Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Warning: OCs are present in this story
As a tree fell, burning a crimson red, the pandemonium began to cease. A child scrambled away, blood and debris stuck to his tear stricken face as he tried fervently to crawl away. A last cry was heard before silence and the soft thump of a burning tree hitting the ground.
"Finally! I waited sooooo long for a B rank mission 'ttebayo!" exclaimed Naruto happily, walking ahead of his two teammates and sensei excitedly. Grinning, he slammed open the door and burst inside the Hokage office.
"Where's the B rank!", demanded the loud blonde, looking ecstatic.
"SHUT YOUR MOUTH YOU TWERP, I DON'T NEED A HEADACHE AT EIGHT IN THE MORNING," yelled Tsunade furiously, punching Naruto thus sending him through the open door and crashing into Kakashi. Settling back down on her chair while rubbing her temples, she gestured to the two people standing next to her desk. Kakashi walked in, followed by Sasuke and Sakura who was dragging Naruto.
"Team seven's mission is to go scout the Hidden grass village, Kusagakure. Your objective is to find out who attacked the village, why they attacked it, and to look for any survivors and take them back to Konoha. This will be a joint mission with Hyuuga Neji and Tenten. Also, the mission is a C rank bordering B rank. We're only sending you guys because ever since the sound and sand attack, our forces were slightly lowered. Any questions, ask now since you leave in an hour", informed Tsunade straightening up.
"Hey baa-chan," asked Naruto, getting up from the floor, "where's fuzzy eyebrows and fuzzier eyebrows sensei?"
"They are on a separate mission," stated Neji, staring at Naruto.
"Is that all," inquired the Hokage.
"Tsunade-sama," began Kakashi, "I've heard that Orochimaru may have had a base there."
Organizing a stack of paper, she replied stonily, "If you do encounter Orochimaru, avoid fighting and come back to Konoha right away and inform us. Also, that is one of the reasons why you are investigating the village ruins. No more questions? Okay, now off you all go."
The five genin and jounin exited one by one, leaving Tsunade alone in her office.
'The kids better be safe... Eh, who am I kidding, of course they'll be alright.'
She looked down at her desk.
'I know I won't be if I have to finish all these stupid documents though.'
Fishing out a bottle of sake, she downed it, overlooking a letter from the lottery company.
"Man, it sure sucks that Kusagakure got wiped out. Quite a feat too, I mean an ENTIRE FREAKING SHINOBI VILLAGE albeit not as large, got WIPED OUT. I wonder why though," though Tenten out loud.
The group was walking down the road towards Kusagakure when Tenten broke the silence. Naruto looked at Kakashi expectantly since he was also curious as to who would wipe out an entire hidden village.
"That's a good question, Tenten, but I sadly don't have the answer," answered Kakashi never looking up from his little orange book.
"Oh."
They continued to walk in silence until night fell.
"We're going to set up camp here tonight, and then we'll go to Kusagakure quickly. Get some rest tonight since we don't know what to expect there", declared Kakashi, setting down his pack.
The others followed in suit, taking out their sleeping bags while Sasuke made a small campfire from wood Sakura had gathered while they unpacked. Soon enough, someone brought out cooking utensils while Neji took out a few packs of canned food. Once the food was cooked, everyone ate in silence until Naruto spoke up, mushy tuna in his mouth.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, would we meet that creepy snake guy, Oro-something?"
"There's a possibility, but I hope not," replied Kakashi from behind his book.
"Oh."
"So, Tenten, how's it been with your team?" asked Sakura, abruptly changing the topic.
Tenten made a face, "It's good, but we only got two relatively boring B ranks and get way too many D ranks, and the C ranks we do get aren't much fun, although Lee and Gai-sensei still enjoy them." She laughed lightly.
Sakura laughed as well.
"Yea, I thought as much. Same with us I guess; way too many D ranks. But you're lucky, this is our first higher ranked mission really. I mean seriously, the only exciting mission that we got not including our first C rank, was when we had to go hunt this supposedly rare squid!"
"I don't get how it was rare though, it looked like a normal squid 'ttebayo," added Naruto, feeling the need to join the conversation.
