Author;s note: I for some reason wanted to draw Jūgo, and Sakura, and Naruto, you know what? Whatever.

Some are better than others...

URL for Jūgo: 34ac/i/2017/112/0/1/jugo_colored_by_

URL for (lazily drawn) Naruto (reminds you he is still wearing different clothes): 4979/i/2017/114/d/4/eh_naruto_by_

URL for Sakura: b4a9/i/2017/114/b/1/sakura_haruno_by_

URL for Kakashi: d36e/i/2017/114/7/f/kakashi_eh_by_

Thank you.

Enjoy.

Chapter 3: A Hawk with No Reason

There have been times when a summoning is entirely inconvenienced. They must react with precise precision for them to handle the surrounding situation at hand. There are times when a summoning is forced to save the summoner and its own self from falling to their deaths in a deep abyss. There are times when they must take on a tailed beast with no warning whatsoever, but the thing is, they adapt. They always adapt. Not without cursing their summoner, of course, but the adaption proceeds.

Sasuke didn't necessarily inconvenience his hawk summoning, but boy was he pissed. It was pouring down cold ass rain, and it was even storming, with lightning showing itself every minute. The lightning already screws them over, and now here's this cocky Uchiha making him wait in the pouring rain while he writes his damn note. That's right, this boy summoned his hawk before he even wrote the damn note. He must wait for a man to write a note in the dark night full of heavy rain!? How is – oh, he's done. Okay.

Sasuke reached over and tied his small note to the (pissed) hawk's leg, "take this to the Hokage, quickly."

The hawk doesn't even get a break, does he? He stays, staring silently into the face of his summoner. "Go," he demands, and the hawk flies away into the dark skies, still pissed.

"That bird was not too pleased with you, Sasuke." Said person turned his head to glance at the figure standing behind him. "Was he? I couldn't tell," he responded uninterestingly, turning his body towards the familiar voice. "What are you doing here, Jūgo?"

Jūgo reached into his coat, pulling a scroll, and stretching it out for Sasuke to grab ahold of. "Lord Orochimaru sent me on a retrieval mission." He grabbed the scroll and read the contents:

The Land of Waves, the Land of Tea, the Hidden Grass Village, and the Land of Whirlpools.

Sekkoku Hakku has been spotted in these four nations, find him. He has information I am interested in.

"What a coincidence, Jūgo, it seems we have a common goal." Sasuke said, "though I doubt this is really a coincidence."

Jūgo looked questionably at the young man across from him, "what do you mean?" Sasuke placed the scroll in his cloak, and began walking away from the Land of Waves. "Nothing, Jūgo, but I will accompany you on your mission," as he said that, the large man caught up to Sasuke, pleased with what he was hearing, "Orochimaru named four places Sekkoku's location might be, so I am assuming Suigetsu is headed for one of the other three places." Jūgo looked over to Sasuke surprised, "Do you think Lord Orochimaru knew you would be after this man?" He nodded his head in confirmation, "he has no given reason to get Sekkoku in his possession, so he is either withholding information from you or he is attempting to gain my attention, knowing I would soon find out about these plans one way or another."

"I see," he replied, "but the Land of Waves was one of the four places Sekkoku was spotted, the animals even confirmed he was here recently."

"No, he is gone." Sasuke looked up to the larger man, "so where is Suigetsu?"

"He was sent to the Land of Tea, he will send me a message if he finds anything."

"In that case, we will head to Orochimaru, where is he?" Jūgo was very confused, "There are still two more nations to cover, Sasuke, why are we going to see him?"

"You told me he left the Waves recently, the other suspected locations are far away, too far to have traveled there in such a short amount of time." He explained, "and Orochimaru has my attention. Either he knows more information, or he wanted my attention. I'm simply curious."

"Lord Orochimaru is residing on the border of the Land of Earth and the Hidden Waterfalls, shall I escort you?"

Sasuke ran up the tree hopping and the branches and taking a sharp left in the direction of the Land of Earth, with Jūgo taking his spot directly behind him. He didn't think that his journey to atone for his sins would end up involving a perfect manifestation of sin. Although, that is where it all started, so in a way, it makes perfect sense.


