Chapter 4:
"So what are your roles again?"
We were standing by the front gates of Konoha and had just finished checking in when suddenly Megumi-sensei stopped walking and turned to face us. She stared down at us expectantly and Kyoske piped up first.
"I'll be doing bullying." He said with a smile. "The usual blackmailing and stalking."
"I'll be hacking whatever information I can." Hideki said.
I sighed, feeling all eyes land on me when it was my turn to speak. "I'm the babysitter."
I still wasn't over it. I didn't mind watching the Leaf shinobi but it bothered me that while I would be talking and hanging out, my teammates would be doing all the dirty and exciting work. Even though it was for my own good, it still wasn't fair.
"And I'll be talking it up with the Jonin, finding out whatever I can." Megumi-sensei said. "I have a few contacts in this village so I'll be visiting them, seeing if Akane's information matches and if there's anything new."
We nodded and Megumi-sensei turned to face the village and we took it on, The Village Hidden by Leaves and it's famous Hokage faces carved into the wall in the backdrop. I couldn't remember ever coming to Konoha before and whatever I had seen of it, it was in pictures but it was way better in person and was the most populated place I had seen or at least ever noticed. People hurried past us as we walked, heading in every direction, chatting with each other, yelling across to each other. It was lively and exciting and I was happy to be here, happy to at least have time to take it all in and not jump into work right away.
"This is so cool." I said to Kyoske. "It's better than the pictures."
"It's alright." He said as he flipped through what looked like a tourist book. I arched an eyebrow. I couldn't remember the last time Kyoske had read something and better yet I hadn't remembered seeing him stop to pick up a book either.
"How did you…did you swipe that?" I whisper-hissed.
"Old man wasn't watching." Kyoske yawned. "I'm thinking of checking out this food. I'm starving aren't you?"
"Kyoske that's not okay. Stealing is bad." I said.
"When he gets his hands chopped off for stealing, maybe he'll learn his lesson one day." Hideki said.
"I'm going to keep my hands thank you very much!" Kyoske snapped.
"Alright, this is where we part ways." Megumi-sensei said and reached into one of the pockets on her pants and pulled out three sheets of crumpled up paper. She handed one to each of us and we smoothed it out.
"This is the address of the apartment we've rented. It's on the other side of town, on the super touristy side." Megumi-sensei said. "We'll meet there later today, maybe for dinner or something to recap and regroup."
With that, she turned and disappeared in the passing breeze and afterwards, we all looked at each other.
"What should we do first?" I asked. "I say we take this day to just get to know this place."
"We should work on the mission at least a little bit." Hideki said.
"Barbeque." Kyoske said, closing his guidebook. "Final offer."
My face brightened. "That sounds awesome."
"Where's the nearest place?" Hideki asked.
"We're going to good places not fake little shops. There's a good place near their Academy." Kyoske said and began leading the way. We followed and a few minutes later we were being seated in a booth.
"This place is so great." I said while turning to looked around the quaint little shop. It was cute and looked out onto the busy streets below.
"We came at a good time." Hideki said and looked down at the menu.
"Alright, so let's get down to business." Kyoske said.
"Can't we talk about anything else other than our mission?" I asked, pouting.
"How do you plan on approaching Uchiha?" Kyoske asked.
I rolled my eyes. "I have to plan an approach?"
"He doesn't seem like the type to just strike up a conversation with someone." Kyoske said dryly.
"He isn't. Which means you need to get in with someone else first." Hideki said.
"I have a plan, alright? Can we stop worrying about my part? What about you two, huh? What are you going to do first?"
Kyoske grinned and pointed to Hideki. "Hideki was kind enough to print out our competition for the Exams."
"You're gonna get the stalking done early?" I sighed.
Kyoske nodded. "There's Rookies attending."
"Rookies?" I repeated.
Hideki nodded. "Rookie 9 is what they're being called. The newest batch of students from the Academy will be attending the exams and guess which group is part of it."
The chime of the shop clanged gently and I glanced back, my eyes widening when I saw the people who stepped through the door.
"Team 7." I breathed.
"Exactly." Kyoske said with a laugh. "Those fools are legit going to be part of the Chunin Exams."
"No!" I whisper-hissed, turning back around. "They're here. Team 7 is here."
The boys went rigid because the moment I had announced their arrival, we all heard Naruto Uzumaki's voice coming from just behind us.
"If that cat runs away one more time I swear I'm just going to explode! Believe it!" He said as their server set them down at a table beside ours.
"This is just great." Kyoske grumbled.
