Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, unfortunately. Too bad.
This is an ItaSaku fanfic. If you do not like it, please don't read it.
Notice: I didn't know that the percentage sign and a few other things wouldn't show up on the final version of this story, so I've decided to revise a few things here. If you've read the first chapter before this revision, don't worry about rereading it all as most of the changes were minor grammatical and technical ones (the rest of the changes that weren't grammatical or technical were ones made to the author's notes at the end).
------------------------------Chapter 1: A Mission to the Past------------------------------
Key:
Person: Thoughts (this format may not be used, though, when it is obvious whose thoughts are being revealed)
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(Person)
'Speech being said out loud.'
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(Person—mentally)
'Thoughts.'
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"Speech being said out loud."
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Sorry if the Key is a bit confusing, but I'm pretty sure you'll all know what I'm talking about when you get to the actual story.
Date: October 12, before Naruto's return after the time-skip
Location: the Hokage's Office
Profile #554218-S:
Classification: S-Class
Status: Missing-nin of Konohagakure—yet to be detained
Time-line Summary Record:
Age 7:
Graduated from the Konoha Ninja academy with top grades (see page 22 for report cards and instructor remarks); assigned to Team Getsuma and completed 54 D-Ranked and 32 C-Ranked Missions during the course of this year.
Age 8:
Announced to have mastered the Sharingan by Uchiha Fugaku at the Konoha New Year's Festival; completed 32 D-Ranked, 41 C-Ranked, and 1 B-Ranked Missions during the course of this year; details on Team Getsuma's mission (Mission ID. 2389-L3/ Rank: B/ Codename: Lightning Daimyo Takeshi Assassination/ Mission objective completed on November 12) to the Country of Lightning on page 26.
Instructor's notes: B-Ranked mission given as capability test; Uchiha Itachi passed with flying colors.
Age 9:
Completed 34 D-Ranked, 52 C-Ranked, and 2 B-Ranked Missions during the course of this year; Mission ID. 8051-E5 details on page 27; Mission ID 9802-E4 on page 27; see pages 28-29 for full summary report on completed missions.
Age 10:
Passed the Chuunin Exam with top marks; completed 23 D-Ranked, 69 C-Ranked, 5 B-Ranked, and 2 A-Ranked Missions during the course of this year; Mission ID. 5681-W4 details on page 30; Mission ID. 7430-W2 details on page 31; see page 32 for full summary report on completed missions.
Age 11:
Transferred to Team Tsuyo; recommended for ANBU by Kanai Tsuyo; completed 13 D-Ranked, 92 C-Ranked, 7 B-Ranked, and 4 A-Ranked Missions during the course of this year; Mission ID. 5469-W5/ Rank: A/ Codename: Wind Daimyo Tatsuo Assassination details on page 35; see page 36 for full summary report on completed missions.
Age 12:
Passed the ANBU entrance exam and demonstration with top marks; completed 73 B-Ranked, 12 A-Ranked, and 9 S-Ranked Missions during the course of this year; see pages 37-39 for full summary report on completed missions.
Hokage's notes: Uchiha Itachi's capabilities and skill level were acknowledged soon after his entrance to ANBU
Age 13:
Made ANBU captain of Squad 3 after unanimous co-Council and ANBU vote; completed 23 A-Ranked and 16 S-Ranked Missions up to October 9; reported to have sustained a severe injury from Mission ID. 6452-E1/ Rank: S/ Codename: Retrieval for Earth Daimyo Iwao on October 9; given temporary leave of absence for a period of 180 days from October 10 to April 8 for injury and mental stability recovery (Uchiha Itachi was noted to have exhibited strange and increasingly anti-social behavior since his ANBU induction); October 11-reported by the Konoha Military Police Force to be a suspect of murder in Uchiha Shisui's suicide; April 8-given two-day A-Ranked Mission (Mission ID. 4296-W8/ Codename: Kinjutsu Retrieval from the Artist Kentanouji) to the Country of Water to measure Uchiha Itachi's recovery during his hiatus from ANBU captain duties; April 10-reported to have mas—
"Sakura-chan?"
Sakura looked up from the ninja profile she had been perusing for the last ten minutes and directed her attention to the only other person in the Hokage's Office this late at night.
"Yes, Tsunade-shishou?"
"I think we should close down for the day. It's already too late to do any more paperwork, and I don't want to tire you out for your day off tomo—ah, today. Pack up whatever documents that need to be filed away and put it off for when you get back. The way I've been driving you these days, you need a good break."
"Thank you, Shishou, but are you sure you won't need more people in the office today since most of the other aides will be gone as well? Not to mention, you yourself will be leaving Konoha approximately 5 hours from now to go on that three weeks-long diplomatic mission to Sunagakure."
Tsunade waved her off. "It doesn't matter. Shizune can take care of the paperwork since she's had the day off today. She's had experience dealing with abnormal amounts of paperwork in a short amount of time. Who do you think had been taking care of my bank loan contracts, IOUs, and other miscellaneous paperwork for me before my days as Hokage? Just go ahead, pack up, and head on home."
Truth be told, Sakura had wanted to stay a little longer to finish perusing Uchiha Itachi's profile or at least finish the summary of Itachi's accomplishments during age 13 since there only seemed to be a few more sentences left. But Hokage's orders were to be followed with no question and hesitation.
Glancing at the clock, Sakura noticed it was almost already 2 AM and somewhat reluctantly started to pack up. She sighed with a hint of frustration as a particularly sudden and chilly gust of wind from the open windows blew a few stacks of documents off the desk.
I still don't get why Tsunade-shishou refuses to put glass in the window frames. It sure would lessen the heating costs, stop the regular birds from accidentally flying into the office, and just make life easier for us all, even if, as Shishou puts it, "exceedingly urgent messenger birds won't have direct and immediate access to the Hokage." Not to mention the cold gets pretty nasty this time around. I'll need to finish unpacking the boxes soon to get my winter coats out…
Sakura straightened out the mess the wind had caused and put away the last of the documents when she remembered to ask a question she had been asking every day for the last two years.
"Tsunade-shishou, have you heard anything from Naruto yet?"
Tsunade looked up to her apprentice's slightly anxious face and shook her head. Naruto had not sent any letters or mail (presumably because he was out of the public post service and messenger bird traveling range) since he first left, and it pained Tsunade to see Sakura's face fall so much after every time the question was asked.
And it was all because of that damn Sasuke brat. If he hadn't left… well, life would have been at least a little brighter for Sakura-chan, and she wouldn't have lost two of her most precious people like she (A/N: Tsunade) had herself…
Tsunade: Technically, this is all because of Itachi. If he hadn't snapped and massacred his clan… I wonder what caused the boy to snap in the first place…
Tsunade's thoughts wandered back to the red, black, and white sealed scroll stored in the well booby-trapped, hidden drawer of her hand-carved mahogany desk and wrestled intensely with something in her mind. As Sakura bowed, muttered a good-bye, and turned to exit the Hokage's Office, the Godaime's mind was made.
"Ah, Sakura-chan? Would you close the door and stay for a few minutes? I've got something to ask of you."
Sakura gave her shishou a slightly quizzical look and nodded. In a few moments, the slightly ajar sound-proof door was fully shut, and Sakura walked to the center of the room, looking expectantly at her mentor to say something.
"Sakura-chan, what do you know about Uchiha Itachi?"
Sakura was a bit caught off guard with that last sentence. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting her shishou to say, but it certainly hadn't been anything about the man she had coincidentally been researching earlier. Uchiha Itachi was the one responsible for so many of the things that had gone wrong in her life and in Konoha's history. A bit reluctant to admit it but secretly acknowledging it as the truth, Sakura placed on the elder Uchiha much of the blame for many of the heavy and numerous emotional scars she received as a child from Sasuke up to the day he finally left her to finish what his twisted psychopath of a brother had started. So naturally, she strongly disliked, if not hated in an understandably biased way, Uchiha Itachi. She had only decided to pick up the Uchiha's profile on a whim and slight wonderment at the fact that she had yet to research such an infamous ninja.
The question, though, was not asking how Sakura felt about the missing-nin but merely what she knew of him. Sakura promptly formulated a verbal response to her shishou's unexpected query.
"I don't know much about him except that he was the one who murdered the entire Uchiha Clan save one seven years ago on the night of a full moon. I read a little of his profile but only got to what he accomplished at age 13."
"I see… Then I suppose you know that Itachi was the one ultimately responsible for Sasuke's betrayal of Konoha? He did slaughter the clan, which, in turn, motivated Sasuke to go to Orochimaru for more power to kill his brother and avenge his clan. If the Uchiha Clan had not been murdered, what do you think would have happened?"