The Hokage's office was a mess. The previous Hokage left so many papers unattended to, it has Kakashi Hatake going crazy. He has stacks of papers all over his desk, covering every inch of that desk that is not in the Hokage's direct line of sight. He has stacks of papers all over the floors, so tall, they're half way to the ceiling. For the last twenty minutes, the white-haired man has been cradling his head with his elbows holding himself from falling face first into the desk.

Shikamaru Nara, the Hokage's leading advisor, was in front of him, looking down sympathetically, almost feeling bad enough to help him sort all this out. Almost. He had things to do too, you know?

"Uhh, don't you think you should be working some more, Lord Hokage?" Shikamaru questioned while scratching his head. "You have a lot of papers to finish." Kakashi slammed his head woefully on his desk mumbling incoherently. Shikamaru thought that he could see tears pooling around where his head lay.

He lifted his head up to stare at the shinobi uncomfortably looking at him, "is there anything you want, Shikamaru?" he asked while running his hand through his hair.

"Well, Naruto requests to come see you, and I wouldn't let him unless you were ready for it," he looked away from the Hokage," I wouldn't want you to get less work done today than usual." Kakashi stared at him, happy to have such a thoughtful advisor, "That's very kind of you, Shikamaru, but you know just as well as I do that no matter what is said, Naruto will barge in here. Loudly." Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed, silently agreeing with him.

As if on cue, an orange blur hopped through the window, sending papers flying everywhere, which sent Kakashi in a frenzy to retrieve them, "NARUTO! Why would you – no! I need that," he screamed trying to retrieve all the papers flying out of the window, but before he could give up from the task, Sakura hopped on right outside the windows with all the papers in her arms.

Kakashi quickly grabbed them and planted them on his desk, "thank you, Sakura," he exclaimed sincerely as she smiled in acknowledgement. He then glared over onto Naruto, who sheepishly recoiled back, raising his hands up in defense, "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei! I just wanted to see you is all! I, uh, I think I am ready for a new mission!" he finished his defense with a wink and thumbs up. He sighed, giving in, "I'm sure I could find something for you, something long enough to keep you out of my papers until the pile is smaller."

He glanced over to Sakura, knowing she must be here for a different reason, "You're always with Naruto, but I doubt you want me to send you off for a few months." Naruto didn't catch the 'months' part, but agreed anyway, "yeah, yeah!" he blurted out, "she's just nervous about Sasuke being gone so long, ya know? She's been following me around all day she really misses the bastard!" before he knew it, Sakura punched him in the stomach so hard, Shikamaru barely had time to step away from the impact of Naruto being thrown behind him. "Shut up, you idiot! Don't treat a girl's feelings so causally!" she snarled out, breathing heavily with a heavy blush spread across her face. "So, it's true?" Kakashi interjected. The pinkette just looked down in response. "Ah." He replied.

All of a sudden, a small hawk flew on the edge of the window, throwing papers all around in its reaction, again sending Kakashi in a never-ending frenzy, running all over to catch the important material, "Why does this keep happening!? What is this hawk doing here!?"

Shikamaru stepped over to the hawk in observation, "It isn't one of ours, perhaps it's a foreign nation's?" he tried to grab the note tied to its leg, but the hawk flew up to attack Shikamaru, sinking his claws onto his head before flying across the room, "GAH! What the HELL is this thing's problem!?"

The Hokage had to, again, catch all the papers from flying around, "I don't know, but I don't like it," he looked menacingly at the bird, perpetuating a certain level of disdain for the newly arrived hawk. The hawk didn't take too kindly to that reaction, so he just glared back at him, showing as much emotion a hawk can, but he did understand this was the Hokage…

Kakashi sofly walked over to grab the hawk, which then went crazy, attacking the man, not giving a damn about his rank. He pecked his head, which made Kakashi let go of his attempt to grab him so he could protect his head, which was now bleeding.

He fell to the ground while the hawk flew back over to the edge of the window, daring them to try again. Kakashi breathed heavily, staring at the hawk with wide eyes, "You didn't want me!? This isn't fair, you can't just attack people like that!" he screamed out. Shikamaru had already decided that he wanted no hand in this. This was NOT his problem. Sakura just stood there, laughing awkwardly at the interaction with the bird.

