Leiko and Haru waited impatiently by the entrance of the village, their backs leaning against each other as they stared at the ground with equal boredom.
"She is late," the strange young shinobi commented, placing his hand on the ground next to him. Leiko reached out behind her and grasped it, interlacing her fingers with his.
"I know," she said with a smirk. "But at least she's not here to bother us."
"You say that like it is a good thing… they say humans under the age of fifteen should not develop feelings of our magnitude or else risk premature death, or something of the sort. Perhaps Sayomi is more beneficial to us than you think. Her constant interference—"
"Oh, shut up, Haru," Leiko said with a broad smile, and Haru hushed instantly. "Who cares that we're still kids? There's something called puppy love, you know that, right? And puppy love always turns into real love once we 'humans' reach that age." She let go of his hand, turned around, and kissed him on the cheek, watching in amusement as his pale face turned red from embarrassment.
"See?" she said with a smug grin. "You like it."
"Leiko! Haru!"
The kids looked up the road and saw Sayomi approaching, hand in hand with Kankuro. Gaara, Temari, and two of the Kazekage's bodyguards were following them.
"Seeeeeeeee?" Leiko teased, poking Haru in the shoulder. "Sayomi's going out with Kankuro, and that's allowed." Haru rolled his eyes as Leiko flounced over to the only adult she recognized. She clasped her hands in front of her and smiled.
"Yūra-sensei, thank you for accompanying us on this most important mission," she said politely, and he nodded in approval. Of course Sayomi would convince Yūra to come. He was her mentor, after all. She turned to the other man and gave a similar low bow, which both Sayomi and Haru followed. "Thank you, Stranger-sama, for coming as well. I'm sure those three are very grateful," she added, nodding towards the Subaku siblings. The man only gave a grunt, which matched Gaara's as he crossed his arms. Yeesh. What a creeper.
"Alright!" Sayomi said with a cheerful grin, which made Gaara's mood even fouler, it seemed. "Let's get going! These Chūnin Exams aren't gonna wait forever!"
The next morning…
I smell something really good.
That's the first thing that came into my head when I woke up. I yawned and stretched, sitting up in my bed and looking around. Yep, my room was basically still a mess, but I didn't really care. My first priority was finding out where that smell was coming from… that really good, tasty smell that reminded me of the fact that I hadn't eaten dinner the night before.
My stomach growled, and I ordered it to shut up. Getting up out of bed, I followed my nose until it led me to the door. The door… that smelled really yummy…
Get it together, man! I thought as I turned the door handle. I blinked a couple of times. There, in all her annoyingness, was Sachi with a tray of food in her hands. Her eyes were wide with surprise, and she stared at me with her lips in an 'oo' shape. She paused for a moment, and then her eyes broke out into a grin.
"Morning, Naruto!" she said, shoving the tray into my face. "I brought you some breakfast!"
I looked at all of the food and my mouth began to water. I reached out to grab a dumpling, but she pulled the tray away from me and smirked.
"Whaaat?" I asked, totally annoyed. She smirked even more, sticking out her tongue.
"Don't you know any manners?" she asked, her eyes squeezed shut as she smiled. "If a stranger appears on your doorstep with an offering of food, it is only customary to welcome them into your home as a guest."
"Yeah, except you're not a stranger," I replied, attempting to take more food. But she held it out of my reach. "You're on my team. Now fork it over!"
She clicked her tongue and pushed past me into my apartment.
"Hey! Get back here with the goods!" I shouted, attempting to grab her, but she ducked out of my reach, instead waltzing into the kitchen like she was in her own goddamn house. She set the tray onto the table and looked around, putting her hands on her hips.
"Man, this place is a mess," she commented, shaking her head. I turned, rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.
"Yeah, well… I haven't really had the chance to clean up yet," I answered, kicking a box of scrolls back under the table where she had put the food. "I spent all day training yesterday, so I couldn't really do anything. Speaking of which, where the heck were you all day?"
"Oh, you know… doing some stuff," Sachi answered, sitting down and pulling an onigiri out of her sleeve. She took a bite and began to munch on it happily. I sat across from her and grabbed the tray.
