A/N: Finally got around to updating this. Not sure how many more I'm going to add to this before I end it. We'll see. This one came out a little longer than I planned, but that's ok. Again don't own the characters. I'd be waaay richer if I did.


An Icha Icha Treasure Hunt: Curiosity Costs...A Lot.

It would have seemed to have been a normal day. Anyone else that would have stepped out of their home would have thought so. The sky was clear, the clouds were sparse and the sun was shining brightly. Yes all in all it was quite a nice day. And yet it was an odd day, yes odd described it quite well for the three shinobi who were waiting for their very tardy sensei. "It's strange."

"What is?"

"It doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?"

"Of all places."

"Ne, ne, what are you talking about?"

"Why here?"

"What do you mean here?" The pink haired girl sighed looking over at the questioning blond as a pair of onyx eyes rolled in an annoyed fashion. Ok, so only two of the shinobi found the day to be odd.

"Sometimes I wonder how it was you graduated." The boy mentioned scowled as he plopped down on the ground crossing his arms. He muttered a few cross words to himself but Sakura chose to ignore them. Her mind was more occupied with their current situation rather than her teammate's overabundant stupidity. Looking over at Sasuke, Sakura wondered whether or not he had figured anything out, but by the look of his face though she thought otherwise.

"He's late."

"He's always late."

"I know that!"

"Then why say it dobe." Naruto shot beams of death to the Uchiha of which he only replied with a smirk. That only caused for Naruto's anger to enrage. Jumping to his feet he charged at Sasuke with the full intention of breaking his neck, when an all too familiar "poof" was heard, along with the customary greeting. The only difference this time was the gloved hand now over Naruto's head keeping him in place and unable to advance with his attack. Seething with anger Naruto struggled to break free from his sensei's hold but to no avail. Ignoring his hot headed student Kakashi turned to the other two, a smile apparent through his dark mask, a much more cheerful and pleasant one that was quite noticeable to the two shinobi as they confirmed it silently to themselves with a glance towards each other.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Sakura."

"Why are we meeting here?" His cheerful smile stayed molded in the dark cloth.

"For a mission." The pink haired girl nodded but wasn't satisfied with the answer.

"Right, but why here?" Tilting his head inquisitively, he feigned not understanding her meaning, relaxing his hand on the blonde who inadvertently calmed down forgetting his earlier anger, now focused on his pink haired teammate.

"What do you mean Sakura-chan? We're here for a mission? Ne, ne what kind of mission is it anyways?" Is it a good one? Huh? Huh?" Kakashi's grin broadened a tad, a point missed by one, seen by two.

"Yes, you could say it's a very good one." Sakura still bothered by her question tried again.

"Kakashi-sensei, why are we here, by the stone carvings of the Hokage's instead of our usual meeting place?" A light bulb finally turned on in Naruto's head as he glanced over at the stone carvings.

"Eto, now that you mention it why are we here?" Sasuke sighed in annoyance at how slow the boy was. The question went unfazed by the silver-haired jounin. Instead of answering the question he stood tall, that overly cheerful grin radiating ever more, or so it seemed.

"I'm glad you asked." Reaching into his back pocket her pulled out a sheet of paper. Bending forward he handed it to her, figuring it would answer her question well enough.

"What's this?"

"What does it look like?"

"A map."

"Exactly." Sasuke and Naruto peered from either side of the girl to inspect the map, and then looked up at their teacher in question, his pleasant smile, now having a slightly irritating quality to it. "Yes?"

"It's a map of Konoha."

"Correct." Team 7 stared at the map still not quite understanding what was being insinuated.

"Eto, why do we need a map of the village if we know its layout?"

"Good question." Standing their growing a little more impatient with every passing second they stared up with his one closed eye and his sickeningly happy smile.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yes Sakura?"

"What is our mission?" Done stringing his students alone, he finally gave them a straight forward answer.

"Your mission is a B ranked one."