Sakura contemplated for a while before answering slowly.
"I… I think Sasuke-kun would have grown up to be… much nicer and less scornful of the fangirls… and he wouldn't have been so hell-bent on being an avenger. He could have had a normal life with a real family, and although a few things here and there might have been different, he still would have had an overall positive effect on Konoha. Oh! And the Uchiha Clan would have still been around to protect the village from any invasions…"
"Shishou, was this all you wanted to ask of me? The past can't be changed, and I don't—"
"On the contrary, Sakura-chan, the past can be changed. And no, that was not all that I wanted to ask. I requested that you to stay a little longer so that I could ask if you were willing to take on an S-Ranked assassination mission I believe only you can carry out at this time. The target? Eight year-old Uchiha Itachi. You will get the full details of the mission after you tell me whether you accept the mission or not. I can't let non-participants know all of the classified mission info, after all. So… do you?"
Sakura was now starting to suspect her slightly drowsy mind was playing tricks on her for staying up so late helping out at the office. Or that her shishou had somehow managed to sneak a few bottles of sake into the No-Food-or-Drink Hokage's Office (due to the risks of important documents being soiled) and gotten a little tipsy before this seemingly-pointless conversation.
Eight year-old Uchiha Itachi? That's not possible since he's supposedly around twenty right now if what I heard from Kakashi-sensei a long time ago was correct…
"Ano… Uchiha Itachi is around twenty right now, right, Shishou? So how—"
Tsunade pulled out the red, black, and white scroll from the hidden drawer of her desk, careful not to set off any of the booby traps nor disturb the numerous sake bottles all standing precariously upright inside.
"That's where this little jutsu comes in. I had, on a whim nearly five years ago, decided to experiment and see if I could develop a jutsu that allows the user to go back in time. If you decide to accept this mission, you will use this scroll to go back twelve years in time to assassinate eight year-old Uchiha Itachi."
Sakura's face was frozen with mild shock as she absorbed all of this very abrupt and sudden information.
Aside from the fact that Itachi had murdered the whole Uchiha clan save one and the things she had read so far in the profile, Sakura knew absolutely nothing about the man. She had always been a bit curious about the murderer who had ruined Sasuke-kun's life (and indirectly her own) but had never had the time to pick up the extensive and highly classified profile and read it until about twenty minutes ago.
And now she was being asked to go back in time to assassinate him?
"G-go back in time? H-has this been approved by the Council? Is this for real, Shishou?!"
"Yes, but this jutsu has not been fully discussed nor approved within the Council. Heck, I don't think I've even mentioned the jutsu to the Council yet."
"So—"
"But, as Hokage, I am allowed to use or allow others to use Council-unapproved jutsus—as long as they are not officially Council-classified kinjutsus—for the good of Konoha. I had been developing this jutsu for a year now, and I think I have, more or less, finished its development. True, I don't know all of the side-effects of using such a risky jutsu, but I've done all I could do to develop it for the time being and know for sure that none of the side-effects are life-threatening nor too severe. Any lethal combinations and sequences of hand signs were eliminated, but fatigue or chakra depletion make occur if instructions are not followed carefully—"
Sakura cut her sensei off. "Yes, Shishou, but why me? Of all people? I don't have any particular skills outside of medical ninjutsu, and this is Uchiha Itachi whom I am being asked to assassinate!"
"I understand your surprise at my decision, but upon several months' worth of contemplation, I've concluded that you are the best shinobi available for the job. The ANBU and just about every other Jounin and Chuunin have and will have their hands tied for quite a while due to the increased security measures Konoha has taken since Orochimaru's invasion. The other members of the Rookie Nine group are all away on long-term missions as well."
"So, am I being sent just bec—"
Tsunade put up a finger. "Wait, you didn't let me finish. After assessing your abilities and the remarkable progress you've been making for the past year in genjutsu, ninjutsu, and stealth, I've decided that you are the only person I would entrust this mission to. True, there are other shinobi skilled enough to carry out this mission, but I do not believe many of them would assassinate only the target. Many of those skilled enough to complete this mission have long had hidden vendettas, and I know for a fact that quite a number of them would be foolish enough to attempt to alter the present by going around in the past and assassinating non-targets or to just disobey my orders entirely and use the scroll to go back in time to whenever to do and kill whatever, botching the way history was supposed to go. One little mistake in the past can result in devastating consequences in the present and future.
"I did not choose you, Sakura-chan, just because you were the only one left. You were chosen because I have faith in your abilities and believe you will not assassinate any other in the past than Uchiha Itachi on this assignment. Now, do you or do you not accept this mission?"
Sakura looked at the recently varnished and lacquered wood-paneling of the office floor, lost in a maelstrom of emotions, flashbacks, and reminiscences of the times when she would have done and given anything to serve Konoha in a way no one else could and prevent Sasuke-kun from turning out the way he did, scarred for life from the trauma he faced at the hands of his brother. One particularly hurtful memory suddenly broke free from its chains and shackles and came to mind…
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Flashback
It was the first day of Sasuke's return to the academy since the 'Incident' that had been the talk of Konoha and many of the other hidden shinobi villages for several months after its occurrence. Eight year-old Sakura had tried sunsuccessfully to eavesdrop wherever she could to find the reason for her beloved Sasuke-kun's week-long absence from school, only to discover that something bad apparently had happened and that Sasuke-kun had lost his entire clan somehow in the process.
Being the compassionate, sympathetic, and slightly naïve girl that she was at the time, Sakura had decided to pack a very extra-special bento box for her Sasuke-kun (for the umpteenth time, actually) while knowing all too well how her love had never accepted any of her affection or passel of favors before. Still, she hoped with all her young, love-blind heart that this time around would be different and that Sasuke's pain would be alleviated a little with her small token of her condolences and love.
Well, this time certainly was quite different. Very much so indeed.
At the playground during the Konoha Ninja Academy's combined lunch and recess time, Sakura approached, while holding her special bento box, the lone and glum Uchiha sitting on a bench with his own untouched sack lunch, far from where the others were eating and with his back turned towards everyone else. Ino and the other girls watched smugly from their places by the old obstacle course, confident of Sasuke's inevitable rejection.
Sakura shuffled a little closer to Sasuke until she was right in front of his sitting form, smiling sheepishly and holding the bento box out to him with nothing but the expression of soft kindness she would become well-known for in the future on her face. Sasuke grew more and more irate as he saw Sakura, the gift she held out to him, and the affectionate look on her face.
(Sakura)
'Ano… Sasuke-kun? Here, I made an extra-special bento box especially for you! It has all of your favorite di—'
Sakura abruptly stopped when she caught the wholly livid and hostile face of the now-standing Uchiha, seething and glowering at her like never before. Utter hatred and contempt, with plenty of raw anger visible as well, was the visage the previously-downcast raven-haired genius wore now.
(Sakura)
'S-sasu—'
(Sasuke)
'YOU!!!! Why are you doing this to me?! Why did you ruin my life?! What did you do to Nii-san?!! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT THAT MY CLAN IS DEAD!!! ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!'
Sasuke promptly became a blur after that, dashing away from the stunned Sakura and jumping the low playground fence to disappear into the thick copse beyond.
Sakura slumped to the ground sobbing, bento box sent a-clattering and spilling its delicious contents all over the ground, soiling and ruining them for anyone else. A few sympathetic girls and even Ino broke away from the astonished playground group to help Sakura up from her sprawled position on the sand and comfort her. The bento lay neglected on the ground where it would remain so until the janitor cleaned it up five hours later while the rest of the recess time was filled with an apprehensive silence interrupted occasionally by a muffled sob from Sakura or a creak of the swing she dejectedly sat on.
Sasuke returned to class from his sudden escapade when recess was over and seemed considerably calmer. The only thing different about him was that he was much colder and emotionally detached from everyone else in the class and with, most of all, Sakura. For the next few years after what became known as the "Bento Box Incident," Sasuke treated Sakura with enough indifference and disregard to make bystanders wonder if the last remaining Uchiha could even see the pink-haired fangirl fawning and hovering over him with such fervor and attachment. It wasn't until after three years of complete cold-shouldering on Sasuke's part and a lonely but persistent one-sided affection on Sakura's that Sasuke finally started to melt and show annoyance (which was, to Sakura, a huge improvement from the completely oblivious face she usually received from her crush) at Sakura's antics and infatuation. As Team 7 grew closer with each mission and experience, Sasuke eventually warmed up a very miniscule amount to the roseate fangirl and actually started to act as if she were a weak comrade… but a comrade nonetheless.
