Meanwhile, in Konoha.
It was already late afternoon and the sun had began to set. Across the village, contruction projects were slowing to a halt as the work was over for the day. Already, may of the villagers and guest craftsmen and artisans were settling down for dinner in front of a warm fire. In the Hokage's office, things were no different. Tsunade was almost down to the last document of her stack.
With the whole reconstruction of the village going on, taking up the majority of the ninja labor, there weren't many missions being handed out and thus that meant less paper work. For once, Tsunade might actually finish all the work assigned to her on the day they were due. but as Tsunade toiled away, stamping random papers with her seal, Shizune was in deep thought about the events of the day before.
"Was it really wise to send away Sakura-chan like that?" asked Shizune.
Tsunade, still working on her papers, didn't even look up when she answered her long-time apprentice. "What do you mean, Shizune?"
"It it's a question of skill, Sakura has enough. And even if that wasn't the case, you, Tsunade-sama, still have plenty of stuff you can teach her. I don't think you need to send her away to the neighboring land like that just for some training. We're in the middle of a war after all. A power fighter like Sakura would be a great asset. I think it was a waste to get rid of her like this all of a sudden."
"You're right, Shizune."
There was a moment of silence between them. Shizune was taken aback by that unusually straight-forward reply. "Um...I'm right?"
"If it was purely about skill, I would've promoted Sakura to jonin level long ago. But that's not what she needs. that's not what she's missing. the hard truth that even I was having trouble accepting...Sakura is not ready for this war."
"Then what is the reason for this trip? What do you want her to learn?"
Now, Tsunade looked up at her. "The same thing I learned when I was her age. The same lesson that allowed me to overcome the grief I felt afterwards when my younger brother and my lover died, and when my good friend and comrade betrayed the village and killed my sensei."
Another moment of silence.
"...How will she learn this?" finally asked Shizune.
Tsunade showed the tiniest hint of a knowing smirk. "I have somebody there that owes me a favor. She promised it to me but right now I think that lesson should be for the next generation instead. Just like me, she believes in learning on the job."
"What about Konohamaru's team then? you want to teach them the same lesson too?"
"Nah. For those kids, I just thought it would be a wonderful oppurtunity for them to explore the world outside our village. They need the experience. they need to see how other people in the world live."
Tsunade finished the last of her paperwork by stamping down on the last document in the pile. That was it for today, of course Tsunade knew better than to relax since in the morning when she comes back they'll be another stack of papers waiting for her.
"Don't be so worried about them," said Tsunade. "They're tough. They can handle anything thrown at them. I'll see you tomorrow, Shizune."
And with that, the fifth hokage simply disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Shizune sighed in exasperation. One thing she still hasn't gotten used to when it comes to her master was how seldom she ever got a straight answer from her. But really. If she couldn't get a straight answer from the real Tsunade, what chance did she have with her shadow clone?
That's right. A little trick she borrowed from during Kakashi's training of Naruto in elemental chakra molding. While her real body was stuck in the Kage summit, she sent a shadow clone back to Konoha every other day since the summit started to take care of business at home, essentially allowing her to be in two places at the same time. And since the shadow clone's experiences returned to the user once dispelled, the real Tsunade stayed personally up to date with all that was happening at home. One simply couldn't fault the woman's dedication to her village.
Much to the chagrin of Shizune of course. She did warn her master on how taxing on the chakra reserves it was to create shadow clones like this, but of course Tsunade insisted she had plenty of chakra to spare.
"I swear...That woman will be damned if I die before her from all this stress."
Shizune decided to spare herself a headache by not dwelling on the her past thoughts. She made her way out of the office hopping to find dinner within the hour.
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Back in the cave prison.
She was running out of time and options but she had one last thing up her sleeve.
It had already been a few hours since Kurage was injected with the Devil Urchin's venom and already the pain was becoming unbearable. She was panting heavily and sweating by the bucketful. Physically and mentally drained from the fight which landed her in there in the first place, she didn't have much options to start with. Now, with the poison running through her body, she couldn't recover any chakra as well not to mention that the pain was physically draining her as well.
But there was still one last option left. Something her enemies didn't know about yet. She still had chakra for her one last trump card. She decided then and there that she would do it at that moment before late when she has no chakra at all. The pain from the poison was enough so that she barely even felt the prick when she bit her own thumb. She let the cut bleed a little then...
"Summoning Jutsu."
She slammed her palm to the ground. A small puff of smoke quietly exploded in the small space. And out of that smoke appeared what to any other person passing by looked like a smooth flat rock the size of a frying pan.
Kurage stared at the rock, waiting patiently for a few moments. Eventually she got annoyed. She balled her right hand into a fist and gave the rock a nice, strong knock.
"Ouch!" exclaimed the rock.
It shook for a second before two large claws popped out from the front and pushed it off the ground and quickly stood on six long legs that unfolded from the sides. Two beady black eye popped out of the front and looked up at the stricken kunoichi with mild annoyance.