"Boy, you're kinda snatchy, aren't you?" she said, her eyes closed as she took another bite. I gritted my teeth, but the smell of the food made me calm down.
Stupid girls… I thought, slurping the miso soup that she had brought me. I paused after the first sip.
"Wow, this is… really good!" I commented, my thought from before vanishing.
"Of course it is," Sachi replied, finishing her onigiri. "I made it."
My eye twitched as she said that, and I slammed the empty bowl down, jumping up and pointing my finger at her.
"Just who exactly do you think you are?" I shouted, my fist clenching at my side while my other hand poked at the air. "You think you can just come in here and do whatever the hell you want, say whatever the hell you want, and act like you're the most amazing thing in the world! This is still my apartment, and I can kick you out if I want to!"
Sachi looked up as she poured herself a cup of tea and grinned, putting the pot back down. "Okay!" she squeaked cheerfully. She stood up, taking the tray with her.
"Wait… what are you doing?" I asked. She smirked over her shoulder.
"Taking my food and my tray back to my apartment, where I'm gonna eat it all by myself, and you'll just have to settle for cereal with milk, which should be spoiled since it's been on your countertop since yesterday morning," she replied matter-of-factly. "I would think that being sixteen should have taught you that milk goes bad if it isn't put in the refrigerator."
"I know that, I know that!" I insisted. Sachi shrugged, heading out of the door.
"I never said you didn't; I said you should," she answered with an annoyingly girly nick of her shoulder. I ran in front of her, blocking her from going any further. There was meat in those dumplings, and I knew it would be a waste to let her eat them in my place, since she never ate anything as it was and the food would probably end up in the garbage. I grabbed the tray.
"Gimme the food!" I said, tugging on the tray. Sachi tugged harder, pulling it towards her.
"No way! It's mine, get your own!" she snapped. Something about her girly tone and cute little face made me want to fight with her more.
"But you were going to give it to me anyways, so what's the point in wasting it on yourself?" I argued, pulling it back.
"Let go, Naruto! Let go and… grow up…!"
"No, you let go!" I shouted back.
"No, you!"
"No, you!"
"No, YOU!" Sachi squeaked. Her final yank sent the tray flying over her head towards the table. Food was sailing through the air as we cried out in shock.
"The food!" I shouted, lunging for the tray.
"The mess!" Sachi answered with similar passion, and ran after me.
The next few seconds were probably some of the most amazing seconds I have ever had in my life. Sachi was way faster than me, so she managed to catch the food and put it back on the table using her incredible speed. I, on the other hand, slipped on some spilled tea and skidded right into her. Wait, scratch that. I skidded forward, knocked her over, and landed in her boobs.
Right when Sakura walked in.
"HENTAI~!"
Long story short, after the pink-haired demon had dragged us all the way to the Hokage's office by our ears, Sachi and I were just about ready to kill each other.
"Sakura-chaaaaaaaan…" Sachi whined, rubbing her sore earlobe. "Did you have to pull on my ears that hard? It hurt."
"You'll be alright," Sakura answered coldly.
"What happened to you guys?" Tsunade asked, looking us over. I glared at Sachi, and she glared at me before we both pointed at each other in silence. Tsunade shook her head.
"Great. I thought we'd be getting some talent around here, and not another Naruto," she mumbled and I growled.
"Why does it always have to be me, huh?" I asked loudly. "This one over here started the whole thing by bringing me breakfast-"
"Which, by the way, was meant as a gesture of kindness and not means to start a stupid fight!" Sachi interjected, poking me in the forehead. I slapped her hand away.
"Listen you! I-"
"ALRIGHT IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP RIGHT NOW I'M GONNA SEND YOU BOTH TO DO HARD LABOR INSTEAD OF GIVING YOU A REAL MISSION!" Tsunade shouted, banging her fist on the desk. We stared at her in shock and disgrace.
"Yes, ma'am…" we mumbled in unison, hanging our heads. Tsunade grumbled something unintelligible and I looked back over at Sachi, who was fiddling with her hair.