Sakura had never really fully recovered from the "Bento Box Incident" but had decided to forgive him anyway a few days afterwards. The memory always stung agonizingly whenever it escaped from its mental prison, and on hindsight, she realized she must have come at a bad time since Sasuke was obviously still reeling from the effects of the trauma he had received the week before. Sakura concluded that this one painfully harsh rejection should not stop the course of true love and that she would continue, perhaps with even more determination and devotion than before, to be her Sasuke-kun's Number One Fangirl and to try to appease him with her gifts and attention until he eventually loved her back.
Still, Sasuke's mysterious and acerbic outburst to her that afternoon haunted her for a very long time, and even to this day, Sakura could not decipher the true meaning—if there even was one—and reason behind those words. There had been quite a number of times later on in her life when Sakura had wished the Uchiha Massacre (a few details of which—such as the who and the where—she later gleaned from her parents on the day of the Genin teams assignment and her enlightening talk with the real Sasuke-kun by the bench during lunchtime) had never happened, allowing Sasuke to avoid becoming such a cold, vengeance-obsessed shinobi who never had any time to recognize the love around him and accept a certain rosy-haired kunoichi's requests for a date or two. So many times of such earnest wishing had there been…
End Flashback
----
Well, now was her chance to change things. For Sasuke. For love.
"I'll take it, Tsunade-shishou."
Tsunade smiled a small, knowing smile, placed the red, black, and white scroll she had been holding, an old mission report scroll, and a few other essentials needed specifically for this assignment onto her mahogany desk, and started explaining more in depth about the mission.
As the Godaime watched her apprentice bow and exit the office to head home for the night after the mission-briefing was over, carrying the scrolls and other mission-related items in the small hip pack the roseate always wore, she felt a little worry niggling the back of her mind as she reached into the hidden drawer to take out the half-empty sake bottle she had started earlier.
Tsunade: I just hope I'm doing the right thing. I have faith in her to follow my instructions closely and not do anything stupid, but why do I keep getting a feeling I forgot to mention something important to Sakura-cha—ah, kuzo!
Tsunade noticed with disdain that her partially-open sake bottle had tipped over and flooded the bottom of the drawer with sake, wetting many of the other things in there and causing the ink on the hand-calligraphied booby trap seals and various other scrolls to run.
Tsunade: Che, there goes half a bottle.
Tsunade craned her neck to get a better look at the damage.
Tsunade: Hmm… nothing too serious… I hope the Time-Travel no Jutsu scroll didn't get too wet. It seemed pretty dry when I gave it to Sakura. Maybe the edges were a little soggy, but that was it…
Tsunade took out a new sake bottle and closed the hidden drawer.
Tsunade: Anyways, enough business! I've got a lot sake to drink since that teetotaler Homura won't let me within a hundred yards of any alcohol during my time in Suna. Just a little alcohol before my three weeks-long abstinence should be okay. If I act a little drunk, I'll just blame it on the lack of sleep…
Tsunade commenced her irresponsible drink-fest.
Sakura quietly closed the heavy oaken double-doors of the Hokage Tower behind her and broke into a full-out sprint towards her small and modest two-room apartment where warmer clothing and her beloved study awaited her. As the kunoichi felt the chilly wind bite into her thin clothing, she regretted her decision to wear only her usual outfit, consisting of the sleeveless red zipper top (minus the Haruno sign), a short apron-like over-skirt, tight but flexible black shorts, extra bandages, elbow coverings, boots with shin guards, and, of course, her Konoha forehead protector, currently being used as a hair band. Her gloves (useful for retaining hand warmth) were in her hip pack with a few other things, but Sakura didn't feel slowing down to get her gloves out was worth the extra time in the cold.
The frost was a tad early this year, and there were traces of sleet in the streets, testaments to the gelid October weather of Konoha at 3:32 AM in the morning. Taking deep breaths of the over-oxygenated, frigid air gave Sakura a heady feeling of exhilaration as she raced down this avenue and cut through that alleyway, her pants forming white and transient puffs in the air behind her. Her beloved apartment was still at least ten more minutes away of non-stop sprinting and rooftop-hopping (Konoha was a big city, after all), so the kunoichi decided to take a small shortcut through the dirtiest and slummiest sector of Konoha where the frequent gusts blew debris, trash, and quite a lot of dust into her clothing and eyes.
Ugh… How can five minutes in the wind cause my clothes to look so dirty?! I look like I've been traveling for a week without a change of clothes! -sigh- I've got to do the laundry soon anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matt—oh, geeze, the laundry!! It's probably waist-high by now! Not to mention I still haven't gotten the washing machine fixed, and carrying all those clothes to someone else's house or to the Laundromat will be such a pain in the ass… -inward groan-
Sakura decided to turn her attentions to less stressful matters and determined now, as she sped towards her home, would be a good time to mentally review her most recent mission briefing with her mentor.
----
Flashback
'I'll take it, Tsunade-shishou.'
Tsunade smiled a small, knowing smile and placed the red, black, and white scroll she had been holding, an old mission report scroll, an all-shinobi-nation passport, a green mission details scroll, a wallet usually used to hold mission budget money, and a small card stamped with the words 'The Owner of this Card is Hereby Granted the Special Protection of the Hokage' and the official Hokage's Seal onto her mahogany desk.
Sakura looked a bit surprised at the displayed items, noting the obvious value of the passport and Special Protection Card.
(Tsunade)
'As this mission briefing might not be so brief, pull up a chair and sit down.'
Sakura obeyed, choosing a high-backed and cushioned armchair and dragging it until it sat three feet away from the Hokage's desk. Tsunade waited until her apprentice settled down before beginning her narrative.
(Tsunade)
'Twelve years ago on November 12th, Team Getsuma, whose members included Jounin-sensei Sawaki Getsuma and Genins Uchiha Itachi, Sutouko Kosuke, and Ewatsu Zukuna, infiltrated the mansion of one of the Lightning Country's highest-ranking and most heavily-guarded Daimyos and assassinated the Daimyo Takeshi the Tyrant. Uchiha Itachi's placement—made the year before—on a team with people almost five years his senior was a topic of hot debate among the village elders, the Council, the Uchiha Clan, and a bevy of jealous parents. Deciding to stop the disputes for once and for all, the Sandaime assigned Team Getsuma—which he knew at least had a fighting chance in higher-level missions—a B-Rank assassination mission as a capability test. This B-Rank mission was Mission ID. 2389-L3—the complete details for which are written in this scroll (Tsunade tapped once with a single, well-manicured finger the old mission report scroll on her desk)—and was considered by many to actually be of A-Rank difficulty.'
Sakura fidgeted in her seat as a chilly draught intruded the office and gleefully exploited her deep dislike of the cold, running its cold fingers along the medic-nin apprentice's porcelain skin.
(Tsunade)
'This assassination would be Itachi's first mission with a high probability—heck, any probability for the boy—of being killed in action, and if Team Getsuma managed to complete the mission properly as a team—with Itachi playing a key role—, there would be no more room for argument that the Uchiha prodigy did not belong on Team Getsuma.'
Sakura shivered as a cold breeze skulked into the room once again and disdainfully wondered if the heating was really on in the Hokage's Office or not. Tsunade showed no signs of being affected as she picked up the old mission report scroll and handed it to Sakura, gesturing for her to read it.
------------------------------
Mission ID. 2389-L3/ Rank: B/ Codename: Lightning Daimyo Takeshi Assassination
Date of Completion: November 12, at approximately 2:50 AM
Participants: Jounin-sensei Sawaki Getsuma and Genins Uchiha Itachi, Sutouko Kosuke, and Ewatsu Zukuna
Team/Ally Casualties: None
----
Mission Plan:
1) Days 1-8: Travel to the Daimyo Takeshi's mansion near Nakuren-Tokai in the Hotonabi Prefecture of the Country of Lightning
2) Days 9-13: Observe the mansion and its defense system, noting guard change times and the actual number of guards inside.
3) Day 14, from 2:30 AM to 2:33 AM: Team Getsuma climbs over the southeastern corner of the mansion's square Outer Wall to gather at the southeastern corner of the Outer Courtyard.
4) From 2:33 AM to 2:45 AM: Getsuma-sensei and Zukuna cast and hold as many genjutsus as needed to cause enough of a security breach for Itachi and Kosuke to climb the southeastern corner of the mansion's Inner Wall, slip into the Inner Courtyard and Inner Residency Quarters building, complete the mission objective, and return to the southeastern corner of the Outer Courtyard.
5) From 2:35 AM to 2:37 AM: Itachi and Kosuke climb the Inner Wall, arriving at the southeastern corner of the Inner Courtyard.
