Team Ten?"
"They were just dispatched three days ago. We haven't heard word from them since."
Dammit. What had she been thinking - sending out her specialty team for a mission so close after their last? Or rather, what had she been drinking. "All right," she returned in an even tone. It was a good thing she always kept a second option. This would work out well. "I suppose Team Eight would do. I'm sure Kiba and Shino won't completely traumatize them, and Hinata seems nice enough."
"No can do," the woman beside her responded factually. "I'm afraid they're out of commission. Hinata took a brutal hit to the head on her last mission and is currently being quarantined within the Hyuga residence." Hinata? Hinata Hyuga had been injured? When had this happened? And, more importantly, why had no one told her about it? "Shino and Kiba have been nervous wrecks ever since the incident," her assistant continued with a confirming shake of the head. "They've been inconsolable; I've heard word that they refuse to leave the property without a daily meeting with her. Well, Kiba has been a nervous wreck, anyway. Shino has just been... Well, Shino."
Naturally. Everything seemed to be going wrong for her today. "Fine," she responded curtly. It really was a shame: Hinata would have been perfect for the specifications. It looked as if her third option would simply have to make do... "Call in Sakura. She's more than capable of handling this mission."
"She's still on that mission in the Land of Clouds. We haven't heard word from her yet."
Still? She was expected back days ago. Where the hell was she? "How about..." She was running out of options here. There really was no one else that could handle it. Jounin were too valuable to be wasted on such an easy task, and there weren't enough Genin to go around. "Konohomaru and his team? Surely they must be available."
"Mission."
Oh. Right. Damn that old bat and her cat. Must she hog all of the Genin?
"Iruka..."
"Is the reason why we're in this predicament in the first place," Shizune reminded her tiredly. "We sent him off on a mission three weeks ago and haven't heard word. We only reserved Uriah-Senpai for three weeks. We need someone to cover while we dig up another replacement." Iruka hadn't called in? That was the reason why they were searching for the replacement? Wait a second... Iruka was on a mission?
Well... that was news.
The Hokage shook her head tiredly. She really needed to start laying off all the sake. It was beginning to fog her memory. "How about Rathrea and her team?"
"Rathrea?" her assistant repeated questioningly. "Do we even have a Rathrea within the village?" She flipped through her notepad frantically, searching for the name. "I don't think I see a - ah, here she is. From Team Brisu? They are... in the Land of Sand. They've been sent to deliver a message to the Kazekage," Shizune paused before continuing. "There's only one Chunin team left within the village, Tsunade-Sama. And I think we both know that their record shows that they are more than qualified for a mission of such low standards."
The Hokage cursed silently under her breath. It couldn't be. It couldn't.
Granted, they were one of the strongest teams she had in her arsenal, she couldn't just send them out on a mission of these specifications. This was not their specialty. She wouldn't hesitate to bet that even Naruto (Naruto) would be more qualified for this mission than this particular team. There was no way in hell she was taking up for it when they screwed everything up.
"Team Three?" It was a last ditch effort. They both knew it.
Shizune shook her head.
"Fine then. Call them in."
But don't blame me when this ends in utter disaster.
She tried to ignore him and his ramblings about fate; she really did.
She reminded herself constantly that she held the power to change her own destiny, not the other way around. It was her way of consoling herself - a way she someday hoped to console Neji with (perhaps when he decided not to be such a pessimistic ass hole, which, at this point, pretty much looked to be the fourth of fat chance in hell).
But sometimes she just couldn't help but question his theories on the subject and wonder why, exactly, fate hated her so.
She had known from the moment they had received the Hokage's message of urgency that the news would not be good. They had been practicing on their signature field (punctuated with craters, broken trees, buried kunai, and a strangely large population of squirrels, especially taking into consideration the lack of trees) when they had received the call. She had been struggling to perfect her new technique for the past few weeks, spending any spare time she could training with Neji, and had come this close to hitting Lee with it in their short spar. But of course, fate hated her, and had decided to interrupt at her moment of crowning glory.
As it turned out, they were being assigned a mission: a mission she wasn't particularly overjoyed about.
"Wait a second, Tsunade-Sama. You want us to babysit a bunch of kids?"
