Disclaimers: Don't own 'em, just using them as a vent for my creative outlets until I come up with characters of my own that people like enough to write fanfic about ;)
Safe As Houses: Chapter One
The grey sky that had covered Konoha all morning finally let loose its rain. Shoppers hurried for cover, children squealed and ran inside, and two young ninjas stood in their training area and got soaked.
"Three hours..." Sakura was so angry that Naruto was pretty sure that he could see steam rising where the rain hit her. "He's kept us waiting THREE HOURS! That's inexcusable, even for him!"
"Come on, Sakura, I'm sure Kakashi-sensei has a good excuse this time."
"Oh, he always has an excuse, it's just never a good one."
"Maybe we should just leave, go get some ramen, huh?"
"No, I want to be here when Kakashi-sensei arrives so I can beat the living daylights out of him."
"Well, why don't we at least head for the trees so we don't get as wet?"
Sakura opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the sound of hurried footsteps. A young woman with an umbrella ran into the clearing, shaking the rain from her sleeves.
"Shizune-san?" Naruto broke into a wide grin as he recognized the Hokage's assistant. "What are you doing out here?"
"Where's Kakashi?"
"Who knows?" Sakura fumed. "Wherever that lazy bastard usually hides."
"He's supposed to meet us here, but he's really late - why are you looking for him?"
"He should've returned from a mission early this morning, but he never reported in. The gate sentinels say they never saw him come in - though with Kakashi that doesn't mean much - and we haven't been able to find him anywhere in the village. Tsunade-sama sent me to see if the two of you were supposed to meet him today."
"We were, but...he's three hours late..." Sakura's anger quickly washed away with the rain and a knot of worry tightened around her chest. "He's been late coming back from missions before, right? I mean, he's late for everything else."
"He probably got lost, or decided to wait out the rain with one of those perv books...don't you think, Sakura?" Naruto asked nervously.
"Yeah, maybe..." Sakura thought a moment before turning to Shizune "Please tell Tsunade-sama that we'll start searching as well. Maybe we can come up with someplace else to look."
"Thank you - please report to Tsunade-sama as soon as you find anything. Otherwise, please check in at dusk." With a curt bow, Shizune hurried away again into the rain.
"We'll find him, no problem - right, Naruto? After all, you've been around that old pervert long enough to know where a younger pervert might hang out."
"Yeah...yeah, I guess so." Naruto brightened a little. "After all, it's two against one. There's no way we won't find him!"
"And then, we'll make him pay for making us wait in the rain and worry about him!"
"You were the one making us wait in the rain, I wanted to wait in the ramen shop..." Naruto mumbled to himself as he followed Sakura back towards the village.