"Alright, here we go, a nice C-class delivery mission," Tsunade said, pulling out a scroll. She frowned as she looked over the assignment.
"That's weird…" she said, and Sachi looked up.
"I like weird things!" she answered with a giggle. "Especially if they're dangerous!"
"Well then, this should be perfect for you," the Hokage said with a smirk. "Whoever submitted this request submitted it anonymously. They want a package delivered to someone who lives in the outskirts of the Land of the Wind. Pay is to be collected upon arrival."
"Kaze no Kuni?!" Sakura and I yelped simultaneously.
"YAAAY!" Sachi squealed. "I get to go back home! … Or, at least, close to home." She ran over to Lady Tsunade and hugged her tightly. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthan kyou! I've wanted to go home from the moment I left!"
"This isn't… that kind… of mission, Sachi," Tsunade replied, prying the girl off of her. "You all have a time limit, so there's no room for sightseeing or detours. The person wants it submitted in three days tops, which isn't a lot of time to cover this kind of distance."
Sachi smiled. "Oh please, it's just a little package. We should be fine, Lady Tsunade! Did they say who the package was for?" she replied.
"Yes… well, no, not really. They just requested for a shinobi team to hand-deliver a package to the residence of a certain Mr. Bento in a small village on the cliffside bordering the country."
"Sorry I'm late."
We turned around just as Kakashi-sensei entered the room.
"Good morning, Sensei!" Sachi said, waving cheerfully.
"Oh. Hi there," he replied monotonously. "Did I miss anything important?"
"Not a thing!" she answered. "Sakura, Naruto, and I just got a new mission! I'm going home, can you believe it?" She was almost bouncing up and down with happiness. "We get to deliver a package to Mr. Bento, and it's really cool and mysterious because whoever submitted it did it anonymously, and Lady Tsunade says that it might be hard to do because there's so little time, and… and… and I'm just so excited!"
"Is that so?" Kakashi-sensei replied, raising an eyebrow. He turned to me. "And what about you? Are you ready to go on another mission?"
Sachi giggled. "Yeah, after your last one was a total fail, teehee!"
"Ugh, shut up!" I shouted, balling my fists, and Sachi smiled innocently. I glared at her. "How did you even find out about that, huh? It's not like you were there."
"Oh, you know…" she said, flipping her wrist casually. "Word gets 'round."
I growled at her, turning back to Kakashi-sensei. "Yeah, I'm ready. Bring it on!"
"What about you, Sakura?" he asked. "Do you think you can handle these two?"
"Oh yeah," she replied, cracking her knuckles with one of those evil smiles on her face. "No problem at all, Sensei."
[-]
"Ugh, what is taking her so long?!" Naruto asked impatiently. "I wanna get outta here already!"
"Well, we did say eleven o' clock, and it's only ten fifty," I answered, leaning against the column of the gate. "Maybe next time you should tell her to come as soon as possible."
"Hi guys!"
"GAAAAAH!"
"What was that for?" Naruto asked, turning red, and Sachi giggled.
"Did I scare you or something?" she asked, and I grinned at her, pointing at Naruto.
"Nah. He just felt like jumping twenty feet into the air," I explained, and she giggled again.
"That's not true!" Naruto insisted. "Not even a baby would be scared of you!"
Sachi shrugged, pulling out the package that we were supposed to deliver. "I know I kept you guys waiting, but I had to go pick up the package from the deliveries office in the Hokage Tower."
"That's okay, we weren't waiting long, although Naruto seems to think otherwise," I replied, taking it from her and examining it. It looked pretty normal, a small box with the character for 'Bento' written on it and a piece of brown twine tying it together. It was relatively light, so transporting it wouldn't be a problem.
"Hey, gimme, I wanna see it!" Naruto said, reaching for it. I held it behind my back.
"No way!" I said defensively. "You'll probably break it or something!"
"Will not!" he protested, and I scowled at him. Suddenly, Sachi snatched it out from behind my back.
"How about I hold it, since I'm the one leading this mission?" she suggested, smiling at us.
"Hey, how come you get to lead the mission? What about Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto protested.