"Naruto stop complaining." Sakura scolded and then smiled over at Sasuke who was sitting at the head of their table. "Sasuke what are your ordering? Maybe we can share!"
"Huh? Sakura don't you want to share with me instead?" Naruto asked.
Sakura glared at him. "No."
I studied Sasuke, the sternness of his face, the glare in his eyes, not too strong enough but powerful enough for me to know that it was always reflected in his eyes. He seemed like the type that didn't like to be bothered with stupidity and with the way he regarded his two arguing teammates, they fit the profile perfectly.
"I wonder what Kakashi-sensei wants to tell us." Sakura said. "It sounded important."
"He's gonna be late for it anyway." Sasuke said, his voice deeper than I had expected with a slightly bored edge to it. It was like the man version of Akane's voice.
"That's true. That's another thing that pisses me off. His lateness. How is he late for everything?" Naruto groaned.
Sakura laughed lightly. "Yeah he'll be late for his own wedding I'm sure."
Naruto joined in with the laughter and Sasuke's eyes were just cutting over to our table when our served stepped into his view. I looked away, realizing I had been full blown staring at them and prayed as our server took our orders that he would be looking away.
"Now's your chance, Miyuki." Hideki said before turning to rattle off our orders.
"Chance for what?" I growled.
"To bug whichever one of them you were going to start with." Kyoske said.
I looked over to Sakura, taking in her excited expression, her glittering emerald eyes. I had decided Sakura was my way in. She was the most gullible of the group in my opinion, good grades aside. Having some idle girl talk would be the be all the invitation I needed.
"Sakura." I muttered.
"Nice." Kyoske said.
"I would have chosen Uzumaki." Kyoske said. "He looks easy to fool."
I nodded and felt my eyes shift over to Naruto. True, he did look like an easy person to fool but I also feared he was smarter than he came off. I felt like overall he was underestimated and I didn't want me making him my first target, playing with his emotions to be the ammo that Orochimaru needed to push him over the edge. Jinchūriki were emotional creatures and if they got too worked up the seal holding their demons in place could break or crack and that small slip of power could do worlds of damage or worse get Naruto killed.
"Sakura is perfect. She's smart but…naïve." I said. "More so than Naruto."
Kyoske nodded as our server turned and sauntered over to Team 7's table. They prattled off their orders, Naruto and Sakura with smiles and Sasuke with closed eyes and lips pressed into a hard line. Either way, the server walked away looking infatuated with him.
"Charming." Hideki muttered.
"Doesn't even have to try." Kyoske said and shook his head. "Boy's got skills."
"But he doesn't care." I said.
"I'll be right back." Sakura said with a flip of her hair.
"Okay." Naruto said.
"Don't eat all the food either, Naruto." Sakura growled as she walked away.
"Huh? Sakura! I won't! That was one time!" He called after her. I watched from the corner of my eye as Sakura walked to the ladies' room and disappeared behind the door.
"I'll be right back." I said, rising from the booth. Hideki stepped out of my way and when I turned to walk I found both Naruto and Sasuke staring right at me. Naruto looked shocked, his mouth slightly open while Sasuke had his arms propped up on the table on his elbows and his hands were folded in front of his mouth. His dark eyes felt like they were digging deep into my soul and I felt my palms itch.
"Whoa." Naruto said, a light blush form on his cheeks.
I didn't give them another glance. I turned on my heels and started down the hall toward the bathroom and walked in just in time to see Sakura turn on the water. I shut the door behind me and walked to the sink right beside hers, noting the small glance she shot me in my direction even though she had tried to be sneaky about it.
I turned on the faucet and dipped my hands into the running water. She was analytical and I knew curiosity would get to her. I was an unfamiliar face in the land of her birth and better yet I was a kunoichi from another village. I tried to give her a view of the forehead protector fastened to my bicep.
She finished washing her hands and reached for a towel. I scrubbed between my fingers and when I was done I turned off the faucet and our eyes met. I watched her shoulders stiffen slightly and realized she had probably been staring at me and was scared she had been caught and too slow to look away.
"Hi." I offered, forcing a kind smile onto my lips.
She seemed taken a back for a moment but slowly, a shaky smile spread across her lips. She had big eyes, pert nose, and a shy smile. She seemed a bit taken a back by my greeting but quickly got over it, offering me a more confident smile.
"Hello." She said with a breath.
"I'm sorry, you just looked, you're so, I'm…sorry." She was blushing by the end of it and looked about as red as a tomato.
"It's alright." I smiled as I reached for a towel to dry my hands.
"I just thought I knew you from somewhere." Sakura said sheepishly, sticking her tongue out a little bit as she shrugged it off.