Naruto stood in front of him, putting his hands solemnly on his hips, "Don't you worry Kakashi-sensei, I'll handle this," he looked onto the bird in determination. The hawk noticed his battle-ready intent. The hawk spread his wings, and cawed as loud as he could, resulting in everyone having to cover their ears from the pain. Naruto stepped back, uncovering his ears, and raising his fist at the hawk, "That's it! I'll teach you not to mess with me, ya know!" he jumped over to the window, trying to grab the bird, but the bird flew above him, resulting in Naruto flying halfway out the window. The Hawk flew all over the room throwing the paper everywhere, to Kakashi's irritation.

Everyone was throwing their arms up, trying to cover themselves from the paper and the wind coming from the hawk, but the hawk decided to softly perch itself onto Sakura's arm.

The papers all fell down, but it was better than flying. Kakashi was frustrated. The hawk wasn't he was pleased, and he liked Sakura, which annoyed Naruto.

"Why aren't you attacking her!" He yelled, to which Shikamaru agreed, wanting to know, too. Kakashi was just happy the hawk was standing still,

Sakura smiled at the hawk, taking her other hand to pet the hawk's back. She giggled, amused by the favoritism he was showing. He leaned in towards Sakura's cheek, rubbing his beak against her. "Awee, this is so cute!" she gushed out, "he likes me! Can I have you!?" she asked, in actual seriousness. The hawk in response, shook his head in a no and lifted his leg with the note attached. She grabbed it and unfolded the paper, reading who it was for, "Oh! Kakashi-sensei, it's for you, here!"

Kakashi shuddered and decided to stay put, opting not to go near the devil in the form of a hawk. The blonde shinobi understood his decision, "Just read it out, please." The Hokage stated.

So, she did, "A man by the name of Sekkoku Hakku has threatened and stolen from the funds of the small nation residing in the Land of Waves. I'm not aware of how much he stole, but it was great enough to harm their economic stability. I request an immediate reimbursement, please accept. He plans to hire powerful shinobi in order to successfully assassinate the Sixth Hokage, I will begin an independent investigation and end this before it begins, but be wary. Sasuke."

The room was shocked that Sasuke sent them a not at all, much less so early. They were more shocked by how serious he is for his self-set mission. "Well," Kakashi began, setting one hand on his hip "at least we know he wasn't kidding about 'atoning for [his] sins." He smiled at his statement, happy Sasuke is walking the correct path. Although Sakura was proud of Sasuke's change of heart, she was actually amused by the irony of his hawk showing so much affectionate to her, and only her. 'If only this was a representation of Sasuke's feelings for me.' She thought to herself. Naruto just punched his fists in the air, "Yeah! This is a mission for Team Seven, guys!" Shikamaru whipped his head towards Naruto, "Say what, Naruto?! He said he will act independently, he doesn't need you to proclaim a mission for yourself!"

"Wha…What do you mean!? Obviously, this is, uh, Sasuke asking for help…ya know!" Naruto stammered out, looking for an excuse to not only get a mission, but a mission to see his friend, even though it hasn't been too long since he's seen him. Sakura was too nervous to speak out against Naruto, because she secretly wanted this to happen, if it gives her a chance to see Sasuke again so soon.

"Actually," Kakashi waved off, getting everyone's attention, "go ahead and take the scroll, you two. This can be your mission: support Sasuke's mission to rid us of our threat to peace…or whatever." Naruto cheered before he was able to finish, "Yeah, thanks so much, Kakashi-sensei!" he ran out the door, grabbing Sakura's arm pulling her with him, "wha…Naruto!" she gasped out, "Let's go!" he yelled down while running down the hall, as soon as Kakashi knew they were gone, he sighed deeply, holding his head with hand, "I guess this will let me get my paperwork done," he said as he picked up the papers the demonic hawk flung on the ground with his excessive flying.

Shikamaru interrupted that, "Eh, excuse me, Lord Hokage, but you and I know well enough that Sasuke could and will handle this, why did you set this up as a mission?" he asked. Kakashi just chuckled awkwardly and rubbed the back of his head, "well, I'll admit, I needed something to hold Naruto off while I finish all this, and what better mission than to basically chase after Sasuke?" he said, mumbling the next part while walking to his desk, "that seems to be his favorite activity…"