Chapter 1: Here, There and Everywhere
Stamp.
Squish.
Stamp.
Squish.
Stamp.
Squish.
Sakura grabbed another report. Sliding it into her line of vision, she proceeded to slam the rubber stamper down onto the first page. She then buried the poor stamp into the spongy pad of red ink near her right hand only to repeat the motion with the next group of papers. The reports quickly passed by her into a steadily growing completed pile. Each packet of paper bore a fresh "accepted" sign on the upper right hand corner.
Occasionally Sakura would come by a familiar name on a title page, and only then did she take a few extra moments to peruse the paper. The reports belonging to those she knew were painfully predictable.
Shikamaru's redefined short:
Completed with no casualties; did not go over allotted budget. Paid in foreign currency.
Sasuke's, on the other hand, were long, detailed and penned in pristine, slanted kanji. They went as far as accounting for every jutsu performed on the mission. Sakura couldn't help but stifle a laugh when she noticed what Sasuke had written at the end of mission log.
We found mushrooms in the forest and cooked them with oil. They turned out to be poisonous and caused severe vomiting among several members of the group. I would like a medic-nin on the next mission.
Naruto's reports bore the exact signs that Sakura had expected from the boy who could barely read a page of decent writing much less produce one. His notes were barely legible, and eraser smudges and black spots littered the paper. In many places Naruto had attempted so vigorously to rub out his errors that the paper was torn straight through.
Sakura sighed.
Twenty and relegated to doing office work, she thought miserably to herself. Had she known that being the Hokage's sole apprentice would entail so much desk work, she may never have signed up. It wasn't that she lacked pride in her accomplishments. She was the only Konoha apprentice of the Hokage and a new jounin after all, but sometimes it simply didn't seem like she would ever see the action of the grand and adventurous missions she'd been on in her younger years. So few of the missions she'd been offered were up her alley nowadays. Clients were always clamoring for Uchihas or Hyuugas or Copy Ninjas or even crazy, hyper, number one unpredictable shinobi with enough chakra to fill ten swimming pools. They didn't ever seem to fancy fresh-faced kunoichis without clan affiliations, even if certain ones could reattach severed heads in under twelve seconds and still have enough chakra left to shatter a brick wall.
The light in Tsunade's office clicked off, and seconds later Sakura heard the distinct, quick clicks of her teacher's heels as they approached her desk.
"Oi, Sakura, you should go home now."
Clearly when Tsunade spoke she wasn't looking at mounds of paper work there swallowing Sakura's small work area.
"I have to finish checking these reports, shishou," was Sakura's prompt reply.
The Godaime shook her head.
"I'm sorry, Sakura. I know it's tedious, but someone's got to do it. You know I'm supposed to go over each of those myself, but I really just don't have the time, and besides Shizune, you're the only one I can trust to do it right."
This compliment filled Sakura with momentary pride, but the warm bubble in her chest burst quickly when Tsunade produced another twenty some-odd files out of thin air and dumped them on Sakura's desk with a sorry smile.
"I'll make it up to you. Why don't you take tomorrow off?"
The pink-haired kunoichi glanced at the clock. The slow ticking seemed to mock her. It was two o'clock in the morning. Technically it was already tomorrow so was she off?
By the time Sakura had opened her mouth to spit her witty comment at her master, the woman was already gone. The girl grumbled and prepared to once again bring her stamp down on the report sitting in front of her. On closer inspection, however, she realized the report belonged to none other than Chouji. Sakura quickly flipped to the back. As she had predicted, on the last line of the last page in the tiniest writing she'd ever seen, Chouji had scribbled the words "went over food budget." Sakura let out a half-amused half-irritated snort and jotted down a note in red pen.
Question team leader about food budget
- - - -
By the time Sakura had dragged her sorry body home to bed, the sun was already beginning to poke its head over the Eastern horizon. Pleased that she'd finally managed to clear out all the reports that had accumulated on Tsunade's desk over the last few months, Sakura fell against her pillow wearing a vague smile. The bonus she was going to receive for doing the ridiculous amount of paperwork would probably cover her for food that month, and knowing that she wouldn't have to pick up various and sundry C-class missions just to fill her fridge put her into a deep, happy sleep. When she woke up it was already late into the afternoon, and someone was knocking on her door.
Sakura hopped out of bed and walked briskly across her living room while she repeatedly ran her fingers through her hair to placate the mess. The person knocked again, and Sakura yelled an irate "I'm coming" at the closed door. When she finally swung the door open, an ANBU stood on her landing looking impatient--well Sakura assumed he looked impatient but it may have just been that his leopard mask looked that way.
