Chapter 7:

The guardposts, as Sasuke had expected, proved to be just as unfruitful as everything else had been. That is, until they got to the last one. The two chuunin manning (or rather, womanning) the station said that they hadn't been there during the day or night before Sayuri turned up in the training field, but allowed Team 7 to look through the logbooks. Sasuke had a feeling that this was partially because they wanted to play with Sayuri, but he wasn't about to complain.

"Hey, hey, look at this!" Naruto shouted after a few minutes. He and Sasuke had quarreled over who read the log, ending up taking turns. Sasuke came over from making sure Sayuri wasn't mishandled and read the entry Naruto was pointing to.

"They saw a giant bird?"

"Yeah, isn't it cool?" Naruto beamed.

Sasuke ran one hand through his hair in frustration. "And what has that got to do with a baby, hmm?"

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. I just thought it was interesting."

Snatching the book from Naruto's grasp (ignoring his protests), Sasuke read the entry in question. "It says that the bird was seen passing over at 7 in the morning, two days ago. That would have been shortly before we arrived at the training field."

"Do you think the bird might have dropped Sayuri-chan here?" Sakura said. "But then, she could have some from anywhere!"

"I don't know," Sasuke replied. "It's the only lead so far, and bird summons aren't unknown—although why one of them would grab a baby and randomly drop her again, I don't know."

"But—" Sakura frowned. "When we found Sayuri-chan, there weren't any marks or rips in her blanket. If a bird had carried her off, wouldn't there be something like that?"

Sasuke sighed. "Then we're back to square one again. Come on, let's go. Sakura and I still have some shopping to do."

Naruto insisted on being allowed to come on this shopping trip, and Sasuke permitted it, if only to have another person to argue against Sayuri being forced to wear pink. Of course, Naruto favored orange, but there was only so much Sasuke could do about that. There wasn't a whole lot of orange baby clothing available, fortunately.

By the time they left, they had a much more sensible wardrobe for Sayuri; a few onesies with scattered patterns of frogs and chicks (courtesy of Naruto), two light blue dresses and several knit shirts of the same color (Sasuke had chosen these—there were no darker shades of blue available, in the girl baby clothes at least), and a double-breasted pink coat with a hood and matching mittens and booties (Sakura's sole contribution).

Sakura helped Sasuke put Sayuri down for a nap after they arrived back at his house with their purchases. Naruto was removing all the tags from the clothes when Kakashi poofed into the room.

"Hello, everyone!" he said cheerfully. "How are we today?"

"A lot better before you turned up," Sasuke grumbled. Sayuri had woken up with Kakashi's abrupt appearance, and was now loudly signifying her displeasure.

"…Ah," Kakashi said, quickly taking in the situation. "I see. Well, I just thought I should let you know that tomorrow I will have a C-rank mission for us, so I want to see everyone bright and early!"

"What, another C-rank mission, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Sasuke could guess what was going through her mind.

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan, I have it on good authority that it will be an actual C-rank this time," Kakashi assured her.

"But what about Sayuri-chan?" Naruto protested.

"Well, have you been trying to find her parents?"

"We went everywhere that should have had information on her, if anyone was looking," Sasuke replied. "No one had any idea who she was or where she could have come from."

"Yeah, yeah!" Naruto affirmed. "One of the guardposts saw a giant bird, but Sakura-chan said that Sayuri didn't have any claw marks in her blanket, so we don't know anything."

"Hmm…" Kakashi bent to look at Sayuri, who had gotten tired of crying at this point, since it wasn't doing her any good. She grabbed the edge of his mask, although he pulled her tiny fingers away before she could pull it off. "A giant bird, you say?"

"Yeah, but…it doesn't mean anything…does it?" Sakura asked.

"It depends. Did any of you happen to think that there might have been someone riding the giant bird?"

The three genin looked at each other in consternation and Kakashi sighed. "Clearly you were not paying enough attention when summons were covered in the academy. You keep looking for clues in your free time, and I'll poke into this giant bird business a bit. I have access to some information that's rather more classified. Anyway, remember; tomorrow's a C-rank mission, so rest up!"

He vanished again. Sayuri stared curiously at the place where he had been standing before returning her attention to the butterfly.

"You know," Naruto said, "he never did say what we were supposed to do with Sayuri on the mission."

"Yeah…maybe we could get one of the other girls to babysit. Tenten might—"

"No," Sasuke said firmly. He didn't want anyone outside of Team 7 near Sayuri unless he could be nearby to make sure everything went according to his specifications. "You heard what Kakashi said, we need to get ready for the mission tomorrow."

Sakura sighed reluctantly, gently patting Sayuri on the head before heading out the door, Naruto in tow. "Bye-bye, Sayuri-chan. See you tomorrow, Sasuke-kun!"

"Sure," Sasuke said absently. He was already occupied with finding a solution to his latest problem. What was he supposed to do with Sayuri tomorrow? He couldn't leave her with anyone else, but how could he bring her along?