"Yes Naruto, because a squid that changed between neon orange and black, is one story tall and is proficient in the use of water jutsus for some reason is definitely normal," interjected Sasuke, sarcasm dripping from his voice.
"Exactly", exclaimed the blonde, "that's gotta be the first time you actually admitted I was right dattebayo!"
"…"
"Usuratonkatchi", muttered Sasuke loud enough so that only Sakura and Neji who were beside could hear.
"Okay kids, sorry to break up your wonderful reminiscing, but it's quite late and I don't want any of you to be anything but alert tomorrow, so Naruto can take first watch, I'll take middle, and who wants last watch?"
"I'll do it," volunteered Tenten, raising her hand.
"Ok, so you all know what to do, alert us if anything happens, don't fall asleep until your shift is over, and keep quiet," said Kakashi, directing the last part at Naruto.
"Aye aye, Kakashi-sensei", hollered Naruto at the top of his lungs before effectively shutting up once he was sent flying, courtesy of Sakura. Tenten nodded and proceeded to sleep, closely followed by everyone else excluding Naruto who was dragging himself back to the temporary campsite.
They all settled down with Naruto standing watch, though no one was really asleep save one, namely Sakura.
By the time Tenten was fast asleep, Naruto started to get restless. Neji, deciding that he couldn't sleep, started to get up to tell Kakashi that he could take the middle shift instead of him. Besides, it's not like he was disrupting the grey haired sensei's sleep; heck he wasn't even sleeping. Not just that; it would be better that Kakashi got better rest since there's a possibility of encountering Orochimaru. It would be more desirable for the leader to be at full strength. As he was about to get up, he heard Naruto move away from his spot and towards his side.
Tensing in the off chance that this Naruto was an imposter, he waited silently until he heard Naruto move over to Sasuke's sleeping bag.
"Oi, teme, you awake," whispered Naruto surprisingly quiet for a usually loud ninja.
Sasuke didn't move. When Naruto continued to sit there staring at him, or at least that's what Neji thought he was doing, Sasuke stirred.
"What do you want, dobe."
Deciding to turn on his Byakugan since his chakra would be replenished in the morning anyways, he watched the two.
"Eh, just wanted to talk to someone. It's too quiet, dattebayo," whined Naruto quietly.
"Ever heard of sleep before? Because some people need it", responded Sasuke sounding irritated, a scowl present on his face as he turned to face Naruto.
"Yeah, but you weren't sleeping."
'How did Naruto, the incredibly dumb, yet determined Naruto realize Sasuke wasn't sleeping when I didn't? I only thought Kakashi was awake, I didn't actually know' thought Neji.
"How do you know," questioned Sasuke.
It turned out the paranoia he felt was wasted.
"Come on; no living human sleeps like an ice cube stuck in frozen ice cream 'ttebayo," stated Naruto in a matter-of-fact tone, all the while looking as serious as Naruto could ever possibly look like.
"Hn. Your description amuses me," commented Sasuke dryly, "So what did you want to talk about."
Scratching his head, Naruto sheepishly replied, "I dunno. I Just wanted to talk to someone I guess."
The Uchiha sighed.
"Just go to sleep now and wake up Kakashi; your shift should be about done now anyways, Naruto."
"Yeah, I need all the sleep I can get if I need to kick some enemy ninjas butts tomorrow dattebayo," agreed Naruto, getting up.
He walked over to Kakashi's sleeping bag. Just as he reached his hand out to poke his sensei awake, a hand shot up and lifted the perverted book off of Kakashi's face. Naruto hopped back a few feet, a ridiculous expression on his face.
"Good job, Naruto. You didn't make as much noise as I thought you would during your shift. Now, go get some sleep so you can 'kick some enemy ninjas butts tomorrow," said Kakashi, sliding into sitting position with his legs crossed.
"Yosh," exclaimed Naruto as quietly as he could before crawling over to his sleeping bag. The moment he was in his sleeping bag, he stopped moving altogether and started snoring.
'Talk about a quick sleeper,' thought Neji.
"Now Neji, I'm sure you want to do the middle shift, but that would give you less time to replenish your chakra, and considering how you've been using your Byakugan for quite a while now, I suggest you just sleep. You too, Sasuke," suggested Kakashi nonchalantly, opening to the first page of his 'icha icha' book.