The ANBU handed her a scroll, touched his finger to his forehead in acknowledgment and promptly disappeared. Sakura stood confused in the doorway and chewed on a cuticle. She wasn't supposed to get a mission for weeks since Shizune was out with a research team and Sakura was the only one Tsunade wanted on the surgical floor.
She unrolled the scroll carefully, mildly worried that someone was going to materialize from the seal, but the short parchment only held one command.
Come see me, 11 o'clock
So much for the day off, Sakura thought as a frown graced her face.
- - - -
Kakashi had been an elite ninja long enough to know that night briefings usually entailed covert and mild to moderately shady operations. The guise of darkness was supposed to make sure that talkative underlings and office slaves--essentially day laborers--didn't get wind of missions of dubious legality. Night briefings ensured that only those directly involved in the mission would know exactly what was being executed. Needless to say the copy-ninja was mildly amused although unsurprised to see two of his ex-students making their way to Konoha's administrative building.
The yellow-haired kyuubi boy eagerly jumped up and down snatching at fireflies while the Uchiha heir walked stiffly at his side with his hands stuck in his pockets. Both were outfitted in their ANBU uniforms, yet neither had bothered to cover his face with his mask. Naruto's kitsune mask sat squarely atop his head like a woman's bonnet whereas Sasuke's raven-faced one hovered at the back of his neck like a miniature cape.
"Oi! Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted happily when he spotted his old teacher walking their way.
"What are you doing out so late?" shouted Naruto as he bounced in Kakashi's direction.
Sasuke only raised his hand in tacit acknowledgment, and Kakashi's right eye closed into a happy arc as he greeted the two boys with a "Yo!"
"Are you heading towards Oba-san's office?" Naruto asked warily when Kakashi's trajectory merged with his own. Kakashi gave a mild nod, and Naruto's face lit up like a lantern.
"We are too!" declared the blond boy happily as if it were the most coincidental thing in the world that three ninja who'd been paired on countless missions together would be heading towards the same place for the same debriefing.
Kakashi simply laughed at Naruto's ecstatic outburst, and the three continued their trek in silence.
When the three men arrived at the Godaime's office, Sakura was already there. It was the first time Kakashi had seen her since the girl's promotion, and as Konoha custom, she had traded in her chuunin outfit for a jounin one. Unlike males who were promoted in rank, non-ANBU jounin females were still allowed to dress as they pleased. The costume change was merely an act of announcing to the world that they had gone up on the totem pole.
Kakashi glanced at Sakura, who was leaning against the side wall with her arms folded. Sleek fishnets ran out from under a red, one-piece zip-up dress, and black fingerless, plated gloves much like his own covered her small but powerful hands. Her nails were painted a shade of deep purple that Akatsuki would have favored, and her bangs still fell in front of her hitai-ite. The rest of her hair was now pulled back in a loose bun secured with two, shiny senbon needles.
Little jounin Sakura, all grown up, Kakashi thought to himself and chuckled.
Sakura fixed her male teammates who had just entered the room with a cool glare and proceeded to turn meaningfully towards the wall clock ticking happily above Tsunade's head. It was 11:30, and neither the Hokage nor Sakura looked amused.
"Kakashi, I expect this kind of tardiness from you, but why must you rub it off on Sasuke and Naruto?" demanded Tsunade, her voice fraught with frustration.
None of the three responded, although Sasuke seemed to smirk a little. Tsunade shook her head and rolled her eyes before she motioned to Sakura to shut the blinds. With this signal, the mood in the room became markedly more serious. Naruto stood up a little straighter, and the smile on his face dropped into a neutral expression. Sakura moved quickly from the newly masked windows and took her usual spot between Naruto and Kakashi. Sasuke simply shifted his weight onto one foot and maintained his eye contact with Tsunade. The only person who seemed to have no reaction to the substantially darkened aura was Kakashi. He maintained his lazy slouch with his hands held absently in his pockets.
"As you know," Tsunade began, "I've called you here at this particular hour because this mission is not necessarily . . . sanctioned by international treaties."
Sakura's eyebrow rose an almost undetectable amount, and Naruto's facial expression began to show traces of confusion as it usually did once a debriefing began.
"As some of the finest Konoha shinobi, I trust that you will realize this mission is much about the ends justifying the means. While your actions over the next few months may be of questionable legality, what we are hoping that what you will achieve may ultimately bring success to all parties involved."
Sasuke tensed a little, and he unconsciously shifted his weight onto the other foot. He had been briefed by Tsunade enough times to know that whenever her word choice reached this degree of formality, some serious ethical dilemmas were about to present themselves. Last time she had been this formal with him, she was offering him clemency when his status as an S-class criminal should have merited him an immediate death sentence.
"I suppose you've been hearing the news about the war between the Nagi and O'uzu islands?"
Four heads nodded.