I laughed lightly. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
Sakura nodded. "I'm Sakura. Sakura Haruno."
She offered a hand and I looked down at it. She didn't recognize me and I was sure during my fight with Zabuza that Kyoske had shouted my name. I wasn't going to lie about anything, I would welcome the association with open arms, but I hesitated a brief second.
I slipped my hand into hers before she could pull her hand away and deepened my smile.
"Miyuki. Miyuki Obanji."
I stared into her eyes, waiting or it to click, waiting for recognition to flash but nothing came. Nothing happened. Sakura merely nodded appreciatively and pulled her hand away.
"Nice to meet you Miyuki." She said and then looked down at my forehead protector. "You visiting from the Land of Water?"
Her question made me hesitate. It meant she had no idea what was going on or what was going to be happening in a week. She didn't know about the Chunin Exams which meant the White Fang hadn't told her or her team.
I nodded. "Yeah, a much needed vacation I guess you can say. All funded by our sensei."
Sakura nodded. "That's great! Is it your first time in Konoha?"
I nodded again. "Yeah. We're just enjoying the sights so far."
"You'll love it here. I'm sure it's much different than what you're used to in the Land of Water." Sakura said.
I smiled. Kirigakure was a sleepy town in the middle of mist and fog. Nothing much happened and it was always so eerily quiet. Konoha was the exact opposite.
"It is. We're trying to get in all the sights before we go back home." I said. "But we're not so good with reading everything in a book. It's always so easy to write things down on paper you know and play it up but when you get there it looks like everything else, nothing special. It would be nice to have a native walk us through."
Sakura nodded. "For sure, hey if you want I don't mind telling you a few places to check out. We can't today because we have something with our sensei in a few but we could meet up this week to show you around."
My eyes sparkled. "Really Sakura? You'd do that?"
She nodded and I reached for her hands, holding them between my own.
"Thank you! That means so much!" I said.
"It's no problem at all, Miyuki. My team and I would be happy to show you around."
"You're a total lifesaver." I said as we left the bathroom together.
I could feel Kyoske's and Hideki's eyes on us but nothing was more painfully obvious than Naruto's eyes and gaping mouth as he watched us exit the bathroom laughing as if we were the best of friends.
We reached her table and she motioned to her teammates.
"These are my friends. Naruto and Sasuke." Sakura said, motioning to them.
"Guys this is Miyuki." Sakura said.
"It's nice to meet you." I said, giving them a small wave.
"Miyuki…" Naruto said and I watched it all click in his head.
"I know you." He said, his eyes serious.
"Huh?" Sakura asked. Sasuke's eyes cut over to the blonde and in that moment I knew what the two of them were thinking. How could Naruto know me? Naruto of all people.
"Yeah I remember you. Don't you remember her, Sakura?" Naruto asked and then blushed up at me. "You're that girl from the Land of Waves."
Recognition worked its way onto Sakura's face and she took a step back, her hand shooting up to cover her face just as our table servers returned with our sizzling meals. They set them down and I watched as both servers shot Sasuke glances before giggling to the kitchen.
"Now I remember you!" Sakura said. "That was you, you and your sensei."
I held up my hands. "You got me."
"What are you doing here?" Naruto asked, his eyes innocent.
"She said she was on vacation with her team." Sakura said and her eyes found Kyoske and Hideki who of course had been watching their table with stern faces. Sakura looked back at me, an edge in her eyes. "Is that even true?"
"Relax pinky." Kyoske called.
"Kyoske." I said, shooting him a dark look. "Be nice."
Sakura was flushing and I could see her biting down her words before she turned to me again, demanding answers.
"We are on vacation and yes I—we remember you from the Land of Waves." I smiled. "But it's purely coincidence."
"So you are on vacation?" Sakura asked.
"We are hardworking shinobi." Kyoske said. "I'd say every now and then we'd deserve a break."
"So these are the other two who were under those other ANBU masks?" Sakura asked, looking at my teammates.
I nodded. "Yes Kyoske and Hideki."
The boys gave a small wave, Kyoske a bored one and Hideki a curt hand raise.
Naruto nodded at the boys and then looked up at me. "In the Land of Waves your sensei and ours…what…how do they know each other?"
"Really, kid you're going to ask that in this place?" Kyoske asked, and I watched Hideki kick him under the table.
"We'll tell you what we know if you tell us what you know." Hideki wagered.
Sasuke's eyes narrowed.
White Fang seemed to be just as mysterious and tight lipped as our sensei was. I had imagined their questions as soon as we left, and now that they were asking us for information, it was clear they had no idea who he was and if they did, they didn't understand.