6) From 2:37 AM to 2:43 AM: Kosuke casts genjutsus on the guards located near the southeastern corners of the Inner Courtyard and the Inner Residency Quarters building (where, it was discovered, the Daimyo's sleeping quarters took up its entire eastern front). He is to hold the genjutsus for the six minutes Itachi is given to gain access of the Daimyo's sleeping quarters and complete the mission objective.
7) From 2:38 AM to 2:40 AM: Itachi enters the Daimyo's sleeping quarters, making sure to enter undetected and to temporarily stun any guards not under the genjutsus' effects.
8) From 2:40 AM to 2:42 AM: Itachi slaps the clear, self-dissolving poison patch onto the Daimyo—preferably while asleep—and exits the sleeping quarters as soon and inconspicuously as possible.
9)From 2:43 AM to 2:45 AM: Itachi and Kosuke exit the Inner Courtyard to return to Getsuma-sensei and Zukuna's current location.
10) From 2:45 AM to 2:47 AM: Getsuma-sensei remains behind to cast one final genjutsu to buy enough time for escape. During this time, the rest of Team Getsuma climb the southeastern corner of the Outer Wall.
11) From 2:47 AM to 2:50 AM: Getsuma-sensei climbs the Outer Wall himself to meet up with the rest of his team on the other side. Team Getsuma starts its return to base camp approximately 5 miles away.
----
Mission Leader notes:
The mission was a breeze, and the plan went off without a hitch. The rumors were over-exaggerating the skill levels of the Daimyo's mansion and personal bodyguards as most of them were only at the Chuunin level and quite susceptible to many of the advanced genjutsus I cast upon them. The only difficulties we faced were the sheer number of guards (we estimated during the mission reconnaissance periods that there were over 2000 shinobi guarding the entire mansion grounds) and the after-effects of our execution of the mission. Kosuke and Zukuna were both down to only 30 percent of their chakra from casting so many genjutsus while Itachi was at 25 percent from using too many speed-stealth and paralyzing ninjutsu to get around the numerous Jounins posted around the Daimyo's sleeping quarters. These Jounins most likely were not caught under Kosuke's genjutsus and were specifically placed near the Daimyo as a last line of defense. Fortunately, Itachi reported no Jounins or any other guards to be inside the actual sleeping quarters to hinder the completion of the mission.
I hope this mission will stop the disputes over Uchiha Itachi's rightful placement on my team. He is one of the finest shinobi Konoha has ever produced and could only achieve his full potential through training with people older and more experienced than those in his age group. I suspect that in a few years' time, Itachi will come to be my equal or my superior in shinobi strength. I await that day with anticipation.
------------------------------
When Sakura finished reading the mission report, she looked up, prompting her shishou to continue her narrative.
(Tsunade)
'Sawaki-san, the leader of Team Getsuma, knew of the Sandaime's intentions and arranged the mission planning so that Itachi would be the one to infiltrate the mansion's most heavily guarded room—the Daimyo's bedroom—, poison the sleeping Daimyo and disguise it to look like he died of cardiac arrest. The others of the team were to keep the guards distracted as much as they could—which was no easy task since the paranoid old fogey kept a small army as his personal bodyguards—while Itachi did his part. Sawaki-san purposely did not come with Itachi into the Inner Courtyard so that if the Uchiha succeeded in his part of the mission with only another fellow Genin's aid, his accomplishment would be even greater.'
Sakura realized she was still holding the mission report scroll and returned it to its previous location on the desk.
(Tsunade)
'If Itachi had been killed during this mission, especially in the vicinity of the Jounin guards, no one would have suspected foul play as Konoha would merely attribute his death to the highly skilled guards nearby, his shortcomings as a shinobi of Team Getsuma, his misplacement on an older team, and the mistake of sending him into the most heavily-guarded area of the mansion. Everyone knew full well of the dangers of being sent on this particular B-Rank assignment to assassinate this particular Daimyo—even though most of the rumors of his mansion defense were false—and would not have been surprised if even the Uchiha prodigy, who was to perform the most dangerous and important portion of the assignment, was KIA during its execution.'
Another slight draft fluttered into the room, ruffling the few papers still left on the Hokage's desk and earning an irritated expression from the shivering roseate kunoichi seated in the armchair. Sakura silently cursed her procrastination in finding her winter coats and clothing hidden somewhere inside the many unpacked boxes in her apartment.
(Tsunade)
'This is where you, Sakura-chan, come in. In a nutshell, your mission is to go back 12 years in time and travel to the Daimyo's mansion in Lightning Country, infiltrate and conceal yourself in the Daimyo's sleeping quarters, and dispose of the Uchiha as he enters the room. If all goes well, Uchiha Itachi will have died a valiant shinobi's death on a dangerous mission, the Uchiha Clan will have been spared from its unfortunate end, and Sasuke would not have betrayed Konoha for the sake of power. Now this (Tsunade reached for the small green scroll and handed it to Sakura) is your mission details scroll. Read it as it will tell you most everything you'll need to know for the assassination and save me a great deal of talking. Oh, and save your questions until the end as I've still got quite a bit more to tell you.'
Tsunade leaned back in her chair and watched her apprentice unpeel the scroll and start reading. The amber-eyed Hokage felt weary from all of the talking she had just done over the last forty minutes and in need of a drink. She thought longingly of the sake bottles in her hidden drawer calling her.
------------------------------
Mission ID. TT001-L3/ Rank: S/ Codename: Time Travel no Jutsu, Maiden Voyage
Date of Commencement: October 13, at approximately 3 AM
Date of Completion: November 12, at approximately 3 AM
Participants: Chuunin Haruno Sakura
----
Instructions:
1) Have the Time Travel no Jutsu duration length be set to 1 month.
2) October 12th—13th: Prepare a pack for a month-long mission. Be sure to include your weapons, shinobi passport, the Time-Travel no Jutsu scroll, the mission budget for food and other necessities, a watch set exactly to the official Fire Country time, medical supplies (the recently-developed chakra infusion scrolls are highly recommended), and the Special Protection Card. Whether you bring the mission details scroll is up to you, but it is recommended that it be left at home in case of its burglary and enemy shinobi knowing of your mission.
3) October 13th: At precisely 3 AM, use the Time-Travel no Jutsu to go back 12 years in time.
4) October 13th—November 3rd: Recover from the initial chakra exhaustion; this would be a good time to use the chakra scrolls. As the Daimyo's mansion is located in the northern most part of Lightning Country, it will take approximately 3 weeks for a solo traveler to reach the destination from Konoha. Use the mission budget money for food and possibly a room at an inn if you've got enough for future uses. As Fire Country and Lightning Country will have been on bad terms during that time period, pose as an envoy (whose attendants and fellow delegates were not far behind) from the Hokage and use the Special Protection Card and Shinobi Passport to gain entry into Lightning Country.
5) Note: The Daimyo Takeshi's mansion is located in the Hotonabi Prefecture and a mile from Nakuren-Tokai. You can't miss it.
6) November 3rd—November 12th: Recover from your journey and bring as little attention to yourself as possible. While in Nakuren-Tokai, locate an old and dilapidated alleyway said to be somewhere in the northwestern quarter of the city. The alleyway should be a dead end with an unusual-looking brick wall at its end. The distinguishing features of the target wall are its minute drawings of a dragon along the border and a corpse leaning against it, seeming to never rot.
7) Note: Behind the dragon wall is a tunnel, obviously built to be an escape route from the mansion in case of a siege, that leads directly into the Daimyo's sleeping quarters. It is approximately 2 miles long, unguarded in the inside, very old, and was discovered after another team was sent a week after Team Getsuma to retrieve something from the Daimyo's sleeping quarters. The corpse leaning against the wall is a trigger for multiple booby traps to the intruder, so you would do well to disturb it as little as possible.
8) November 12th, at approximately 2:10 AM: As the tunnel can only be opened from the inside, punch a hole into the wall, get inside, and use a genjutsu to obscure the evidence of your intrusion. Use whatever lighting jutsu you have on hand to illuminate your path.
9) From 2 AM to 2:30 AM: Travel the length of the tunnel until you arrive at a ladder than leads up to a trap door.
10) From 2:30 AM to 2:38 AM: Climb out of the trap door and close it, being careful to leave it immediately accessible. Conceal yourself in the rafters or anywhere else that provides coverage. Wait for your target.
11) From 2:38 AM to 2:58 AM: Assassinate Uchiha Itachi (jutsus emitting a lot of chakra are discouraged as the Sharingan gives color to chakra) and use Temporary Control no Jutsu Form III to make him remain crouching in the room. Climb back into the trapdoor, use a loud sound-producing jutsu to attract the guards, and run the length of the tunnel as fast as you can.