"A B ranked! Yosh! What are we doing? What are we doing?" Naruto questioned hopping from one foot to the other in excitement. They had yet to do any missions of that rank and he was itching to begin. Sasuke intrigued by the sudden elevation of rank was curious as to why. They had completed a series of D & C ranked missions but he knew very well that they were not qualified for any higher, well with the exception of himself of course, he thought arrogantly. This very same notion occurred to Sakura, of which she thought admiringly Kakashi's smile, which they had all thought couldn't get any wider grew, holding back for a slight dramatic effect, enjoying their expressions much to his amusement finally answered.

"A treasure hunt."

-----

"It's supposed to be around here somewhere?" Sakura said looking from the map then to their surroundings. Sasuke searching from a top a medium sized building amply searched the area for the small chest. "Do you see it Sasuke-kun?" His exasperated expression more than answered her question. Sighing she studied the map again.

"This is stupid. It's not even a mission." Naruto grumbled unhappily to himself sitting on a rock.

"Naruto, if you're not going to help be quiet!" Sakura spat, aggravated at being unable to find the first chest. Jumping down, Sasuke looked about noticing nothing out of the ordinary. Why was it so difficult? The first one was supposedly out in the open and yet he only saw a few empty stalls, closed doors and random growing weeds.

"Why do we have to search for these chests anyways?" Naruto inquired, kicking a small pebble aside. Sakura sighed not wanting to deal with Naruto's whining.

"Because Kakashi-sensei said so."

"It's a waste, we should be training." Sasuke for once had to agree with the blonde much to dislike. He couldn't imagine what benefits this treasure hunt could possibly offer them.

---

"Treasure hunt?" Three very stunned voices chorused in question. Nodding, his one visible eye closed as he proceeded to give them their instructions.

"It's simple, use the map to find the three chests. When you're finished bring them back here." Three pairs of eyes stared at their teacher in wonder.

"That's it?"

"Yes, Sakura that's it."

"Find three chests?"

"Yes." Still unable to believe their task was so simple Sakura decided to just go with it, obviously if Kakashi-sensei planned this there was some greater point to it.

"What's inside the chests?" Naruto asked feeling himself growing a little excited.

"Treasure."

"What kind of treasure?"

"Something special."

"Nani? Nani,nani,nani,nani,nani?"

"You'll have to find them to get your answer." Naruto frowned unhappily.

"Can we keep what's inside?"

"Hmmm…let's see. No."

"Eh!" The boy screeched. "Then what's the point?"

"There isn't any." This caught the Uchiha's attention. Looking over at his sensei his expression grew colder.

"You're lying." Smirking Kakashi leaned towards the boy his one eye narrowing as his tone grew more serious.

"Saa, maybe." Rising up his one eyes closed with a smile. "Well now go start. You have until sunset. Have fun." With a loud poof he was gone, leaving his three students behind. One looking annoyed, one looking disappointed and a little confused, and the last thoroughly studying the map.

"This isn't a mission is it?"

"No."

---

"Mou, this is getting nowhere." Reaching her last nerve Sakura whirled around glaring lethally at Naruto.

"Naruto!-" She stopped when she caught sight of the rock Naruto was sitting on. Straightening up, she approached Naruto who was squirming nervously because of his approaching teammate. "Say was this rock always here?"

"Huh?" Three young shinobi stared at the insignificant rock.

"Out in the open huh?"

"Yeah."

"Eh…yatta!"

"Urusai!" Two voices rang in annoyance.

-----

"Let's see there's the wall by the training area, so it should be…there!" Sakura pointed ahead. Smiling happily at how quickly she had located the next chest, he face soon grew pale. "Eh!" Hearing her outburst both boys turned to see what she was making such a fuss about. "It's in there?!" Her voice screeched as she pointed dramatically at the fenced area, warning signs posted all over it. "There's no way it's in there!" She yelled turning towards the other two. Sasuke smirked, finally finding things getting interesting.

"So it's in there huh?"

"Yosh! If it's there then we'll have to get it." Grinning Naruto took a step forward.

"Chotto matte, we can't just rush in there, it's dangerous. There's got to be some sort of mistake. We can't possible go in there…" Not bothering to wait, Naruto put down the small chest he was carrying and jumped over the fence. "Baka." Sakura sighed when she noticed movement on her other side. Looking over she just caught sight of Sasuke about to follow after their impatient comrade. Reaching out, she gripped unto his arm holding him back, dropping the map, it floating lazily beside her towards the ground. "You can't go in there Sasuke-kun! You'll be killed!" Aggravated by her holding him back, he whipped around angrily when he noticed the map. Bending over he picked it up starring blankly at its content.