"Yeah, that's a little weird," I admitted. "Why isn't he coming with us?"
"Oh, that's easy," Sachi replied with a grin. She put her hand on my shoulder. "As for Kakashi-sensei… he left right this morning. And for the mission, Sakura and I are both Chūnin; technically, we can lead C-class missions without the presence of a Jōnin. I don't know about you, Naruto, but we're all set. And since Lady Tsunade trusts me to deliver the package in a timely matter, she assigned me as head of this mission!"
"Why don't you just deliver the package yourself then?" Naruto hissed.
"Why don't you go back to the Academy, genin?" Sachi chirruped cheerfully before heading to the exit.
Naruto glared at her and I giggled. "You kinda held yourself open for that one, Naruto," I commented.
"No one asked you!" he replied angrily, which caused me to giggle harder. It had been a while since Naruto had taken a hit to his annoying ego, and it felt good to know that I wasn't the only one who could keep his opinion of himself in check.
As Sachi hurried us along, I began to realize that my initial opinion of her had changed for the better. True, she was incredibly annoying, talkative, silly, and immature, but despite all of that, she was still someone I would characterize as a good person. Yes, she liked playing practical jokes, and yes, she was a little too dramatic at times, but Naruto seemed to like her and to be honest, I was beginning to like her, too. I had only known her for three full days (not counting the day that we first met), and I usually tended to keep a professional distance from people for about two weeks. But something about her made me warm up to her immediately… or rather, I began treating her like I would treat Naruto, which was as warm as it was ever going to get. I contemplated whether or not it was her cuteness, or if it was something else, but everything about her made me want to protect her from danger, like she was my little sister or something. Now, mind you, I'm not saying that she was defenseless or anything, but she seemed so fragile and innocent, like a little kid, it was hard to imagine that she could kick butt like she said she could.
I hated girls like that.
They were so annoying! They were always getting in the way, seeming so helpless and naive that no one would suspect them of anything. They didn't have any problems, were absolutely faultless at everything, didn't have any quirks or weird diseases… and were so irritating. But Sachi wasn't a Mary Sue, at least not completely. She was… something else, although I couldn't quite say what. Under all of that shoujo charm and grace and whatever else she had, something had to be wrong with her. She had to have a secret.
No one was that perfect.
[-]
What seemed like an eternity later, Naruto and I were out of breath, to say the least. We had been trying our best to keep up with our speeding energyball of a teammate, and were doing pretty well until I began falling behind. Knowing Naruto, he would follow her to the ends of the earth if it meant proving that he was better than her, so I hoped that it would be Sachi who noticed that we were beginning to lose energy.
This is insane! I thought, straining to keep up with them. How can anyone run for this long, and at this pace? Does she do this all the time? Gosh, we must be halfway there already…
Suddenly, Sachi jumped down from the treetops through which we had been travelling, and came to a stop. Naruto and I quickly followed, and we were breathing heavily as we stopped to take a break. I rested my hands on my knees for a moment and looked up at her. She was cheerful as always, and it didn't seem as though what we had just run had been anything more than a jog to her.
"Man, how long have we been running?" Naruto asked, untying his forehead protector and wiping his brow with his sleeve.
"Hm…" Sachi answered, a thoughtful expression on her face. Suddenly, she grinned.
"Be right back!" she squeaked, and darted into the trees faster than I could blink. I looked around.
We were in the deep woods, seemingly in the middle of nowhere (although Sachi seemed to know exactly where she was going), and it didn't look like there was any kind of road nearby. We had been travelling through the same scenery ever since we left Konoha, and it was beginning to get a little monotonous. Just the thought of the way back made me groan.
"Man…" Naruto mumbled, falling backwards and leaning against a tree. I sat next to him, and I could tell that he was running low on energy.
"Are you alright?" I asked, taking note of the exhausted way that he was lolling against the trunk.
"Yeah," he answered, rolling his head to the side to face me. "But forget training. Nothing in the world could have prepared me for her. It's like she's made of lightning or something!"
"Like Sasuke?" I asked sarcastically, and he scowled.