12) From 2:58 AM to 3 AM: Make sure you have all of the things you brought with you into the past and await the Time-Travel no Jutsu's effects. At precisely 3 AM, you should arrive back in the present with all of your items on your person.
------------------------------
Sakura looked up as she finished reading the details of her mission and placed the green scroll back onto the desk. The ever-present wind 'hwoooed' through the open office windows, reacquainting itself with the occupants inside.
(Tsunade)
'Simple enough? Confused? Don't worry about it. There's still a lot of info you're missing.
'Now, before either of us forgets, deposit some of your chakra into the shinobi passport and the SPC (A/N: Special Protection Card). The chakra will mark these items as yours, and the Hokage Seal authenticating these things will only appear while the items are held by the owner of the chakra signature imprinted onto them.'
Tsunade passed the shinobi passport (pictureless, of course) and the SPC over to Sakura who proceeded to gently swirl some of her trademark verdigris chakra into the chakra-deposit square. When the two chakra-marked items were placed back onto the desk, the Hokage Seals visible prior to the chakra-marking disappeared, leaving large, square blanks in their absences.
Afterwards, Tsunade stooped down to take out a sake bottle, new and deliciously full, out of her hidden drawer. Sakura became indignant.
(Sakura)
'Shishou! You'll be the end of yourself! Shizune-san and I both agree that you should stop drinking so much! You, of all people, should be more conscious of the detrimental effects it has on your body!!'
Tsunade waved Sakura off with a lazy hand as she drained half the large sake bottle in one great gulp (she had forgotten to sneak a drinking cup into the office) and placed it on the desk alongside the other items already there. A slight flush came to her face, and as the Godaime started talking again, Sakura noticed a slight slur in and a few interruptions to her mentor's speech.
(Tsunade)
'I haven't had any sake or anything else to drink all day, so don't worry. Thirst is thirst, and mine—hic! sorry—wanted slaking before I went on. Anyways…'
Tsunade cleared her throat and picked up the red, black, and white scroll.
(Tsunade)
'This scroll is the—hic—result of five years'—no, a whole lifetime's—worth of heavy experimentation and development—and by a Hokage, no less—in time-travel-enabling jutsu. I know I told you before I had only been working on it for five—hic—years, but in actuality, it was only five years ago that I started to seriously develop it. Ever since Dan—hic—died, I had been obsessed with gambling and finding a way to fix all of the things that had gone wrong—hic—in my life.'
Tsunade paused for a moment, looking wistful and eyes slightly misting as she fiddled with the scroll in her hands.
(Tsunade)
'Now, after twenty-five years of fiddling around—hic—and five years of intensive research and development, I've finally managed to create a jutsu for time-travel. The jutus, I recall, was—hic—completed merely three months ago, but by then—hic—, I was already in a position where I couldn't test out or use the jutsu I had developed. If—hic—the Hokage disappeared for a long period of time without a clue to where she was, consequences would—hic—arise, after all.'
Tsunade unrolled the Time-Travel no Jutsu scroll across her desk and revealed at least five feet of solid text, incantations, drawings, and hand sign sequences. Sakura gasped at the complexity of the jutsu and the plethora of intricate symbols brushed onto the scroll. The roseate medic-nin noticed that there was a large kanji circle near the beginning on the bottom half of the scroll. 'Thirty Days' was brushed into the circle.
(Tsunade)
'Things are about—hic—to get a bit abstruse, so pay close attention.'
Sakura nodded, the gears already turning in her brain (figuratively, of course) and switching her mind to "Lecture-Recording Mode."
(Tsunade)
'The Time-Travel no Jutsu sends the user—hic—back in time for a minimum of one month and a maximum of six months, depending on the length of time brushed—hic—into this (Tsunade tapped the large kanji circle Sakura had noticed earlier) circle. If nothing or nothing legible is entered into the circle,—hic—the default setting, which is six months, will be activated. I've already prepared this scroll for your upcoming mission, so nothing in this scroll needs to be altered, by the—hic—way.'
Tsunade took a small sip from the sake bottle to wet her throat. Sakura looked disgruntled and shifted around in her seat as she waited for her mentor to put down the sake and continue.
(Tsunade)
'When someone—hic—uses the Time-Travel no Jutsu, he or she leaves a body in—let's just say her—present. The body-duplicate of—hic—the person left in the present—which I will just refer to as Copy B—will be in a death-like coma where nothing needs to go in or out of the body until—hic—the time-traveler, Copy A, returns from her time-trip. Copy B will not need any sustenance and will not die no matter what as long as Copy A—hic—is keeping her current body well-fed, watered, and alive in the past. Whatever is done to Copy B during the coma—such as wounds, change—hic—of clothing, jutsus, beheadings, etc—will not affect Copy A, but it is into Copy B that the time-traveler's—hic—consciousness, should I say, returns so Copy B should be well—hic—taken care of and out of harm's way. On the other hand—hic, whatever affects Copy A will show on Copy B but only wounds—hic—or things actually affecting the body and not external matters like clothing change. Got—hic—all that?'
Sakura nodded again, inscribing each detail into her studious and presently very busy brain and trying very hard not to grow frustrated at the numerous 'hics' impeding her shishou's speech. Tsunade plowed on, taking no notice of the small grimace on her apprentice's features.
(Tsunade)
'Copy A is sort of—hic—like the temporary housing for the time-traveler's consciousness, memory, soul, whatever you want to call it while Copy B is the body into which the—hic—consciousness will return to after the time-trip is over. When the time-traveler's consciousness returns to the present, she will bring about to Copy B any and every change, including—hic—clothing, status of health, the items in her pack if she's wearing one, etc., that was present on Copy A when it was time for the time-traveler—hic—to return to her native timeline. Meanwhile, Copy A will literally disappear and fade away from the past time-line as it was but—hic—a provisional duplicate of the time-traveler's body at the moment the Time-Travel no jutsu—hic—was activated and the user was sent into the past.'
Tsunade paused to sip a bit more of the sake, slowly but ever so steadily succumbing to the effects of complete intoxication-by-sake. All of the sake bottles, including the one she now held in her hand, held double the amount of sake they could usually hold, courtesy of the discreet Expansion no Jutsu placed upon them earlier in the day.
(Tsunade)
'At the very—hic—moment the jutsu takes effect, the body will be split into two—hic—copies—as I told you just now—each having the exact same health, cloth—hic—ing, pack with items, et cetera and et cetera, so be sure to have everything—hic—you need with you when you perform the jut—oh, and another—hic—thing!'
The Godaime straightened up in her chair as her gaze suddenly transformed into a serious and concerned one, contrasting the slightly flushed and languid one it had just held.
(Tsunade)
'This jutsu—hic—is performed by a very long and complicated sequence of hand signs. Never—and I repeat—never—hic—perform the jutsu hand signs until you are actually intending to travel to the—hic—past. If you want to practice, then fine, do it but with—hic—a deliberate mistake at the end. I'll explain later on when I've covered the basics of how to—hic—activate Time-Travel no Jutsu—which is the next topic—hic—I will be covering—so don't worry about that point of the jutsu right now. Just make sure you don't actually—hic—perform the correct hand sign sequences until the right—hic—time.'
Tsunade's expression returned to its former slightly-lax look as she relaxed back into her chair once more. Sakura, alight with curiosity, surreptitiously glanced at the clock out of the side of her eyes and noticed it was already 3:02 AM.
(Tsunade)
'Time-Travel no—hic—Jutsu has a "master hand sign sequence" that is—hic—repeated to send the user back into the past. For example, if you, Sakura—hic—chan, wanted to go back in time twelve years, just repeat the master hand sign sequence twelve times—hic—perfectly—one for each year traveled back into, obviously—and with each repeat having absolutely no pause or—hic—hesitation between each other. I'm warning you in advance that the sequence is—hic—fairly long and complicated as the last time I checked—which was just—hic—last night—it was approximately… hm… 107, was it? Somewhere along those—hic—lines…'
Sakura quirked up at the mention of having to memorize 107 hand signs and executing the sequence perfectly twelve straight times……
Shannaro!! The excitement was starting to creep over her! Memorization and perfecting her techniques had always been her favorite things to do during the academy days and now, and this Time-Travel no Jutsu was a gift from the gods for someone who was always looking for a fresh mental challenge. Memorizing medic books was getting a bit stale nowadays, anyway.