"Kurage-chan! Do you have to wake me up like that?" asked the crab-like creature that looks like a rock, shaking its claw angrily.
"I'm sorry, Iwakami-san. But I'm in a bit of a pinch and...argh...I need your help."
The rock crab, Iwakami, then started to notice things that were odd about his summoner. "Oi, Kurage-chan. Are you alright? You don't look so good. And where is this place anyway?"
"Ugh...It's Devil urchin venom. I've been injected with some."
"What? Devil urchin?"
"Shhhh! Please, be quiet, Iwakami-san. the guards are far away but they might still hear us."
Suddenly, they both heard footsteps approaching. they knew it was somebody from above was coming. Kurage quickly gave her summon a silent order by pointing to a shadowy area. Iwakami hopped to that part of the pit and quickly tucked in his legs, claws, and eyes and became a rock once again. And not a moment too soon.
"Hey! what's going on down there?" exclaimed a henchman armed with a spiked club as he peered into the pit. Beyond the iron bars, all he saw was the girl sitting in the middle and nothing else. Deciding nothing was wrong, the henchman walked away.
As soon as the henchman's footsteps can no longer be heard, Iwakami un folded his extermeties out of his shell and looked up at his summoner. He had already pretty much figured out what needs to be done.
"Don't worry, Kurage-chan," he reassured the kunoichi. "I'll find Yuudai and Satoshi-kun and get help. Just hang in there until we return."
Kurage nodded. "Please hurry. These guys are planning something and-"
A sudden stinging pain shot through her stomach and she visibly cringed. That infection from the venom was spreading fast. Iwakami looked very worried. "I must hurry. Just tough it out. I know you're strong enough."
Iwakami then proceeded to run up the wall like a spider until he reached the lip of the pit. He easily slipped through an opening in the crisscrossing bars that covered the pit. Kurage watched helplessly as her summoned friend left her behind. It couldn't be helped. In her condition it was to dangerous for Iwakami to try and break her out from where ever they were. Guards would be on them in moments and she wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell of defending herself.
For now, she'll just have to grit her teeth and bear with it.
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Back at Wakame Village, at the Floating Lily restaurant.
For the first time during the whole day, Konohamaru was quiet for the sole reason that he was at a loss of words. All three of them in the genin team were.
When Sakura came back, Konohamaru expected her to be hauling a whole bunch of shopping bags or something since that was what she said she was gonna do when she left. What he didn't expect was that she would bring back two shady looking ninjas with her and then offering them a seat at their table and ordering some food for them.
After that, they had all pretty much stayed quiet as the whole group of six simply sat there and ate their meals. Konohamaru didn't know what to ask first. Who were these guys? What are they doing here? Are they enemies or allies? What village are they from? and most importantly...
Why won't that kid stop glaring at him like that?
Ever since that kid sat across from Konohamaru and their eyes met, daggers have been flying back and forth between their stares. The others noticed as well. Moegi and Udon were looking nervous while Sakura and the jonin were pretending to not be the wiser. of course it was only a matter of moments before one of the boys decided he had the bigger ego. it happened to be Konohamaru.
"You got a problem there, buddy?" said Konohamaru through gritted teeth.
"No. No problem here," replied the other boy.
"Good. Because I was wondering what is it about my face you find so interesting."
"Nothing much. In fact, I was thinking of how I could make it more interesting...using a kunai."
Konohamaru's eye twitched. "Wow. You really need a bit more imagination. See, I personally would use something like, say...your own severed foot."
Satoshi's eye twitched more. Veins popped on each of their temples. The tension grew between them as if it was called there by a summoning technique. Innevitably, the tension reached the boiling point when the two young boys set down their respective bowls of food and tried to jump at each other across the table. Tried.
Before the two could meet each other with their fists, Sakura and the jonin grabbed each of them by their collars and forcefully dragged them back down to a sitting position followed by a quick slap to the back of the boys' heads.
"Oww!" they both exclaimed.
Moegi sighed at their pathetic attempt to display bravado and Udon looked like he wasnted to pretend he didn't know his otherwise best friend. They basically just sat in silence for another minute before the silence was broken. By Sakura this time.
"I'm not sure who you guys are," she said in a calm voice. "But I know this: You guys are not our enemies. We made some kind of mistake when we just walked into town unannounced like that. PLease, tell us how we could rectify this situation."
Being the Hokage's apprentice meant that, aside from her combat and medical abilities, Sakura managed to pick up a few ambassadorial tricks of the trade. Open any exchange with an unknown element with the suggestion that they were the good guys and you were the once who messed up.
The jonin however was not fooled but his calm demeanor didn't indicate any sign of being insulted. "Well, be that as it may," he said "it was also a mistake to attack you so blatantly, even if you were under suspicion. But it's obvious that you guys are not really here to hurt anyone. Please forgive our impertinence."
"Don't you mean his impertinence," said Konohamaru pointing to Satoshi.