He was met by a grunt and the sound of someone turning around. Satisfied, he sat alerted his other senses while he read his book.
'He has a point', thought Neji grudgingly as he turned to face away from the fire, releasing his Byakugan. He had expected nothing less than Kakashi realizing he was awake, although Kakashi knowing his intentions had come as a small surprise. It's not that he didn't want to sleep though; it's just that he felt that something big was going to happen soon, and big doesn't necessarily mean good.
Deciding to trust Kakashi to keep away the feeling for tonight, he soon fell asleep.
"'Kay everyone, time to wake up," cheered Tenten loudly to the group. The night and morning had been pretty good, except for the feeling of dread that was slowly settling on her, causing her to put a choke hold grip on one of her many kunai. As people started to wake, she began to kindle the fire and take out a pan from a storing scroll, making a quick breakfast of eggs and bread.
By the time the last person was up and eating, Tenten had finished quickly washing the pan and had packed. Once everyone else was done doing the same, they set out quicker than before, choosing to go by forest this time instead of by road since it was faster. As the group traveled in companionable silence, give or take a few complaints from Naruto, they soon reached the outskirts of the forest, just as the sun was an hour away from setting.
"Okay team, you will split into pairs to find your objective by the time the sun sets." Kakashi gestured to the sun. "Report all your findings no matter how small back at this spot. Go in pairs, and keep an eye out. Remember that there's a possibility of enemy ninjas lurking around still. I'll take Sakura, Naruto will go with Sasuke, and Tenten will go with Neji since they have experience together. Okay, scatter."
With that said, the pairs headed off to search through the burnt down hidden village of grass.
"Neji, I'm going to go look around, okay? Oh, and don't use your Byakugan too much: only if you need to inspect something you can't get close to", said Tenten, speeding away in the opposite direction they were traveling.
"Hm. Be careful," replied Neji quietly to himself. Too bad Tenten already heard it. She allowed herself a quick grin before focusing once again on her surroundings. Looking around, she saw rubble; rocks, gravel, burnt wood, fallen trees, mud, dead bodies, a twitching foot, some ash-
'HOLY HOKAGES, A TWITCHING FOOT?"
Turning back, Tenten headed towards the pile of wood where the foot was at. As she lifted the first burnt wood plank off, she reminded herself that there was a possibility that this was an enemy. Pausing in her work, she took out a kunai as she continued to lift the debris cautiously. Though cautiously didn't necessarily mean slowly. Heck, it was a miracle that this person was still alive and wasn't scoped out by the attackers in the 2 days after the attack.
As she lifted the last large plank of wood carefully, she was met with the face of a boy around her age. His eyes were closed, face slightly gaunt, and his breathing was shallow judging from the rise and fall of her chest. Throwing the plank away, she bent down to lift the poor boy up.
'Poor kid… I can't even begin to imagine how he's going to feel when he wakes up and realizes he's alone…' she thought, sad about the boy's fate.
Still holding him, she shifted her grip on the kunai so as to not impale her or the guy and carefully climbed out of the debris, watching her footing and missing the moment when his eyes snapped open.
"SHI-"
Cursing, Kakashi motioned to Sakura to quickly follow him as he headed towards the scream.
'Damn, who was it? Can't be Sasuke or Naruto since Naruto would be screaming his ass off and I'd see fire or hear chidori. Sakura is with me, so that leaves Neji and Tenten. Neji I'm sure wouldn't scream and neither would Tenten unless she was surprised, but it's impossible for those two to be surprised with Neji's Byakugan unless…'
The thought hit Kakashi like a rock. A stupidly large rock that screamed at him for not making sure the joint members actually stayed together and had not split up.
"TENTEN," called out Kakashi loudly. He was met by Neji calling Tenten's name as well. So Neji was completely fine. Seeing a moving orange dot in the distance followed by a harder to see dot, Naruto and Sasuke were relatively fine as well unless the person following Naruto was the enemy. Sakura was still behind him; it was Tenten whose location he didn't know.
Once he made sure Tenten and everyone else was alright, he was going to have a long talk with the two about splitting up when they were assigned as partners.