(Tsunade)
'As for chakra consumption, don't worry—hic—about it. This jutsu, conveniently but surprisingly, has no—hic—mandatory chakra requirements, so anyone with over 1 percent chakra—chakra only enough for—hic—limited physical movements such as making hand signs—can use it. But, be—hic—warned, Sakura-chan, as the Time-Travel no Jutsu will take all of the user's—hic—chakra but 1 percent after activation. That means that when you come to—hic—in the past, it will spell imminent death for you if you're attacked by an enemy shinobi or even a wild beast encountered too soon after your arrival. Take care that you recover at least 65 percent or more chakra before starting for the Daimyo's mansion—hic—, and if you do decide to bring the chakra-infusion scrolls, bring a lot of them as you will be doing a lot of high-speed traveling and escaping rogue-nins during your mission.'
Sakura mentally calculated it would take a day, without the aid of a medic or chakra infusion scrolls, to recover up to 65 percent and a few days or so, under the same conditions, to recover fully, especially since 1 percent was really pushing it in terms of survival and having enough for the body to live off of. The less chakra the body had in store, the longer the regeneration would take.
(Sakura—mentally)
'Well, I really better prepare and bring a lot of those chakra scrolls the Konoha Medical Jutsu Development Team and I developed four months ago. Those things are huge lifesavers and so much more effective than the older versions…'
Tsunade continued talking but now with her head propped up by the elbow, a sign of her boredom with the one-sided conversation and ceaseless amount of jutsu explanation.
(Tsunade)
'For—hic—convenience's sake, the jutsu's permanent and default drop off location is—hic—Konoha. By drop off location, I mean that—hic—the place in the past the jutsu will drop you off at is a random place in—hic—Konoha, whether it be in the very heart of the city, the Konohan training grounds several miles out from—hic—the gates, the surrounding forests, or even the Hokage Tower. Unfortunately, even with my skills—hic—and experimentation, I couldn't get the jutsu to drop a person off at a—hic—specific location as the jutsu hand sign sequences were compatible only with broad ranges, so—hic—Konoha had to do.
'Strangely, the same thing happened with the drop off—hic—date. Damn hand signs just aren't compatible with having a specific date—hic—requested, so if someone goes back in time twelve years on October 13th, they—hic—will arrive on the 13th of October twelve years prior…'
The capricious wind rushed almost violently into the room just then, demanding its payment of involuntary shivers and goose-bumpy skin for leaving the occupants alone in peace for so long. Sakura's body immediately forked over its share of the bill while Tsunade's remained as stingy as it had been during their whole mission briefing.
(Sakura—in her thoughts)
'Good thing I chose a comfy chair. This thing's taking forever! I can't wait to get home and take a good look at the Time-Travel no Jutsu and… -shiver- put something warm on!! I'm freezing my butt off in here, damn useless heating turned on or not!'
(Tsunade)
'Now, your mission—hic—details scroll says that you should be time-traveling at—hic—3 AM of October 13th, so take the next twenty-four—hic—hours preparing for your mission, sharpening weapons, preparing a few changes of clothing and other personal—hic—articles of hygiene to bring along, charging your chakra infusion scrolls, and et cetera. Practice your—hic—stealth and ninjutsu if you wish, master the Time-Travel no Jutsu master—hic—hand sequence—which is written on the scroll—and just take the last day of being in your native time-line—hic—for a month easy.
'Due to my inopportune diplomatic mission to Suna and my—hic—resulting three weeks-long absence starting in…ah, about four—hic—hours, though, you will have to perform the Time-Travel no Jutsu with yourself as the—hic—sole witness. I regret not being there for your leaving, so—hic—the best I can do is just give you the information, advice, and answers you'll need.
'By the way, I—hic—suggest lying down on your bed—over the covers, of course, to ensure they don't get mistaken for clothing by the jutsu—when you go back in—hic—time. Don't worry if you smell something terrible when—hic—you get back since Copy B will have had no showers for a month—(Tsunade noticed the disgusted look on Sakura's face) yes, since—hic—Copy B will not have a caretaker to wipe the excess skin flakes, dust, germs, insects, sweat, oil, and other—hic—bodily fluids accumulating on it for a month, it will smell.'
At the mention of "bodily fluids," Sakura paled a little. Just a tad. Enough for a half-inebriated Tsunade to notice and blearily smile.
(Tsunade)
'Ah, didn't realize it—hic—until now? Copy A's cleanliness, unfortunately, will not transfer over to Copy B during your time in—hic—the past. If you sweat, get oily, or bleed, whether it be from your body or—hic—vagina, the exact same will happen to Copy B, but in this time-line (Sakura cringed as she sensed what her shishou was about to say), there will be no one to wipe the fluids away. My—hic—advice? Wear an overnight pad, as small a help it will be, before time-traveling—hic—and try your best to sweat, bleed, or oil as little as possible. And oh! Leave a note on your door saying you're on—hic—one of your regular medic-nin missions to the tributary villages of Konoha and will—hic—not be back for a month. Change the lock and put seals on the windows to—hic—keep anyone, friend or foe, out of the house until you return. And speaking of—hic—returns, I'll be sure to check up on you after I come back from my Suna visit, so there might be a—hic—chance of you coming back to the present in a—hic—clean body if I remember and have the time to bathe and freshly clothe Copy B a—hic—bit.'
Sakura shuddered at the mental image of her poor body being without a shower for three weeks. She could only hope her shishou would spare her the horror of waking up and finding herself caked with pathogens, dust, cobwebs, blood, and human oil. Yech.
(Sakura—mentally)
'Ugh, I really hope I won't get any acne or rashes during my absence. Goodness knows there will be a hefty amount of sebum, bacteria, and dirt left in my pores, but still…'
(Tsunade)
'So… any questions?'
Sakura's mind was swarming with unanswered calls and loose ends as she tried sorting out the tangled skein of thoughts. Eventually, she just picked a random question as all, she reasoned, would be answered in due time.
(Sakura)
'Yes, Shishou, just a few… like why you would want to eliminate Itachi at this particular time in his life when he could have just been eliminated as an infant?'
(Tsunade)
'Well… let's—hic—see… If the perfectly healthy future heir of the Uchiha Clan suddenly died without apparent cause, it would lead to unnecessary—hic—finger-pointing and suspicion in the past as the death—hic—would be seen as an assassination ordered by rival clans or enemy—hic—shinobi sent to eliminate the Uchiha, starting with the children. It—hic—would be too unlikely for the fiery Uchiha Clan to just attribute the death to—hic—Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and get over it.
'If—hic—the baby's head was lopped off or something, it would—hic—have been seen as an assassination as well… obviously. If you—hic—tried to arrange the death so that a random animal, runaway cart, or etc. seemed—hic—to have been the cause, it would be difficult—if not—hic—impossible—since Uchiha-san, the father, or Mikoto-san, the mother, would have been—hic—able to protect their first-born son. If something truly dangerous, like a tiger or—hic—something obviously extraneous of Konoha, was summoned for the job, it—hic—would also lead to unnecessary blame, suspicion, investigations, and—hic—perhaps innocent deaths.
'If—hic—he suddenly contracted a disease dangerous enough to kill him, even with the best medical treatment available, all—hic—of Konoha would have been in a panic at the thought of such an epidemic starting, and—hic—too much of the funds would be channeled into health precautions and—hic—vaccine development. The Sandaime had enough worries at the time with the war—hic—with Lightning going on and would not have needed even more burdens on his shoulders if all of—hic—Konoha was in a tizzy for increased medical security at a time when—hic—the front lines needed all of the medical attention they could get. And… there are—hic—probably loads of other reasons why that plan of action would not have worked, so I just—hic—decided to have the assassination take place in the first situation where it would hav—hic—looked like the boy just got himself killed and where the death would have been semi—hic—expected. End of story. Next question.'
(Sakura)
'Ano… Why did you ask me to take this mission this year when I could have done the same thing next year or the year after that, better prepared and stronger? Oh, and how strong was Itachi at age eight?'
(Tsunade—in her thoughts)
'Kami-sama, this has got to be the most I've ever talked to the same person in one sitting in almost thirty years! Dan was the last person to have had my complete attention like this and…why am I thinking about that right now?! That was in the past, and he's gone now! Focus, Tsunade!'
(Tsunade—actually speaking)
'Your—hic—shinobi skills would be more than enough to incapacitate him, especially with—hic—the element of surprise and your adeptness in stealth. And—hic—as for my decision to assign this mission now, think of what could—hic—happen if I waited another year for you to get stronger or better prepared? In that—hic—extra year alone, Orochimaru could finally take—hic—over Sasuke's body and lead an invasion Konoha may never recover from. I—hic—wanted to have this mission completed as soon as possible before enemies decided—hic—to attack Konoha or war broke out.'
(Sakura)
'Can the Time-Travel no Jutsu send someone into the future?'
(Tsunade)
'The one I developed only—hic—works for sending people and their possessions into the past. With time and—hic—research, perhaps one for going into the future will be developed as—hic—well.'
