance. He had to take a few steps back, so that he wouldn't fall down. This made him lose sight of his target.
While the robber tried regain his footing, Kiba lunged at him again.
This time Kiba was able to grab the gun, but the other man had no intentions of letting go, so they ended up struggling for it.
A shot was fired.
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End of chapter three.
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