"No way. He may be able to last for a while, but at least he's not annoying as hell."
"Oh, come on, she's not that bad, is she? I mean, she's on our team now, so you should at least make the effort of trying to like her. She brought you breakfast this morning, doesn't that count for something? And think of it this way: instead of running like hell, how about a chance to improve your speed and stamina?" I replied, trying to keep things light. "Believe it or not, I think Sachi may actually be good for us. I might even learn how to cook and do my own laundry!"
"Yeah, but that's girly stuff," Naruto huffed.
"I think it would be a relief if you learned how to do your laundry so that I don't always have to make my mom do it for you," I mumbled. "And besides," I continued, "Sachi could totally teach you how to talk to girls, since you're basically a loser in that department. I'd offer, but I'm too busy learning how to talk to guys."
"I'm back!"
"GAAAAH!"
"Did I scare you guys again?" Sachi asked in disbelief. She put her hands on her hips as Naruto and I began to pry ourselves loose from each other. "Boy, you guys have got to be the jumpiest shinobi I've ever met," she commented, plunking herself down in front of us. She grinned, holding out her arms, one up and one to the side. The way she did reminded me of a clock…
"It's two o'clock in the afternoon, guys! We've been running for three whole hours! Aren't you proud of yourselves?" she squealed happily. "And, as a reward, I brought this!"
She took her little bag off of her back and put it onto the ground. Pulling open the string, she produced three variably sized bento boxes. Just the thought of the contents made my mouth water, and the food was still warm, too.
"Awesome! Lunch!" Naruto cheered, grabbing the biggest box and opening the lid. The steam hit his face and he sighed. Sachi handed him a pair of chopsticks and smiled.
"I represented every major food group in that one, although I put a little more rice in to fill it up. Luckily that big one was actually for you," she said, handing me the slightly smaller one. "As for you, Sakura, I know you're not that big on meat, so I put tons of roasted vegetables and peanut sauce with your rice. There's a little bit of chicken sprinkled into the rice every once in a while, but I didn't think that you would mind."
"That sounds great," I answered, opening the lid and staring in wonder at the way that she had sorted the food in such a creative manner.
Unlike Naruto, Sachi and I were actually taking our time to eat, so that there was more room for conversation.
"So, how did you learn to cook this well?" I asked, sampling the seasoned rice. It was delicious, of course.
Sachi opened her own bento, and I was shocked to find nothing more than an onigiri and spoonful of steamed vegetables that didn't even look the least bit appetizing.
"Well," she replied, popping a piece of carrot into her mouth, "At the orphanage, we girls had to learn how to take care of ourselves, the boys, and each other. Our house mom, Koruna-sensei, had to teach us all of the household stuff when we were really young so that we would have a lot of time to practice," Sachi giggled. "She said that every girl that knows how to cook well and clean up neatly will end up marrying a rich husband. That's why the boys got to go to ninja school before we did."
"That doesn't seem very fair," I protested. "Girls should get the same treatment as boys!"
Sachi shrugged, eating a slice of water chestnut. "The way I see it, making young girls learn all of this stuff at an early age gives them more room to improve in other things when they get older. I mean, it's so much easier to learn things when you're little as opposed to when you're our age. Getting the basics down then helped me to make a whole lot of money as soon as I left home. Of course, you have to have the right connections, but my point is that most of the girls that left with me who didn't go study ninjutsu are making more money than the boys, who are still training at the Academy."
"Did you train at the Academy?" I asked. Sachi swallowed the rice that she had just put into her mouth and shook her head.
"My best friend went into the academy, and so did I, but eventually I got a private sensei," she replied nonchalantly.
Well, aren't you lucky… I thought with a bitter edge, cheerfully taking a bite of my food.
"Wait, how come you have to take care of the boys?" Naruto asked, swallowing the last bit of his bento. Sachi giggled.
"If the boys tried to cook dinner, the entire orphanage would burn down," she replied with a grin, sinking her teeth into her onigiri. She chewed for a second before continuing. "And it's not like you guys volunteer to clean the house. You just go off and play soldier while we do all the work."