"Sakura."

"Yeah?"

"You read the map upside down."

"What?"

"This isn't the next spot." He dead panned. Registering his words she stared at him opened mouth just as a very loud scream echoed above them.

-----

"Gomen Naruto." Sakura smiled nervously apologizing. Naruto smiling back chuckled slightly, various bandages covering his face, a few tears in his orange attire and his hair slightly ruffled.

"It's alright. It could happen to anyone."

"Right."

"Well the next one should be…"

"Ano, Sakura-chan."

"Yeah Naruto?"

"Let me read the map."

"Huh?"

"For just in case."

-----

"It's here."

"Oi, teme you sure about that?" Naruto asked him looked at the map the Uchiha held. Ignoring him Sasuke looked around searching for a possible hiding spot. "I don't see anything." Naruto said pointing out the obvious.

"Dobe." Sasuke muttered moving away from him.

"What was that?" Naruto growled.

"I found it!" Disregarding Naruto's looming presence Sasuke turned towards Sakura, who was walking over towards them.

"Where is it?"

"It's on the other side of that fence. I think someone mistook it for something else. I can't imagine Kakashi-sensei hiding it there."

"Yosh then let's get it!" Rushing towards the fence he hopped over without a second thought.

"Naruto wait that's a…"

"Ahhhh! Pervert!"

"Women's bath." Sakura finished all too late, Sasuke shaking his head as Naruto's cries echoed in the air.

-----

"Mou Naruto, you should have waited."

"Someone should put a sign up!"

"They did!"

"Dobe."

"Urusai teme! You didn't see the sign either!"

"Yeah, I did." Huffing Naruto sat on the ground, all three chests sitting in front of him.

"He's late." Sakura mumbled to herself looking around for any sign of their silver haired teacher. Sasuke stood still, casually glancing about, hands in his pocket, waiting. Drumming his fingers against his arm, Naruto couldn't take it anymore. The sun had almost completely set and he still didn't know what was inside.

"I can't wait anymore!" Grabbing the nearest chest Naruto prepared to open it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Huh?" Looking up, his sight met up with a spectacled one, hair white and up in a ponytail.

"You'll regret it if you do." The strange shinobi continued pushing up his glasses.

"Who are you?"

"That's not important, just don't open those chests. You'll regret it." Having said that, just as quietly as he had come he left.

"That was weird." Sakura commented, watching him growing smaller in the distance. With the warning ringing in their ears, staring down at the chest all three gulped as they imagined what could be locked inside them. Reaching a tentative hand towards the lock Naruto unlatched it finding it unlocked. "Naruto, don't open it." Sakura warned worriedly, not wanting to find out what was inside. Sasuke curious himself watched as Naruto slowly opened the lid revealing its contents. Three sets of eyes peered in, warily.

"Nani? It's just a book."

"Wait, isn't that Kakashi-sensei's…"

"Ah."

"Nani! We went through all that for this!" Grabbing the book Naruto waved it about angrily.

"Hn."

"Sonna, that makes no sense. Why would…" Sakura stopped, her gaze fixed on something ahead. Noticing her wide-eyed stare, Naruto turned to see what she was looking, only to drop the little book in surprise. Hearing the thud of the fallen bound pages Sasuke turned, catching sight of his frozen shocked teammates. Following their gazes he stumbled back, open mouth and wide eyed. "Eeyah!" Sakura screamed, her voice echoing throughout the village, reaching a slow walking jounin on his way to the stone carvings.

-----

Staring down at the ground, Kakashi shook shi head spotting the open chest and the dropped book. "Ya, I told them not to open it." Scratching his head he wondered what to do about his three passed out students laying practically lifeless on the ground, save for a few twitches here and there. Chuckling he unlocked the remaining two pulling out the following volumes. "Perhaps the Icha Icha Tactics genjutsu was a bit much."