"I don't really know how to tell you this, but the council of elders and I have been . . . censoring the information somewhat." Tsunade paused to take in the responses.
None of the four ninjas reacted explosively, but each gave off body language that undoubtedly indicated the news came as a shock. Sakura swallowed a lump that had been rising in her throat; Sasuke knit his brow together; Naruto's mouth widened just a fraction, and Kakashi let out a low whistle through his mask.
"We have made the war out to be a series of skirmishes that have occurred in the strait between the islands, but it is truly an all-out war. The council and I feared that Konoha citizens would demand we back the Nagi isles since they have long been faithful buyers of our exports. I'm sure that you four understand that we don't have the resources to do such a thing."
Four heads nodded again.
"What we need to do now then," Tsunade paused again. "Is to bleed off the trafficking of kodomo-nin."
Sakura's right eye twitched against her will. The last time she had heard that term, she was twelve, sitting behind Sasuke at the ninja academy, and zoning in and out between staring at the back of Sasuke's perfectly formed head and listening to Iruka's passionate lecture on the cruelty of ninjas who used war as an opportunity to cultivate kodomo-nin. She could still hear the sadness in the man's voice as he lectured to the sleepy class.
Kodomo-nin are essentially children who exhibit incredible shinobi powers at a very young age. They are often the offspring of persecuted bloodlines whose parents have married into non-shinobi families without bloodline limits. In peacetime they are protected and their powers latent but in war they often lose their protectors and are thrown into the deepest states of poverty. This subjects Kodomo-nin to exploitation by missing-nin and other morally wayward Shinobi. They are trained as tools for use, and almost always end up fighting for an illegal cause simply because they have no country to protect and teach them.
Sakura recalled feeling absolutely repulsed by the idea of someone exploiting a child for his bloodline limit, and she had gone home that day to complete her 2-page assignment on Kodomo-nin in 12 pages. The woman who ran the shinobi library had even exhibited a note of concern when she watched the 12-year-old check on four books on the repugnant topic.
Tsunade coughed to punctuate the silence.
"This is where your job becomes a little more . . . blurred," said the woman as she pressed her weight into her palms and leaned forward on her desk.
"Team Kakashi will divide up into two-man cells. Naruto and Sasuke will go to Nagi and identify at most three orphaned children with the greatest potential, and Sakura and Kakashi will go to O'uzu to do the same."
"Where are we supposed to bring--" Sasuke attempted to start.
"You will take these children to the Fire country's port town of Haibisukasu. I will arrange for an ANBU group to set up appropriate resources before you arrive there."
Kakashi hummed a low hmm and opened his mouth to speak.
"What exactly will we be doing with these children in Haibisukasu?"
"You will train them in the same way that jounin teachers train genin."
Naruto blanched. Sasuke's face went a shade paler than his normal color which ultimately made him look like some sort of demon. Sakura frowned, and Kakashi simply closed both eyes and shook his head.
"Konoha needs warriors. We need bloodlines. Our own clans have been thinning, and some have even, as you all know, been wiped out." Tsunade fixed her amber eyes on Sasuke, and the black pupils momentarily flickered red.
"This is ultimately how we can gain an advantage while simultaneously keeping these children out of the wrong hands."
"But shishou, aren't we doing to them the same thing that those who exploit them would do?" The question escaped Sakura's mouth before she could ponder its merits.
"They will become full Konoha citizens, and they will receive every right that each of you have." Tsunade answered coldly. "Now go back to your homes and pack at least three weeks worth. I will arrange for the backup team to bring more of your things to Haibisukasu later. You leave at sundown tomorrow, now go!"
- - - -
The following day Sakura woke with a start to the sound of her alarm blazing. She groaned and wedged her head under her pillow, but the alarm continued to honk happily through the layers of cloth and goose feathers. Sakura proceeded to wrap her arm around the poor pillow to tighten the bubble of silence, but when this failed to block out the violent alarm, she moved to wave her free arm about until it finally landed on the clock . . . and promptly smashed it. When the air was suddenly quiet, Sakura peeked out from under her pillow only to find her alarm clock in twenty different pieces.
My chakra control sucks in the morning, she thought bitterly to herself, and slowly she began to disentangle herself from the silky sheets she would soon be missing. A quick shower and a cup of tea perked her up. She then outfitted herself in proper attire and ran a brush through her hair. Slipping her sandals on her feet and her traveling pack on her pack, Sakura headed for the door. She readied herself for the short walk to the Yamanako flower shop, but a moment of hesitation came over her. Sakura took a moment to pause in the doorway. She turned slowly to take in her little apartment. Her usual ninja outfit lay still on the armchair in the living area, and all manners of clothing, dishes and personal effects were properly sorted. Her curtains were drawn the way they always were when she went on long missions, and the muted sunlight struggling to get through bathed the room in a soft glow. For the first time since she'd moved into her own flat, Sakura felt a touch of melancholy leaving it. She was going to miss her home, however small and boring it could be.
