[Mad Tiger] Chapter 62

While my humans were away, it kept raining in Konoha. Good thing the rainy season in the Land of Waves—where they had been sent—was shorter and had already passed. The climate there was pretty diverse anyway, thanks to the sea winds, mountain ranges that blocked storms, valleys, hot springs, and shifting elevations.

I spent most of the time sleeping, eating, and going outside when the rain let up a little. Also, I kept up my training—I learned to run on water using chakra. Not that I had any urgent need for it, but in the rainy season, at least this way I wouldn’t end up face-first in a puddle. On top of that, I figured out how to channel chakra through my fur, which meant I barely got wet when sprinting through the village in bad weather.

At first, I blessed Ino with my company, then moved in with Hinata. A week later, I relocated to the Nara household. Shikamaru’s mom, Yoshino, would grumble if I left muddy paw prints, but she always petted me and was very skilled at brushing out my fur.

Koku Akimichi was a great source of snacks, but I bailed from the clan of BBQ connoisseurs after two days—if I had stayed longer, I might have turned into a fluffy bowling ball.

For the last six days, I’d been hanging out at Kiba’s place with Akamaru and Kuromaru. My big dog buddy had just returned from a week-long mission guarding the borders.

I told Kuromaru about my meeting with the Cat God, Nekomata-sama, and he was insanely jealous. Apparently, the honor I had received was huge. The Cat Deity had helped my humans—but only because I had a hand… uh, paw in it. And that was a pretty big deal.

Kuromaru even said he felt the “blessing of the Ancestor” on me. No clue what that meant, but I did notice that a few of the village dogs—the ones who usually barked their heads off at me from behind fences but never dared to actually attack—now just stared at me in confused silence.

As for the local cats? Well, I was already a legend among them, so nothing really changed.

Kuromaru also had a dream—to see the Great Dog Ancestor. But, apparently, way back in the day, during one of the ninja wars, the only known entrance from our world to the realm of the ninja dogs was destroyed.

Now, the only remaining link to the Kariinu Clan was through a summoning contract, and guess who owned that contract? The Hatake Clan.

Yep. The same Hatake who was currently the jonin instructor for Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura.

I remembered that Kakashi could summon ninja dogs—I had seen it in the anime.

It happened during the Land of Waves mission, when they got ambushed by that guy with the big sword who used a mist technique to blind them. Kakashi summoned his dogs, and they tracked the guy down.

It was weird to think about.

I had watched it happen in a show.

But somewhere out there, it was happening for real.

For some reason, when I sent my kids off on their C-rank mission, I thought they’d be back sooner.

But the days kept passing.

And they still weren’t back.

I started to worry.

What if something went wrong?

I had been banking on events playing out just like the anime, but things were already different.

My boys had been training together. They were stronger than they were in the show.

But what if that strength led to them getting injured?

Or worse—killed?

What if they got overconfident, tried to pull some flashy stunt, and got themselves wiped out?

There was this old movie called The Butterfly Effect, where no matter how hard the protagonist tried to change the past, everything only got worse.

And here I was—flapping my little metaphorical wings and screwing up fate.

My head was spinning.

By the fourth week, the rainy season finally ended.

The skies cleared.

But my kids were still missing.

I was so anxious I couldn’t sit still.

I barely ate, barely slept, and spent most of my time perched on the roof of a house along the main road, watching the village gates. From there, I had a clear view of the crossroad leading to Naruto’s apartment.

I even recruited a mail hawk, Takaro, to keep an eye on things from the sky.

And my cat buddy, Sumi-chan, helped out too. (By the way, I managed to get Sumi adopted by the Akimichi Clan, so now my little black friend had gleaming fur and was living the dream.)

Finally, one evening—on God-knows-which day of their absence—Team Seven finally returned to Konoha.

Takaro called out from above, circling the village like he was writing messages in the sky.

I leapt from my rooftop perch and bolted toward my humans at full speed.

I didn’t expect to miss them this much.

Sure, hanging out with Akamaru had been fun.

Kuromaru had helped me train.

The kids and their parents loved me, fed me, and petted me.

But they weren’t my Yellow Chick and my Emo Gremlin.

I felt responsible for those two idiots!

I remembered how my old cat, Vasilyi, used to greet me whenever I got back from competitions or long trips.

And now?

Now I understood him.

Because I also had a lot to say.

“WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED I WAS?! YOU LITTLE SHITS, YOU COULD’VE DIED!!”

…Or something along those lines.

Naruto sprinted toward me, and I jumped straight into his arms, purring like a motor, demanding everything at once—food, head pats, stories about their mission, a full grooming session, ear scritches, and a formal handover to Sasuke for a second round of cat love rituals.

Turns out, their mission didn’t go exactly like I remembered from the anime.

At first, it was the same.

They traveled the usual road toward the Land of Waves—the same one that led to Ryu.

But the moment they stepped off the main path?

They got ambushed by two Chunin from the Hidden Mist.