"Sounds fair." Sakura said and looked down at her teammates as if for confirmation. Her eyes lingered on Sasuke's hard glare for a moment before she looked up and smiled tightly at me.
We moved our tables together then and I took a seat beside Naruto which made him blush an even deeper shade of scarlet.
"Alright, where do we start?" Hideki asked.
"Start with the reason you were in the Land of Waves to begin with." Sasuke demanded, earning a look from everyone at the table.
Kyoske smirked. "Sasuke, huh? Sasuke what?"
Sasuke looked at him, his expression hard. "Sasuke Uchiha."
"Oh an Uchiha…interesting." Kyoske smirked.
A silence fell over the table until I leaned forward and all eyes landed on me.
"We were in the Land of Waves on a mission." I said.
"You would remember if you hadn't gotten your ass handed to you." Kyoske added and Sasuke glared at him.
"On a mission to take out the crime lord Gato which Zabuza was kind enough to deal with before he passed." I explained.
"But you were dressed as ANBU." Naruto said.
I nodded. "We were, it was because we didn't want to be questioned. ANBU shows up to a battle and no questions are asked. They go in and get out."
"But we arrived and were attacked by your sensei." Hideki said and he looked at the Leaf ninja. "Why?"
"Because that was the same alibi as Haku." Sakura explained.
"Haku?" Kyoske repeated. "Who's that?"
"Haku was Zabuza's right hand man." Sasuke said. "Before Kakashi killed him."
"By accident." Naruto added. "He jumped in front of the way."
"How noble." Kyoske said dryly.
"And your sensei?" Sakura asked. "She removed her mask after everything."
"She did." I nodded.
"But before we launch into a discussion about our sensei let's do this. A question for a question." Kyoske said. "You had your turn and now it's our turn."
The Leaf shinobi stiffened, well Sakura and Naruto did. Sasuke still had his hands folded in front of his mouth and if anything the coldness in his eyes hardened.
"Fair enough." Naruto agreed.
"Your sensei, what was with his words. He thought our sensei was dead, what's up with that?" Kyoske asked.
Naruto and Sakura exchanged a look and it was clear then that they had no idea what it was about.
"After everything, we were focused on burying Haku and Zabuza and taking care of Sasuke." Sakura said. "When we got around to asking questions…Kakashi…he…he didn't give us any answers."
"Do you even know who your sensei is? The names he goes by?" Kyoske asked.
"Zabuza called him the Copy Cat ninja once, but it was because he has the Sharingan." Sakura said.
"Sharingan?" Kyoske said and exchanged a look with me.
"Only Uchiha's have that." I said.
"And last I checked there's only one and he's sitting at this table." Hideki said. "And he has both eyes intact."
Sakura nodded. "That's the only name we know."
"He's also called the White Fang, which is the name we're most familiar with in our land." I said.
"White Fang?" Sasuke repeated.
"He's a strong shinobi and he's saved our village in the past. Without his interference we wouldn't be here." Kyoske said.
"So that's how they know each other?" Naruto asked.
"Kakashi-sensei said everyone in his past life was dead." Sasuke said.
"That explains why he was so stunned afterwards." Sakura said. "When she revealed herself, he turned as white as paper."
"Our sensei lives for that shock factor effect." Kyoske said stretching.
I slid a piece of sizzling meat onto my plate and nodded. I couldn't argue with that. Megumi-sensei lived for the shocking and scaring people and what made it even better was that she was actually great at it. She could slit your throat in a crowded room and no one would see her, but everyone would be horrified afterwards.
"So that's all you know?" Sakura asked.
I nodded. "Scout's honor."
"We were hoping you knew more." Hideki said. "Our sensei didn't tell us much of anything. In fact, she didn't want to talk about it at all."
"That's all we know." Naruto said and then looked at me sheepishly.
"Something wrong, kid?" Kyoske said.
Naruto's eyes widened and he laughed lightly, scratching the back of his head as all eyes landed on me.
"Huh? N-nothing."
"You sure? You keep looking at my teammate like you have some sort of problem." Kyoske grumbled before fixing a glare on Sasuke who had been glaring at him for the past few minutes. "Much like Uchiha here keeps glaring at me."
"Kyoske." I snapped.
"Excuse our partner." Hideki said, earning a few looks. "He's bad with manners."
"If he has a problem, he should speak. I'm dying to know." Kyoske said.
"I'm just looking because she's…she's like really pretty." Naruto said, completely missing the fact that the issue wasn't with his staring but with Sasuke's.