Ino watched Sakura shuffle into the flower shop. The pink-haired girl took slow, deliberate steps and as soon as the flower girl spotted the heavy backpack that Sakura shouldered, she knew her lifetime best friend-slash-love rival was going on a mission. Judging by the mellow look on Sakura's face, it wasn't one she was going to tell her best friend about either.
Since the two became chuunin, it had become unwritten tradition that before a mission each would bid goodbye to the other over a cup of tea and a plate of mochi. The staying party always footed the bill, since the act would be deemed good karma were the dispatched girl to be killed in the field, never to return again.
"Let me get my wallet," chirped Ino. She moved to untie her apron as she gracefully hopped over counter. In Ino's mind, just because Sakura was damper about this mission didn't mean the blond also had to give in to the depression.
"I can tell it's a covert operation," Ino began when the two girls sat down at their favorite booth. A friendly waitress quickly set a plate of plump, multi-colored mochi and a steaming pot of green tea in between the two friends.
"You're wearing civilian clothing, and your headband is missing. This is a Konoha-sponsored operation," Ino continued as she poured the tea, first for Sakura then for herself.
Sakura said nothing while Ino droned on, and she munched quietly on one of the green deserts. Her bites were slow and measured.
Ino sighed and leaned forward to brush a stray bang out of Sakura's face.
"I understand that you can't tell me, and judging by your completely jovial personality this fine morning you're not exactly ecstatic about the mission yourself."
Sakura surrendered a small smile to Ino's cheeriness, and the blond girl sat back triumphantly, a wide Naruto-type grin on her face.
"But really, what I wouldn't give for a Konoha, top-secret mission, you are one lucky little bit--" And Sakura promptly stuck three, fat mochi into Ino's mouth.
The rest of the afternoon went by without much incident. Sakura visited the top of the Hokage mountain, and she sat for some time on the Sandaime's head sharpening her kunai. Later, she found herself at the Shinobi memorial, and she burned three sticks of incense while she prayed to the large, obsidian rock for protection. Sakura couldn't help but notice that a light fingerprint mark rested on the name of Uchiha Obito. When the sun began to taper off into the west, and the sky chameleoned from blue to pink, Sakura set out for the main gates.
The boys were already there, and a few moments after Sakura's arrival Kakashi himself materialized. The gate guards bowed respectfully to the group. The guards stamped four well-used passports and sent them off with careful smiles. Sakura noted that all members of her team had had the foresight to trade in their uniforms for civilian wear, which Tsunade had hinted would be very important in dispersing suspicion.
Both Naruto and Sasuke wore simple black shorts without shuriken holsters and plain shirts free of clan designs. Kakashi retained his uniform pants but the flax vest was missing. In its place was a form-fitting turtleneck which, to the three younger ninjas' dismay, was rolled up to cover the lower half of his face.
"Kakashi-sensei, you know you look like a socially stunted schoolboy with that get-up?" Sakura poked cheerily at Kakashi.
"Well you know don't look too bad yourself, Sakura-chan" Kakashi teased back.
Sakura turned away to hide her laugh. She had chosen a simple, fitted gray dress that blew gracefully around her knees. She tugged carefully at the sides in an attempt to lower the dress a few inches, but it simply would not give. Sakura huffed a little and spoke in a soft voice,
"I wanted to look as soft-natured as possible, so we don't terrify the children when we uproot them from their homes."
"We'll be doing them a favor," Kakashi replied in a low, soothing voice. "And how could they not want to come when they see us?"
A smile graced Sakura's lips.
"Mainly because of me, that is." Kakashi added in a cheerful voice. Sakura suddenly wanted to kill him on the spot, but instead she settled for asking him a question that had been on her mind all afternoon.
"Have you ever done something of this nature?"
"A couple times," he responded. "One of them you actually know about, I believe."
Sakura gave him a confused look and thought about her response. "You've never told me about anything like that . . ."
"You remember the princess--well now queen--of Yuki-no-kuni, the actress client we protected? I took her out of her country when it fell into a state of war. I was fourteen then, and at the time Yondaime believed we could protect her until she was old enough to reclaim her thrown. His logic was that if she had stayed in the country, her uncle would have undoubtedly killed her, and he would have become the rightful leader of the country. No one asked us to do it, and you can imagine what an international crime kidnapping a royal heir is."
A few paces away Sasuke had set his compass to southeast, and he motioned to Kakashi and Sakura that they were beginning to set out. The two of them nodded, and soon all four had disappeared into the trees.
- - - -