'Tch, I shouldn't have agreed to let her search on her own,' thought Neji furiously, looking around with his Byakugan. Just moments before, he had heard the scream and had quickly hurried over towards it. Hearing Kakashi call out Tenten's name only further worried the Hyuuga. Before he could stop himself, he had called out his teammate's name as well.
Once he pinpointed on what looked like Tenten's chakra network, he scoured the area with his eyes, seeing nothing but dead bodies, some with a bit of chakra left from before they were killed. Turning off his Byakugan, Neji arrived to the spot quickly, only to see Tenten standing alone with no one else in sight.
When she didn't move when Neji got closer, he called out, "Tenten."
She jerked her head up and faced him.
"Huh? Oh… ah yea… uh, what?"
"Are you alright? I heard a scream," asked Neji, some worry slipping through.
"Yea, of course I'm fine! I just got ambushed, but once they saw that they were losing, they ran away. I just got a few scratches," replied Tenten.
At that moment, Kakashi leapt down closely followed by Sakura, then Naruto and Sasuke from the other side.
"What happened," questioned Kakashi, silently fuming.
"She got ambushed," answered Neji.
"I don't want to hear anything from you yet," snapped Kakashi scathingly.
"It's not his fault", interjected Tenten.
"I don't want to hear anything from you either except for the answer to my question: what happened?" repeated the furious teacher, calmly.
"As he said," she pointed to Neji, "I was ambushed by an unknown ninja. Once they realized that they were losing though, they escaped quickly."
"Do you remember how they looked or what techniques they used?", asked Kakashi.
"Yea, it was a female with short black hair and brown eyes. I couldn't see her forehead protector though, and she appeared to use mainly taijutsu and some fire ninjutsu," responded Tenten.
"Which way did she escape to?"
Without hesitation, the weapons mistress pointed north.
Nodding once, Kakashi informed them, "It's good that you're alright. We're going back to our meeting spot for today. Report everything you've gathered."
Everyone acknowledged his instructions and set off towards the location. When the group of six reached there, they sat down and waited for Kakashi to start. He gestured at Naruto and Sasuke to begin.
"While we were investigating, we found an opened capsule with strange liquid inside," started Sasuke, pulling out said capsule in a plastic bag.
"We looked around that place, and saw bits of really cool and weird stuff dattebayo. There were some dead people, but some of the dead people there looked kinda strange, like, we saw this guy, and parts of his left arm were grey," continued Naruto.
"Also, judging from the burns on the corpses and objects, I think that the fire was chakra infused," finished Sasuke.
Kakashi nodded.
"Good," he gestured at Gai's students, "Neji, and then Tenten."
Neji began, "There was an underground tunnel under a collapsed building that stretched throughout the middle of Kusagakure and went 6 levels deep. Most of the objects there have presumably been taken away or destroyed, since the place was exceedingly empty."
"I found one survivor and she told me information regarding the attack. Before she finished though, an enemy attacked us and killed her," informed Tenten.
"What did she tell ya?", asked Naruto curiously.
"That the attack was during the afternoon and in broad daylight. There were two attackers, but she only caught a glimpse of one of them. Before she could tell me what they looked like, yea. You know the rest," answered Tenten, surprisingly serious.
"Hm… okay. Well, Sakura and I found some strange liquids on the ground, similar to what Naruto and Sasuke found. We also found some patches of earth that were damp with water, but the water had a bit of chakra in it. Also, judging from the state of the bodies, they weren't able to put up much of a fight since there were mostly killing blows and no other injuries, leading me to believe that the two attackers are highly dangerous, and possibly from Akatsuki," stated Kakashi gravely. Sakura nodded at places while Kakashi spoke.
"Akatsuki? You mean those guys in the cloaks that came last time? Dammit, how many more lives do they want to ruin", yelled Naruto angrily, clenching his fists.
Sasuke closed his eyes, trying to contain himself. Akatsuki. Itachi. Why was Itachi so strong? Dammit, how the hell was he supposed to kill his brother when his brother was part of the organization that most probably was the one that destroyed the entire village?