"Hmph." Sasuke said, unfolding his hands and leaning back in his seat. "I don't have a problem but the fact that you think I do shows how nervous you are."
Kyoske's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
"If you're nervous it means there's a part of your story that isn't true which makes me wonder exactly what that might be." Sasuke said.
"Sasuke." Sakura said, her eyes filled with worry.
"You're one to talk considering by the time we showed up you were knocked out, Uchiha." Kyoske said. "So you have no right to sit there and tear apart our words when you can't even begin to imagine what happened."
"I can actually." Sasuke said. "It sounds like you three show up just as Gato does with this big speech about how you're going to take him out. Gato dies and you three disappear only to come back a week later, in our village and sending in your teammate to talk to ours."
Kyoske tensed.
"I'm just pointing out suspicious you are, that's all." Sasuke said.
"We are on vacation." I said before Kyoske could explode and Sasuke's eyes cut over to me.
"It's coincidence, really."
"Then why didn't you tell Sakura who you were?" Sasuke asked.
My hands balled into tight fists under the table and I squeezed my eyes shut, lowering my head. My mind raced. He knew how to get under people's skin and while he was a long way from coming under mine I knew if I didn't come up with an answer soon, Kyoske would be jumping across the table to strangle the kid.
I opened my eyes and found that my vision was a little blurry around the edges. I remembered then, Sakura holding Sasuke in her arms, tears streaming down her face as she sobbed, thinking he was dead.
"I didn't want to…I didn't say anything because I didn't want her to get upset." I sniffed.
"Upset?" Naruto asked, concern in his eyes.
"When we got there, to the Land of Waves," I looked around the table, tears shining in my eyes as everyone looked at me, mystified, even Sasuke.
"When we got to the Land of Waves Sakura was crying because she thought you were dead." I sniffed and then lifted a hand to swipe at a stray tear. "I didn't want to put her through that again."
I was met with stunned looks at the table. even Hideki and Kyoske were stunned as they looked at me and slowly, very slowly, Hideki placed a gentle hand on my shoulder as I continued to wipe away my tears.
Sakura's expression softened and she nodded at me, her eyes burning with the memory. Naruto nodded slowly and Sasuke just stared at me a look caught somewhere between shock and confusion.
"Happy now jerk?" Kyoske asked. "Now you made Miyuki upset."
"Sasuke." Naruto said, earning a dark look from the boy.
"We should leave." Hideki said and rose from the table. He offered me his hand and I took it, allowing him to pull me up to my feet.
"He's sorry." Naruto said. "For upsetting you."
"It's too late for apologies but she'll take it." Kyoske said.
I continued to sniff and wipe at my eyes but managed a nod in Naruto's direction.
"I'm sorry if we upset you but I hope this doesn't put a damper on things." I sniffed. "We're really grateful to have met you guys even though our original meeting wasn't ideal."
"Same here." Sakura said. "Miyuki, we're sorry. Please, please stay. We won't…we won't even talk about the Land of Waves anymore."
"Nice offer, but we'll have to pass." Kyoske said.
"Unfortunately, we should be heading back to our apartment to unpack." Hideki said. "Hopefully we meet again."
"I hope that tour still stands, Sakura." I sniffed.
Sakura nodded. "Of course."
"This is where we're staying." Kyoske said, sliding his slip of paper on their table. "We'll be around."
I gave one final sniff before allowing the boys to lead me out of the shop and once we were outside and walking away, I composed myself, brushing my hair from my face and blinking my eyes rapidly to dry away the dampness in my eyes.
"Nice job back there." Hideki said.
"The water works really threw him off." Kyoske snickered.
"I had to do something." I said. "You two weren't helping."
"Well now we made him feel bad." Kyoske said. "I'm sure he'll be around soon to beg for forgiveness."
"Then he owes you." Hideki said. "Use that to your advantage."
"Of course." I said, unfastening my hair from it's braid, and working my fingers through it. "He doesn't get the chance to show us up at that table and try and push us around."
"Exactly." Hideki said.
"But he's good at finding the little things." Kyoske said. "Gotta give him credit there."
"Which means we have to be on our toes with him." Hideki said.
"I'll have him eating out of the palm of my hand by the time the Chunin Exams roll around." I promised. "Nothing to worry about."
It would be difficult because something told me nothing was easy when it came to Sasuke Uchiha. He hadn't seen my waterworks coming which means it was easy to throw him off but for how long I wasn't sure. He was suspicious of us and Kyoske sliding the address across the table was a good idea because it showed we had nothing to fear.