I'll Be Okay
By LeisaTheGreat
Chapter One
To the three sprinting shinobi, the forest appeared simply a mess of green and brown. They tried not to get distracted by the sudden flashes of yellow or red, in the form of small songbirds, that sometimes interrupted the neutral colors they'd grown very used to over the past hour.
One of them, a blonde, donning an orange and black jumpsuit seems to lead the group. Even though the young blonde is not in charge, the team leader doesn't protest to him running in the lead. After all, trying to tame the the Hidden Leaf's Number One Knuckleheaded Ninja was a nearly impossible task and Kakashi knew it. So with a half-hearted sigh, he contented himself with falling into the middle of the procession. Between the, ever hyper Naruto and the more level headed Sakura.
Other than Naruto, Team 7 wasn't in a huge hurry to return home. They were tired after running the entire way to Village Hidden in the Rain and would rather take their time on the return journey. Their mission hadn't been a particularly tough one. 'Infiltrate one of the small towns just outside the actual village and get a scroll from one of Konoha's many informants'. That was it. And it had gone down without a hitch, leaving Naruto still entirely bursting with energy.
"Hey, hey Sensei!" The blonde says, a little too loudly.
"What is it?" Kakashi responds, dully.
"What did you get from that informant?! Grandma Tsunade didn't answer me when I asked earlier!"
"Maybe that's because you didn't really 'ask'." Sakura says, shaking her head.
"What do you mean?!" Naruto demands.
"Saying 'hey Old Lady, why are you giving me such a lame mission?' doesn't exactly count as 'what's in the scroll?'." She sighs, fighting a smirk at the memory of her teacher smacking Naruto upside the head after his outburt in the Hokage's office.
Naruto pauses, thinking over the conversation thoroughly. "Hmph, I thought she got the message..."
"You're such an idiot..." Sakura grumbles.
Naruto frowns at her insult. "That's mean, Sakura!" He huffs, unhappily before turning back to his sensei, awaiting an answer to his question.
Kakashi shrugs. "It's not our job to know what's in the scroll. Only to deliver it safely. That's why this is only a B rank mission."
"Oh come on, Kakashi Sensei! Aren't you even a little curious?! I mean...haven't you ever heard of initiative? What if we lost the scroll? If we look inside, then we'll just be able to tell Grandma Tsunade the information firsthand!" He urges.
"Naruto," Kakashi sighs. "If we lost the scroll, the mission would have been a failure anyway. There would be no point in knowing what was in it. Besides, reading it is against our orders. If you were listening when Lady Hokage was talking, you'd know that."
Sakura starts giggling at Naruto defeated expression. "But don't worry, Naruto." She says, trying to comfort her childish friend. "If it's important, we'll find out."
"Yeah, yeah alright..." He mumbles.
Just as the conversation comes to an end, Kakashi freezes in place. "Stop!"
Naruto and Sakura immediately halt, frozen by the small hint alarm in their teacher's voice normally serene voice.
"What is it?" Sakura breathes, suddenly troubled by Naruto's distance from them. If there was a fight, he was the one an enemy would go for first. Just as in nature, the preditor attacks the weakest link first. Be it sick, old, young...or too far from the rest of the herd.
Kakashi's Sharingan eye whirls with the sudden flood of information from their surroundings. "We're surrounded."