Konohamaru got another slap at the back of his head from Sakura. "Ow!"
Satoshi laughed at this. "Hah! Serves you right!" This promptly earned him a second slap as well from the jonin.
"I think we should start with basic introductions," said the jonin. "I am Yoshino, Yuudai. And this is my student, Satoshi."
"And I'm Haruno, Sakura. These are my juniors, Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon. We're ninjas from the Hidden Leaf. We're here on a mission to meet up with some people. I don't think we have anything to do with each other since during our briefing didn't involve anything about other ninjas..." Sakura thought briefly about it, "...so far. It wasn't the clearest briefing I've had to be honest."
"In that case, you people must've just arrived in town. That means you have nothing to do with our business which has been going on since the start of last week."
"I guess this was just an unfortunate meeting. I hope you're not to mad about me getting into a fight with your student here."
"Oh don't worry about it. In fact..." Yuudai turned towards Satoshi. "...I should be thanking you. you taught him a good lesson. That it is foolhardy to simply rush in and attack an opponent you have no information on. And if he does get into a battle, to know when it would be smart to call it quits."
Satoshi turned to his teacher with a disheartened look. "Oh, c'mon sensei! You know I never give up in a fight."
"Satoshi-kun, there's a fine line between bravery and just plain foolishness. You really need to learn to find that line otherwise it's gonna be your butt on the line."
Satoshi was slightly taken aback and then he quickly turned away and looked back down on his food. Yuudai let out a barely audible sigh. He looked back at their hosts and decided that it was just about the end of the day for them. he had a few more lessons to teach his young student.
"I suppose we already took up too much of your time," said Yuudai. "As a ninja, I know that time is critical in any mission. So I think we'll just part here."
"Don't worry about it," replied Sakura. "It wasn't a big deal. We're not all that strapped for time anyway."
Yuudai nodded and started to get up, pulling his student along. "Then good luck to your mission."
Sakura nodded back. "You too."
The two ninjas then started to leave and the other four thought that was that. Nothing like meeting new people in new places, huh? But there was something strange in the encounter. She made sure to check up on this town the night of her mission briefing. She found no records of any known hidden villages near the town...or anywhere else in a hundred mile radius. Also, the symbols on the hitai-ate. She's never seen that symbol before, at least on a ninja. Should she have mentioned the veils of medicine which had the same symbol she brought along? Would they know what they were?
And also, that boy didn't attack her for no reason. They were looking for someone. The boy, Satoshi, asked her directly. But really, should they bother with it. Those ninjas had their own mission and they had their's. There's no reason for this encounter to be no more than a coincidence. Best they just leave things as they are and move along, Sakura concluded.
"Maybe we should've asked them," said Moegi all of a sudden.
Sakura turned to her. "Ask what?"
"Maybe they know where we can find the person we're looking for. They do seem to know this town pretty well."
"They're on a mission of their own, Moegi-chan. It would be professionaly impolite to interupt them when it's niether of out business. Besides, with a name like hers, I doubt we'll have that much trouble finding this woman called Lady Miho of the Lily."
They were at the door when Yuudai heard the name. He froze mid-step and his eye went wide with surprise. He whipped around fast enough the got the attention of the whole floor and quickly walked back to the table that he just left.
"How do you know that name?" he asked Sakura. And although his tone sounded polite, to a trained ear, he was obviously demanding for an answer.
The genin, all four of them were suddenly on edge as they realized the atmosphere around them has shifted. The rest of the patrons and restaurant staff did their best to simply ignore the situation and pretend it was not happening.
"Please tell me," continued Yuudai, the urgency of his voice a little more pronounced now. "Why do you want to meet her?"
Sakura wouldn't budge from her seat, but a million thought patterns were already running through her head. How should she handle this now? She knew, the situation was now wafer thin and a wrong move could mean conflict that they didn't need right now. Several tense moments passed when none of them would say a word or even move an inch.
Eventually though, Sakura decided to take the initiative.
"We are not you're enemy," she said matter-of-factly. "But you can't help but want proof of that, don't you? And It's pretty obvious now that we're not as isolated from each other as we first thought. So let's just do it this way. Please allow us to help you in whatever mission you're doing now and we will do our best to follow you. If at the end you think we've proven ourselves enough, you can decide wether you're willing to help us look for the person we're looking for...How's that?"
More tense moments of silence.
For the genin, it felt like an hour as the two more senior ninjas basically had a stand-off on either side of the table. Almost subconsciously, their hands started to reach for their shuriken pouches. But then...
"...Deal," said Yuudai.
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Author's Note: I realized that I haven't really explained how Tsunade could be in two places at once. At the start of this story, the Kage summit was already happening so I realized Tsunade would be stuck there for the most part but I came up with the Shadow Clone trick early on to explain her second presence in Konoha...problem is I forgot to explain it in the first chapter, so I decided to squeeze it in here. That should be the last mention of Tsunade for a while.