"Okay, I think that's enough information. We'll head back to Konoha now. The summary of the information is that Orochimaru's base was indeed here, as many clues point towards it, and that there's a possibility that the Akatsuki attacked this place," Kakashi said, standing up.
The others followed in suit and were just about to head off when Kakashi held stopped them.
"Since there is a possibility of another ambush, we're going to go back to Konoha in a formation with Neji at the front, me directly behind followed by Sakura then Tenten. On either side of Sakura will be Naruto and Sasuke," informed the masked teacher.
"Kakashi-sensei, not to be rude or anything, but how come I'm in the middle and most protected by everyone?" questioned Sakura, sounding somewhat miffed.
'What an idiot. And she's supposed to be smart.'
Sasuke was the one that replied, "It's because you're our only medic nin, and being our only one, if you're killed or injured, the rest of us will run into problems as well if we become injured."
"Correct, Sasuke. I'll explain the rest as well. Neji will be in the front to scout out enemies, since he has his Byakugan. I'm next because I will be giving the orders and can smell anything odd first, least it passes Neji. Sakura, you already know. Sasuke and Naruto are beside her to add protection to her and be the brute force if we need to fight, and Tenten will be back-up since her weapons are good for long, mid, and close range," explained Kakashi. With that said, he motioned to Neji and set off, everyone else following.
They went in silence, stopping for camp once the sun disappeared and they were far enough from Kusagakure. Repeating the same procedure as the night before, they fell asleep, this time with Sakura on first watch, Neji on middle, and Sasuke on last.
Sasuke slowly fell asleep, still thinking about his brother… And the prospect of Orochimaru. He knew that the cursed seal made him weaker, but it also could make him stronger. With his mental debate swirling around his mind, he slept. No sooner had he closed his eyes and lost consciousness, he was being shaken rather roughly on his shoulder. Grasping a kunai, he opened his eyes and saw Neji.
Realizing that it was his shift already, he got up and stretched briefly before getting up while Neji went over to sleep. As he passed Neji though, the Hyuuga spoke a few words to him quietly.
"She is unavailable."
If most people heard this, they would have thought that Sasuke had tried to get to someone but they weren't available (namely Naruto would think this), but this was Sasuke who heard it, and he already knew perfectly well what the Hyuuga was talking about. Tilting his head forwards ever so slightly to acknowledge the sentence, he continued over to the other side of the campsite where he proceeded to take out some kunai to practice with. After a practicing for a while, he collected his weapons and turned around to observe the sleeping brown haired kunoichi.
No one could see that the Uchiha had turned on his Sharingan in the dark of the morning. Sighing, he shut it off and then sat down. There was no sign of an illusion on the girl, nor did it seem like a genjutsu. Unless the person was doing something similar to Naruto's sexy technique or was subjected to a mind technique, this was the real Tenten. Though he did see what looked like a small genjutsu over her eyes, but then again, he didn't know if she usually had a genjutsu over her eyes or not. Besides, her eyes were closed so he wouldn't be able to see past it anyways.
'What Hyuuga said though… he sounded sure that this wasn't Tenten. Maybe he saw that her chakra network was different? That's probably it. So what are we keeping her around for? Not just that, but there's plenty of proof that she was lying to us yesterday, such as when she said she fought, there wasn't a single weapon on the ground. She said the enemy knew fire techniques, but not a single part of the area had been freshly burnt, nor was there smoke. Hyuuga probably also noticed if her personality changed slightly, him being on her team.'
The more he thought, the more it made sense that Tenten was most likely not Tenten. Getting up, he walked over to Kakashi. The sun was just beginning to poke its head up in the eastern horizon.
"Kakashi," Sasuke said quietly, silently asking if he knew.
"I know," was his response.
The raven haired boy went back to the side of his sleeping bag and began to pull out storing scrolls from his pack. As he unpacked two slices of bread, he sat down and ate them, waiting for everyone else to wake up, and waiting for the day to start.
A/N: Well, I'm trying to write a story with OCs in this. Not quite sure how this will turn out, but guess what! I actually have a plot for this story instead of making things up along the way to get to the conclusion!
Thanks for giving this story a chance and reading the first chapter!
EDIT AGAIN: I found my story planner, so all's good, hopefully.