Naruto bragged that he and Sasuke wiped the floor with them—because Sasuke had spotted an out-of-place puddle on the road.

It hadn’t rained there in weeks, so obviously, it was a trap.

Kakashi, meanwhile, didn’t bother to warn Sakura.

In fact, he pretended to get killed just to scare her shitless.

Classic.

After capturing the Mist ninja, they learned that their real target was the bridge builder they were escorting.

When they finally reached the islands of the Land of Waves, they got attacked by a big-shot swordsman—some guy named Zabuza, who Kakashi actually knew.

Cue the fight.

Sasuke and Naruto were arguing over how it went down.

Apparently, their sensei got trapped in a water prison, and they had to come up with a sneaky plan to break him out.

Then, according to Naruto, Kakashi “kicked Zabuza’s ass but almost died doing it.”

So far, it still matched the anime.

But then—after some masked kid took Zabuza’s body away—Shisui showed up.

In ANBU gear.

Kakashi was already unconscious by then, so Shisui told the kids he had been personally assigned to watch over them during their first out-of-country mission.

And since Kakashi was out of commission, he’d be taking over as their temporary commander.

Sasuke, acting all smug, claimed he had figured out immediately that the masked ANBU was Shisui.

Looks like Shisui had set all this up just to talk to Kakashi. Afterward, their sensei had been walking around looking like he’d just had an existential crisis. While they guarded the old bridge builder and his workers as they finished construction, nobody attacked them at all. Instead, the guys spent their time arguing about what exactly Shisui had said to Kakashi.

Then, out of nowhere—

“Yo,” a familiar voice called out from the window of Naruto’s apartment.

Their scruffy, one-eyed, perpetually late sensei had arrived.

“Kakashi-sensei?!” they shouted in unison, instinctively shoving me aside like I was some sort of contraband. Rude.

“Maa…,” Kakashi gave them his signature one-eyed smile. “There’s something I need to discuss with you.”

“What?” Sasuke asked warily.

“You really saw your brother, Sasuke?” Kakashi asked as he stepped inside.

“Yes,” Sasuke confirmed. “I talked to him. I even managed to recover some of my memories.”

“I see,” Kakashi muttered, rubbing his chin. “I’m sorry… Even though I have the Sharingan, it’s incomplete. I was affected by that technique just like everyone else.” He paused, then leveled a serious look at them. “You understand that this has to remain an absolute secret?”

“Yes, sensei,” they chorused.

“Tomorrow, it’ll be officially announced that the Chunin Exams will be held in Konoha. I was planning to recommend your team anyway, but during that mission, Shisui-san specifically asked me to put you forward. Do you know anything about that?”

Sasuke and Naruto exchanged glances before shaking their heads.

“No, sensei.”

Kakashi hummed in thought, then sighed. “Alright. Get some rest.” And with a poof, he vanished.

“Shadow clone,” Naruto muttered knowingly. Sasuke grunted in agreement.

Meanwhile, I was deep in thought.

Where the hell did Zabuza and his sidekick disappear to?

And what about that slimy little villain who didn’t want the bridge finished?

The boys didn’t seem to care—since they didn’t know what should have happened, they weren’t questioning anything.

But me? I was starting to think that maybe Shisui or Itachi—or even Kushina-san—had interfered.

And speaking of those Chunin Exams…

Orochimaru himself is supposed to show up during the Forest of Death!

To test Sasuke’s strength and slap that damn curse mark on him!

Yeah. Definitely not panicking.

Naruto bought me some fancy cat treats, and in my stress-induced existential crisis, I inhaled half the pack in one sitting.

Then, thanks to the dry-mouth hell that followed, I spent the whole night running back and forth to the water bowl like some kind of furry insomniac.

The boys, as usual, were sleeping in the same room.

Sasuke, apparently unable to sleep either, joined me in my midnight kitchen escapades, drinking water and refilling my bowl whenever I drained it.

“You’re worried, huh, Tora-chan?” he whispered when the sky started to lighten. I was sprawled on his lap, fully aware that I had already gotten a week’s worth of sleep while they were away. I nodded.

“…Me too,” he admitted. “These exams… What are my brothers planning?” He ran a hand through my fur. “Do you know?”

I shook my head and let out a sigh.

“There’s something else we don’t remember, isn’t there?” He kept petting me, gaze distant. “Something about Naruto?”

I nodded.

“They don’t want to tell him because he’s a jinchuriki, don’t they?” Sasuke whispered.

My head snapped up in surprise. He was looking at me with his Sharingan activated.

“It’s obvious,” he murmured. “No way Kakashi was this shaken just because our clan wasn’t wiped out four years ago, but much later. There’s something else. And I think it’s about Naruto.” He exhaled, looking pensive. “And sensei… He kept looking at him like…” He trailed off, struggling to put it into words.

I purred, pressing my head against his cheek in encouragement.

Sasuke smiled faintly. “You think everything’s gonna be okay, Tora-chan?”

“Yes!” I meowed confidently.