"Forehead-chan! Where is Sasuke-kun?"
Ino was waving from the entrance of the main mission building. Shikamaru lounged behind her and Choji munched from his ever present bag of chips. Not for the first time, Sakura wondered where the plump boy kept all his snacks. If it was some arcane jutsu, he might be a more powerful ninja than any of them.
"Pig-chan! None of your business." Sakura was grateful for the distraction. Ever since Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves, Team Seven's moral was low. Yes, they had successfully caught Tora, but they had failed the mission. Sakura had been so positive she was doing well- using her team's strengths, using the mission as a training opportunity- but she forgot something totally obvious. None of Naruto's encouragement changed that.
Their low mood was also brought on because Kakashi had managed to finish most of their lunch when they were finding Tora. Sakura could almost imagine what he'd say: 'If I had been given something to do, I wouldn't have had time to eat, right Sakura-chan?' He was the most aggravating teacher! Sasuke had elected to take the bento boxes home and meet them at the mission office after they returned the cat.
"Awwww! You caught Tora-chan?" Ino smirked at her, "How long did it take this time? Three hours?"
"An hour," Sakura announced. Actually, she was proud of that. It was a huge improvement over their last attempt, Kakashi-sensei helping or no. "And that was mostly because Kakashi-sensei was teaching us new traps."
"Well," Ino flipped her hair behind her shoulder, "We're still faster."
"By fifteen minutes," Sakura challenged.
"Want to bet?" Ino leaned forward, hands on her hips and eyes alight with competition, "Next time Team 10's going to find Tora in less than a half hour!" Behind her, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and Naruto scoffed.
"Yeah?" Naruto, never one to be left out of a challenge, slung his arm around Sakura's shoulders and adjusted his forehead protector, "Then Team 7 will do it in twenty minutes! Believe-!"
Tora yaowled in a panic and ripped himself from Sakura's arms- opening up a long gash in her shoulder. The cat shaped streak disappeared into the bushes as fast as its tiny legs could carry it.
"Naruto! You know you can't get near Tora when I'm holding him!" Sakura scolded. The cat was damn terrified of Naruto- ready to lash out at anything and everything to get away, which was why Sakura had the dubious honor of carrying him back.
"Sorry, Sakura-" Naruto muttered. He brightened quickly though. "But hey! Maybe we can use this as a competition?"
Ino's eyes lit up. "Yeah! Team 10 vs. Team 7. Whoever catches Tora first is the-"
"Did someone lose a cat?"
Six heads swiveled to stare as Team 8 came around the corner. Tora meowed pitifully and struggled to escape, but Kiba had him in a firm grip by the scruff of his neck. He was smiling hugely, a dango stick stuck between his teeth. Hinata, upon seeing the group, immediately blushed and ducked behind Shino who appeared- well, who could tell what Shino was thinking?
Naruto slumped and Ino groused. That was an unexpected resolution to that competition.
"Thanks." Sakura said as she took the cat from Kiba, "You saved us a lot of hassle."
"Or fun." Naruto muttered under his breath.
"Catching this cat is not fun," Shino said, "Why? Because it is an easy mission."
"Psha." Ino muttered, "How long does it take you?"
Kiba glanced back at his team, "Five minutes?" He asked. Hinata nodded, ducking deeper into her coat.
"FIVE MINUTES!" Naruto's jaw was on the ground. "But-but- how!"
"Because we're obviously the best team!" Kiba grinned wildly and struck a pose while his puppy barked in agreement. The cat yowled again.
"No, but how?" Sakura was genuinely curious, "It used to take us two hours. We only found it by accident when Naruto scared it out of a tree."
"It is simple," Shino held out his hands for Tora and Sakura relinquished the cat, much to the cat's dismay. "Why? Because I have marked it." He dug his finger into Tora's coat and withdrew a tiny insect on the tip of his finger. It waved it's antennae in the air happily. Sakura remembered back to one of her and Ino's debates on clan politics. Konoha was unusually gifted in specialized clans. One of which were the Abruame and their deep connection with insects. Some insects were bred to be poisonous, some to drain chakra, others to act as sentries.
"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed, "You have a tracking colony! That must be the female and the males you have can smell her. Clever." She said in admiration. Damn, she wished she had thought to mark the damn cat- it was a pity none of Team 7 had a blood line limit like those.
"Yes." Shino said simply, "it is." He gently replaced the tiny bug who disappeared into Tora's fur and handed her back to Sakura. The cat clung to her like a life preserver. Clearly, it was not fond of either Akamaru or Shino's bugs.
"Yeah! And that's not all!" Kiba bragged, "Akamaru and I can sniff out the cat if it's too far away and Hinata can look for it in the underbrush. There's nowhere for it to hide!"
Ino and Sakura exchanged a look. It was hard to compete with that skill level and those techniques. Silently and mutually they agreed to drop Find Tora as a point of rivalry.
"Out of luck today. No more D rank missions." Asuma sensei trailed out of the mission office and greeted his team. Ino sighed in aggravation but Asuma only smiled and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. "We could try showing up earlier."
Team 10 shared a look and Sakura could almost see the train of thoughts. Yes, they technically, physically could show up to the mission office earlier. They could run around the city doing menial chores that Ino found beneath her and Shikamaru found troublesome. Choji's first choice of anything was to eat. But then Ino caught Sakura watching her and her expression hardened.
"Alright," She agreed and turned to her team mates, jaw set. "Tomorrow we are showing up at 9 and getting the best mission." Asuma's eyebrows lifted in amusement and Shikamaru groaned. Kiba snickered something that sounded like "whipped" to Shino.
"Kiba." A woman materialized behind the boy and laid a hand on his head. He immediately flushed.
"Sorry, Kurenai-sensei." Kiba muttered. Oh, so that was their teacher. Sakura had never seen the red-eyed jounin before- she was really pretty.
"Oh, Kurenai, my team is going to head to lunch," Asuma grinned around his cigarette, "Would you like to come with us? They have a great sake bar," He prompted as she seemed to hesitate.
"I am interested in seeing these debates you brag about," She allowed.
"Great- in that case," Asuma turned to her, "It's a little early, but would you mind joining us?"
Before Sakura could answer, Naruto cupped a hand around her ear. She clamped down on Tora before he could run off again. "Hey-hey Sakura-chan, can Sasuke and I come with you?" Maybe he was trying to be quiet, but it didn't work. Ino's sharp ears picked up the question and her eyes immediately brightened.
"Oh yes! You have to bring your team, Sakura! It will be an Academy reunion!" Sakura gave her a flat look. As if. The only thing Ino probably wanted was to sit next to Sasuke and make goo-goo eyes. Though if she did that, her concentration would probably be nil, which means that Sakura could win this debate handily and-
"Yeah! Let's do that!" Sakura grinned. She really needed a win right now after their last mission. "We'll drop Tora off and meet you at the restaurant?"
"Don't forget Sasuke-kun!" Ino sang with a wave as Team 10 and Team 8 headed down the street. Kiba immediately began discussing how the Uchiha wasn't that great and did Ino know they had done a C-rank mission? Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto and they went to return the poor, traumatized cat. Maybe it would think twice before escaping this time.
A/N: This was a hard chapter to write, because there were so many characters. I wasn't sure how to juggle the keeping the dialogue fast paced and in character while not having certain characters disappear into the background. But that's why I'm glad to be writing this story! It's teaching me lots of things!