"Good point," I said, turning to Naruto. "When was the last time you changed your bed sheets? Or your towel, for that matter."
Naruto scratched his head. "Uh… a month ago?"
"Ew!" Sachi replied, finishing her onigiri and closing her bento box. "When we get home, I'm going through your laundry."
"No way!" he protested. "I can do that myself, I'm not a kid!"
"Somehow, I don't really believe you…" I muttered.
"Sooooo… is everyone done?" Sachi asked before Naruto could respond to my comment. I nodded, closing the bento and handing it back to her.
"It was delicious," I said with a smile. "As always."
"Why thank you!" she said cheerfully. "I actually managed to whip that up in less than twenty minutes. The vegetables took longer than I had expected, though."
"Hey, did you bring any dessert?" Naruto asked hopefully.
"Naruto!" I scolded, and he flinched.
"No Naruto, I'm sorry. I have more food, but I was going to save that for dinner tonight if we didn't find a place to stay until then," Sachi answered. "But, according to this map that I got from Lady Tsunade, there should be a hot springs hotel on our way there, maybe a… four hour run?"
"More running?" Naruto and I asked simultaneously, and Naruto turned red.
"Oh, don't worry, I won't go so fast this time!" Sachi answered with a wink. "And the last part of the run is actually a hike up a mountain to the hotel."
"Wait, so Lady Tsunade gave you a map?" I asked. Sachi nodded, pulling a scroll out of the scroll pocket on her vest.
"She said that it came with the instructions for the delivery."
She rolled it open and scanned it with her eyes before turning it around. It was a jumble of hastily drawn lines, an enormous blotch meant to represent to forest, and three lines going through it, all of which congregated at two points (in two differently colored blotches) before they converged at the final destination. The red one (the one that I assumed we had been following) led directly through the forest and seemed to be the shortest route. The second line was blue, and ran in a relatively even way around the outer edge of the forest. This route, judging from the way that the map was drawn, seemed the longest. The third, white line went in a jagged path through the forest, remaining close to the outer edge. From what I could tell, this was probably the road that Sachi had been talking about, since the red and the white lines converged shortly before reaching the first point in a gray blotch which I assumed to be the mountain hot spring hotel.
"I don't get it…" Naruto mumbled, stroking his chin.
"It's a map, dumbass, what's there not to get?" I replied quietly.
"We are currently… here," Sachi said, pointing to a seemingly random spot on the red line, although it looked to be about halfway to the first point, which was centered in a gray blotch I assumed to represent the mountains. How she read that illegible map was a mystery to me, but the way she spoke made it pretty clear that she knew what she was doing. She pointed to the final congregation spot, marked with a black X. "We have three days to get to this spot, which is right on the outskirts of the Hidden Sand. Apparently, Mr. Bento's house is on a cliff. Anyways," she continued, putting her finger on the first congregation point, "This is the hot spring place that we'll be staying at. Tomorrow morning we'll be going mostly through the mountains to point B, which is located at the beginnings of the desert. Finally, we'll be going to these weird brown cliffs to deliver Mr. Bento's package."
"I think this whole mission is weird…" Naruto mumbled as Sachi put the scroll away and we began to pack up our things.
"Sachi, are you sure about this? This guy seems pretty… I dunno… odd," I commented as she began to stretch (something she always did before she exerted any kind of energy).
"Oh, c'mon guys," Sachi answered dismissively, flexing her fingers. "I said the same thing to Lady Tsunade before we left, and she assured me that you two are the most promising young shinobi that Konoha has ever seen, not to mention the fact that I'm pretty badass, too. We'll be fine! And if we're not, I promise I won't run and hide like I usually do, but stay and fight with you guys, okay? So quit worrying!"
And with that, she darted into the trees, leaving us no choice but to follow her.
Congratulations on making it through the first ten chapters! I'm so sorry that nothing extraordinary has happened yet, but soon, Sayomi and Sasuke will put their plan into action! Their relationship will evolve, as will Sayomi and Naruto's, but you must keep reading! Again, thank you so much for staying with me! I love you all, and please leave reviews! Many, many kisses!
~ Sweep