(Sakura)
'If this mission is a success, how will we know it is a success? Will we remember what the previous time-line used to be like?'
Tsunade was starting to get a slight headache from all of the questions.
(Tsunade)
'I don't really—hic—know, but I've got a theory that if this mission is a—hic—success, everyone will, for a period of time, have memories of the—hic—Uchiha Clan being massacred while simultaneously knowing that the—hic—said clan was very much alive. Eventually, the people will probably just think they are—hic—confusing reality with something from their dreams or nightmares and forget all about the current time-line, seeing—hic—how obviously ridiculous they are being as they compare their—hic—memories side-by-side with reality.
'If nothing significant changes and Itachi—hic—still massacres his clan, though, I guess everyone will pretty much retain—hic—the same memories they have today. So, when it—hic—comes down to it, only you, Sakura-chan, will know you've succeeded in your—hic—mission if you truly do.'
(Sakura)
'Will there be any more missions involving time-travel in the future? How will you approach this topic and show the results of this mission to the Council?'
(Tsunade)
'Whether there are any such—hic—missions or not depends on how this one turns out, and—hic—as for the Council… I'll figure something out when it comes to—hic—that.'
(Sakura)
'When did you first decide I was the one to go on the Time-Travel no Jutsu's maiden voyage and prepare my mission details scroll, budget, passport, and et cetera?
(Tsunade)
'Eh… Hic—about around the time the jutsu's development was com—hic—pleted, so let's just say three months ago—hic.'
(Sakura)
'Ano… I have not even once seen a picture of Itachi in my life, even with access to most of the classified Hokage-or-aide-only files and important documents, or have even heard a description of his appearance. To ensure I don't mistake an innocent child for Itachi and just for curiosity's sake, may I see a picture of him? Preferably one of his younger days, of course.'
Tsunade leaned back into her chair as she thought for a few minutes, an amused and droll grin fixed in place as if she was remembering something funny. Sakura sneezed (the chill was really getting to her), bringing Tsunade back to Earth.
(Tsunade)
'To tell the—hic—truth, I don't think we've got any pictures of Itachi at all on file here, and I—hic—would describe his appearance for you had I ever laid my eyes on him or an accurate picture of him.
'Although… I—hic—have seen him in quite a number of wanted posters during my wanderings as a gambling addict and part-time—hic—scientist after I left Konoha with Shizune for the first time. No two—hic—wanted posters ever looked the same, and the only things each poster seemed to agree on were—hic—one, that Itachi had a marking, wrinkle, or bagginess of some sort—hic—underneath each eye and two, that Itachi was extraordinarily—hic—ugly.
'Overall, every poster was quite hideous and—hic—gruesome to look at and gave you the impression that the poster commissioner/financer/witness/artist—who—hic—always seemed to be a man named Kentanouji of the—hic—Omoide—was vexed, to an extreme degree, with him and very determined to make him—hic—look like the ugliest thing this world had ever—hic—known. Or it could have been that this so-called witness had never actually seen Itachi before to accurately relay the features—hic—back to the public, leaving his imagination to do most of the depiction and thus—hic—explaining why all of his posters looked different—hic.'
Tsunade, becoming steadily more and more intoxicated, propped her feet upon the corner of her desk and sipped more sake. Sakura silently sighed in exasperation at her shishou's drunken antics, and the wind followed suit but, this time, sighed and exhaled on only the younger kunoichi still wishing she had worn something warmer.
(Tsunade)
'I remember one—hic—particularly detailed and grotesque poster where Itachi was—hic—portrayed as a short man with a bulbous—hic—head with over half the face crammed with scar tissue and the rest—hic—with what looked like leprosy and deep pockmarks, a crooked—hic—and heavily warted nose, a few sinister-looking stitches here and there, (Sakura looked a little green as she heard the description of her target missing-nin) moles galore—hairy ones—hic—too—, the usual eye under-lines, and the customary—hic—plain unsightliness. Possibly the ugliest—hic—poster I have ever had the displeasure to come across, hard to look at for more than three seconds, and—hic—clearly a fabrication of that Kentanouji fellow—the imaginative and—hic—disturbing bastard! The damn poster was done in color and with extreme graphic detail—hic—and actually gave me nightmares for a few weeks after I first caught sight of the damn—hic—thing!!
'Anyways… (Tsunade took a deep breath to calm herself and sipped a bit more from the sake bottle before proceeding) visualize him—hic—to look like however you want him to look like as that's what everybody else—or moreover, that's what—hic—that Kentanouji fellow—seems to be doing.'
(Sakura—mentally in a jesting manner)
'So when I'm in the Daimyo's room, all I have to do is wait for and strike at an unusually ugly, probably pockmarked and stitched, eyebrowless, moley, lined under the eyes, and diseased-looking boy who looks to be around eight years-old? -mental snicker- What irony in the Uchiha Clan to have borne such externally contradictory siblings! To have Itachi, the elder Uchiha, be so radiantly disfigured while Sasuke-kun, the younger Uchiha, became and remained for thirteen years one of Konoha's biggest heartthrobs! Well, serves the bastard right for doing what he did, though…'
(Tsunade)
'Now about the—hic—reason why you shouldn't per—'
A loud rap at the door caught the attention of the office's occupants.
'Hokage-sama, I will be coming in now…'
Tsunade, recognizing the voice of the caller, quietly slurred a curse and clumsily slid her feet off her desk. She then started frantically shoving all of the mission-related items and a half-empty, poorly-stoppered sake bottle into the hidden drawer for lack of room in the other, more conveniently reached desk drawers.
Homura, wearing a warm fleece-lined Konohan official's overcoat which Sakura longingly eyed, stepped into the Hokage's Office and gazed sternly at the lightly rubicund Hokage and her freezing apprentice. His brow creased and eyes narrowed as he detected the faint but unmistakable aroma of sake and noticed the slight droop in the Godaime's eyelids.
(Homura)
'Hokage-sama, it is 3:22 AM, and I came to inform you that the head electrician will be turning off the heating and all electricity for the Hokage Tower for the daily maintenance check of the generators and power supply system. He has informed me, as I was passing by, to notify you, whose office still had the heating and lights on at this time in the morning, that the electricity will be out in eight minutes.'
Tsunade looked somewhat warily at the Council Elder.
(Tsunade)
'How long—hic—have you been outside that door, and what are—hic—you doing up at this time in the morning, Mitokado—hic—san?'
Sakura winced at every 'hic' in her shishou's speech, and Homura sharply frowned at the slurring and 'hics' he heard oh-so-plainly.
(Homura—looking accusingly at the Hokage)
'I assure you, Hokage-sama, that the Hokage's Office door is still as sound-proof as ever and that I have not heard a word of your conversation. It has always been my custom, Hokage-sama, to wake up at 3 AM and make my rounds from then on. Now, if you please, do not allow my presence to hinder your previous discussion, and please continue any activity you may have been doing before my intrusion.'
The Hokage and Homura stared each other down fiercely for a few minutes, the Hokage hiccoughing and obviously waiting for Homura to step out of the office and Homura just daring with looks alone the Hokage to take out the sake bottle he was absolutely positive about being in this room somewhere. Sakura felt uncomfortable at being caught in the middle of the staring contest and just decided to focus on being mad at the cold.
Tsunade, her inebriated mind seeing no way out of this but one, slowly turned to Sakura with a wicked glint in her eyes. Homura just continued to stand by the office door with a disapproving frown gracing his withered and bearded face.
(Tsunade—with a smirk)
'Like I was saying—hic—before, Sakura-chan, the matter of losing your virginity and—hic—the art of making hot, passionate love is a delicate but—'
Homura abruptly all but shouted in his suddenly hoarse and gravelly voice, 'Excusemehokage-samabutIhavebusinesselsewheretobetendingto,' before promptly disappearing out the office door and slamming it shut behind him. Soon, the faint sound of someone rapidly power-walking farther and farther away from the Hokage's Office reached the ears of the two medic-nin occupants inside.
Sakura blinked. Tsunade grinned cattily at her victory.
(Tsunade)
'(chuckling) That Homura… always—hic—the erotophobia…'
Tsunade cocked her head slightly and scrutinized her apprentice. An unfocused and glazy look flitted about in the Godaime's eyes.
(Tsunade)
'By the way, Sakura—hic—chan… Have you lost your virginity yet?'
Sakura furiously blushed as she gawked somewhat indignantly at her sloshed shishou and huffily sputtered out her next words.
(Sakura)
'Ts-Tsunade-shishou! Of course I have my virginity!! I'm only fifteen, for Kami-sama's sake!!!'
