Chapter 2: A Worthy Mission
In an area on the opposite side of the village from the Hokage Tower, the one and only Uchiha Sasuke stood outside his front door, arms loaded with overstuffed grocery bags. He huffed out an annoyed breath of air, trying to shift the weight of the bags into one arm while he reached for his keys in his back pocket.
"Uchiha!" a sudden, familiarly annoying voice barked from behind him.
The teen launched forward, the five paper bags tipping out of his gripe. "Ah!" He cried, reaching a hand out in a failed attempt at grabbing for the falling objects before they hit the pavement. Sasuke stared down at his scattered groceries, grimacing at the yoke leaking out of one bag. That had been the last carton of eggs the store had until next week too.
Ignoring the person responsible for him dropping his groceries, Sasuke knelt down to gather the items.
Along with his cracked eggs, he found that the bread had gotten squashed, three glass cartons of milk were broken in half, and the Chinese take-out he'd ordered had slipped out of its container. Oh he had stood in line for hours for the day's special of xang su ya and chow mein!
There was an annoyed huff from behind him. The Uchiha wondered what the person was still doing standing there. When Sasuke was finished with this, he was going to make whoever had so rudely interrupted him wish they'd never been born.
"Uchiha!" barked that voice again. Sasuke was going to kill them— a quick, painful, bloody death with brown paper bags.
Groceries forgotten, the Uchiha stood back to his full height, turning to face his intruder. His eyes widened slightly at seeing the Hokage standing there.
He mentally groaned. There was only one reason why he could think of Tsunade standing there before him without his teammates gathered. And it wasn't to give him some top secret A ranked mission. Not that she would give such a mission to a ninja of his rank with or without teammates.
"What did Naruto do this time?"
Tsunade, caught off guard by the sudden question, could only blink in awe at the teen. An amused smile spread across her lips. "Boy, you get straight to the point, now don't you, Uchiha?"
He shrugged. "If this concerns Naruto, I just want to let you know beforehand that I honestly don't care what he did and I take no responsibility for him."
"Actually," she began, her smile widening, "this has nothing to do with Naruto for once. I need to ask a favor of you." Now she certainly had his attention. Sasuke opened his mouth to reply but she quickly cut him off. "And you can't turn it down or I will take you off of missions for the rest of the month." She was totally bluffing but Sasuke didn't need to know that.
The Uchiha sighed, snapping his mouth shut. "...Fine."
"Great!" she chirped. "Follow me."
Without any other words, she disappeared, a small swirl of leaves being the only indicator that someone had been there seconds ago.
Sasuke let out another sigh, sending a longing look towards his place. So much for some much needed R&R...
No surprise that they ended up outside the Hokage Tower. Sasuke looked up at the top level of the building then to the blonde woman standing next to him. He arched an eyebrow. "Why are we out here?"
"Because we're not in there," she answered simply, nodding to her office on the top floor. The Uchiha resisted the urge to say something that would end with him being sent to the hospital. Tsunade studied the boy out of the corner of her eyes, waiting for that mouth of his to open and some smart remark to come out. She sighed, disappointed, when no such thing happened. "Come along, Uchiha." She instructed, walking forward.
Tonton and Naruto looked up as the double doors to the office were pushed open. Tonton squealed like a... well like a pig, happily bouncing over to the corrupted woman that was the Hokage.
Meanwhile, Naruto remained where he was curled up in a far corner where no one could see him. He watched in wonder as the Uchiha walked in behind Tsunade. She wasn't planning on giving him some super cool A-rank mission with Naruto watching, was she? That would be the worse torture ever! Or maybe she was making him her successor! Oh Naruto couldn't watch!
Sasuke eyed the huge hole in the ceiling upon entering the room. "Don't ask," Tsunade sighed, bending down to pick up her pet piggy as she walked around her desk. "Have a seat, Uchiha," she said, doing so herself.
"I would much rather stand," he stated. Sasuke was hoping that this would be an in and out thing. He had to go fetch something for dinner tonight before all the good food booths closed.
The Hokage twirled around in her seat once, trying to buy herself some time before she dropped the bomb. "Uchiha, do you like... animals?"
"Animals?" he repeated as if the word was foreign to him.
The blonde nodded. "Yes, animals. You see," she ran her fingers along the skin of Tonton's back; "I have an animal that is in need of a sitter. You were the first one to come to mind that has the skills to deal with the rodent."
Sasuke shifted his weight from one leg to the other, eyeing the little piggy Tsunade held. "You want me to watch Tonton?"
"I said rodent," she repeated, holding her pet close. How dare the Uchiha think of her pig in such a way! "No, I don't need you to watch Ton. She is a very mature pig and can handle herself. I need you to look after some other animal for me."
The teen frowned. "With all do respect, Hokage, why me? Why not Kiba or Shino? They are more experienced with pets than I am."
Tsunade bobbed her head in a nod. She hadn't considered those two, but Sasuke was the more favorable candidate of all the Leaf Village put together. "They're... busy." She knew no such thing but for the sake of revenge she would send them off on a mission as soon as she got rid of the brat. "And you're the next best thing we've got."
At that, the sides of Sasuke's lips tugged down into a frown. He didn't like being the third choice. He had to prove himself worthy of this mission and make the Hokage see that he was good enough to be the first pick for any mission.
"I'll do it."
The Hokage almost fell over in surprise. "You'll... what? But you don't know what the mission is yet!"
"That doesn't matter. I can handle anything you throw at me."
Tsunade almost snorted out loud. Cocky brat, wasn't he? "Okay, Uchiha, if you feel that you're really up for the challenge. I need you to watch a sweet, adorable little fox for me."
From the corner of the room, said sweet, adorable little fox charged at the Hokage. He would strangler her with his bushy little tail!
Ok, I am like really sorry that updates are taking like so super long. I'm trying to balance like three other stories plus some that aren't posted yet along with this one. Then there's the whole matter of school and junk. I can't promise that updates will come any faster but I can assure you that I AM working on them.
So...erm... hope you enjoyed this chap and I hope you'll be back for the next one too.