Tsunade nonchalantly waved off her piqued student with a floppy hand. She seemed to be waving her student off a lot these days.
(Tsunade)
'Oh, don't throw a hissy fit. Of course—hic—I was joking! And fifteen, by the way, isn't at all early for someone—hic—to have a little taste of the forbidden fruit. Jiraiya, I heard, got his first taste a few days after his—hic—eleventh birthday. Eleven! It's no wonder he's so perverted as it would—hic—probably cause permanent psychological and mental harm being—hic—exposed to things like sex at the ripe, old age of eleven—hic!'
Sakura stared at her shishou, wondering how in the five Shinobi nations the discussion had switched to when Jiraiya-sama first fornicated with someone. She just concluded, after some thought, that her shishou, even with only half a sake bottle, could get easily and quickly stewed.
(Tsunade)
'Anyways, Sakura—hic—chan, do you have any more questions?'
As the roseate medic-kunoichi wracked her brain for more things to ask about, she discovered that her previous train of thought before Mitokado-sama's interruption had been utterly derailed and wrecked.
(Sakura—mentally)
'Oh, well. I suppose Tsunade-shishou has her reasons and explanations for everything, and I guess I can get the answers some other day since it's about time for the useless heating to go—'
At that precise moment, the electricity and heating went off a full three minutes before it was supposed to, leaving the mentor and apprentice in the cold, cold dark (not that it wasn't already cold before the switch-off). The hiemal wind chose this inopportune time to collect its payment again.
(Tsunade)
'Well, by the looks of things—hic—and by your silence, I'm guessing you don't have anything else to ask about—hic?'
Sakura nodded, already feeling and regretting the acute loss of the heating, no matter how useless it may have felt before. She cursed the open-windowed office and the never-ending cold for the umpteenth time that morning.
(Tsunade)
'Swell, then! Good—hic—luck, Sakura-cha—oh! I forgot! Here are your items—hic.'
Tsunade opened the hidden drawer again and placed the Time-Travel no Jutsu scroll, shinobi passport, SPC, wallet, and the green mission details scroll on the mahogany desk for her student to take.
Sakura, eager to get the hell out of the freezing office, hurriedly placed each in her hip pack with care before bowing a 'good night' and speedily exiting the office to return to her apartment where a quiet study for scroll observation and a thermal night-robe awaited her.
End Flashback
----
Sakura happily breathed a sigh of relief as her apartment in the outskirts of Konoha and fifteen minutes from the Tower came into view.
YES!!! Memorization, warm clothing, and apartment, here I come!
Tsunade sat at her desk in the dark and frigid Hokage's Office in a bit of a drunken stupor, having consumed another expanded sake bottle after her medic-nin apprentice's departure. She sat in a spiteful mood and nursed her drink protectively with her hands.
Tsunade (what was running through her mind in a frantic pace): Travelling-Time no Jutsu… Stupid Homura, no alcohol my ass! Screw the Hogake demeanor, Suna's got bars too… Screw the time-line, bring me my Dan and Nawaki back! Ehehehe… Shizune's got something going on with that Jounin from Cell 8… what wuz his name? Argh, too much paperwork… senile, old Homura, Koharu, and the rest of dat damn Counzil… The new sake shop has such horrible cuppy-things, can't drink easily, urp. Kage iz a pretty tough, wonder how's the hold-up in the oasis there. No, what oasis? Just sand and men, staring men… my eyes are up here, assholes! Hogake, Hogake, Tsudane-hime, all of them… urgh… Sakura-chan, clone B, Copy C, don't pract—
Tsunade suddenly jumped up, knocking her chair backwards and causing it to screech back harshly. The Godaime paid no attention to the grating sound or to her chair now lying on the floor as she quickly staggered to the office windows, turning slightly nauseous at the way the world gyrated uncontrollably under her stiletto heels.
Tsunade (drunkenly thinking random things along with her main train of thought): Ah, kuzo! I forgot to tell Saruka-chan why the Travels-sake-Time no Jutsu shouldn't be performed properly in the bar before the right time for gathering…! She better not practice the damn thing before the right damn time for the fireworks and cups!
A Little Intro: Hello, my name is stoic-green (you probably already knew that, though), and An Untimely Mistake is my first time writing a fanfic. Therefore, this first chapter probably has a lot of typos, punctuation errors (I blame most of them on the chapter's conversion from Microsoft Word to a file on Fanfiction. net), incoherencies, and abnormal document spacings (I guess I'm just not used to the whole 'double-space-between-paragraphs' deal yet), but please bear with me as I make my first foray as a writer on Fanfiction. net and try to improve the technical and grammatical aspects of my chapters.
A Long-ish Author's Note:
Sorry about the really long transitional chapter (Tsunade's probably going to wake up in the morning—if she even goes to sleep, that is—with a sore throat), but it's all necessary for all of the things that will come later in the story. If there are confusions, feel free to ask about it in the reviews, and I'll try to answer them via the next chapter's author's notes. Please be aware, though, that there will be a lot more revealed as the story progresses, so holding on to some of your questions until later may prove (somehow) convenient for both me and the readers.
This is a romance fanfic, but the romance (or Itachi, for that matter) won't be coming in until a little later. Please bear with me as I try to get to all of the really good parts as quickly as I can, and no, An Untimely Mistake will not be a romance between 8 year-old Itachi and 15 year-old Sakura (oy, that's like a pedophilic relationship between two minors…).
The action actually starts in the next chapter when an untimely mistake (or rather, a series of them) causes plans to go awry. I know the idea of Sakura or someone else going into the past and doing/changing something is an over-used plot bunny, but I assure you that An Untimely Mistake won't be your average 'Go-Back-In-Time-And-Change-Something' fanfic.
Oh, and I honestly do not think Itachi is ugly or leprous or pock-marked or etc. He's hot (that's an understatement), and that's why I chose to write an ItaSaku fanfic first out of all of the wonderful pairings I could express my enthusiasm for with writing. And as for that Jiraiya part, who knows? What IF Jiraiya actually did go around and do things at the young age of eleven? I wouldn't be surprised, honestly. (No offense to Jiraiya fans. The toad sage may be perverted, but he's funny and great comic-relief. He cracks me up, no vulgar undertones, meanings, or suggestions intended).
Just to let the readers know: Everything in the story was more or less included for a reason (including Itachi's profile, certain parts of the mission briefing, etc.), and many things have already been hinted at and foreshadowed through the contents of Chapter 1. Reading everything would be most helpful in understanding many of the things coming later on (including, yes, the boring-looking mission details and Itachi's profile--especially, Itachi's profile).
So, with all that said, stoic-green shall be signing off now. Please review (please be nice!) and tell me your opinions on this chapter. Flames are not appreciated (I'm already skittish about leaving anonymous reviews on for fear of being unreasonably flamed into next week…), but I will continue writing An Untimely Mistake regardless of whatever bad things certain reviewers might say (or type, for that matter).
I don't really know when the next update might be, but I'll try to be quick. Um… Maybe in a week or so? Maybe more. Maybe even a month (Eek! I really hope not!).
(-whispers- It took me three months—maybe even four—of intense plotting and thinking to write chapter one and to come up with a loose storyline for the rest of An Untimely Mistake, so chapter two might take a long time as well… urk.)
And I'm not sure if the upcoming chapters will be as long as this first one. Self-editing and proof-reading (for I have no beta) just becomes a pain in the neck when I've got to edit and proof-read thirty-something pages of text (that's how long the first chapter was on Microsoft Word) by myself by the light of a dying oil lamp and a pencil sharpened and used almost down to a stub—hai, I'll stop the exaggerating right now, but really, it just means that future chapters might be much shorter (possibly only half as long?) than this first. (Maybe it would be better if the future chapters were much shorter. Reading thirteen thousand plus words in one go gets pretty tiring, ne?)
Er, okay, stoic-green is really signing off now! Thank you so much for reading and putting up with my babbling! Please, please, please review!!! Reviews are what keep me writing (actually, I keep myself writing, but reviews are like the icing on the cake—the cake's just sort of plain, dry, and empty without a nice review icing!). But anyways, please review (haha, sorry for my persistence...)! They are indications of whether people like my story, notifications of where I made some mistakes and which parts I wrote well, chances for questions, and so on! Oh, and if someone would like to critique (because we all need a good critic to balance everything) or comment on something I did wrong, please do so in a polite and courteous manner. Arigato gozaimasu!
Hey (ah, yeah, I'll REALLY sign off after this last part), here's an interesting tidbit: When the dominant female clownfish dies, the head male changes genders and becomes the female. Urk.
Bye! Much thanks to those who read all this! (And even more thanks to those who review!) Peace! Stoic-green signing off!