ooOoo
Sakura looked into Kabuto's dark eyes, searching for some explanation of his odd behavior. Everybody in the hospital was convinced he was dead, and he wandered in to her room and wanted to chat? Her friend had demonstrated some quirky behavior in the past, but this was over the line.
"We'll talk, then." Sakura replied. "What's so important you're in here talking to me instead of letting everybody know you're alive?"
Kabuto didn't respond right away, instead walking over to the window. He stood for a moment with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing off into the distance. After a moment he spoke, though his voice was soft enough that Sakura had to strain to hear what he was saying.
"It really is beautiful, the village. Sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life that we forget to stop and appreciate what's in front of us." Kabuto said, then continued, his tone darkening. "Of course, from up here you can't see all the lies and corruption that are festering underneath the surface. Konoha is like a mighty oak tree whose roots have been dead for years. Orochimaru may be the immediate cause of its destruction, but even if he relented somebody else would see to it that the village fell. At least Lord Orochimaru is building something better to take its place."
Sakura sat up with a start as the implication of his words hit home. "You're a traitor! You kidnapped Sasuke!"
Sakura shifted her weight in preparation for an attack on Kabuto, but before she could move she found a perfectly formed medical scalpel hovering inches from her right eye. Looking up at Kabuto's suddenly serious face, Sakura was reminded of two things. First, she was still recuperating from her injuries and had no equipment on her other than her hospital gown. Second, Kabuto had been receiving training under the Hokage herself, in addition to whatever he had learned from Orochimaru. Sakura couldn't help but feel that the odds would not be in her favor in a physical conflict.
"Let's not get too excited, I want this to be a civil conversation," Kabuto said, straightening up while the scalpel disappeared from his hand. "Anyway, you should be careful about hurling those accusations around-there's no need to kidnap Sasuke, when he'll follow you around like a puppy if you offer him just a little bit of power... all that I did was help him make sure that this defection went a little more smoothly than the last."
Sakura could only stare at him as the initial shock wore off, leaving behind a feeling of profound betrayal. Kabuto had been there for her at her lowest points, a constant source of support and advice. Outside of her teammates, he was her closest friend in the village. She just couldn't comprehend how he could be a traitor.
"How could you..." She spoke almost without meaning to. "How could you do this to-to Konoha?"
"Quite easily, I'm afraid." Kabuto said, smiling that fake smile. "I swore myself to Orochimaru before I worked for Tsunade, and he really is a much more effective leader. Now it's simply a matter of going home."
"You, but... you must be lying about Sasuke. He wouldn't..." Sakura said, trailing off as she realized that Sasuke had, in fact, tried to leave Konoha once before. "If he wanted to leave, why not just slip away from one of our missions?"
"You don't know?" Kabuto said, looking closely at her reaction. "You really don't. You never wondered why Sasuke was back on duty so soon after he tried to betray the village? Why he was trusted with assignments that had him out of contact for months at a time?"
Sakura shook her head, not sure where Kabuto was going with this. "He spoke to the Hokage, he must have convinced her that he could be trusted."
Kabuto laughed, and Sakura could see the genuine amusement in his eyes. "Oh, Sakura, don't ever change."
He walked back over to the window, seemingly lost in thought once more. He spent a few moments looking out into the distance before he spoke again.
"Sasuke was given a slow acting poison. Did you ever notice how he would get antsy at the end of your deployments?" Kabuto asked. "If he didn't receive the right medicine every ten weeks, he would die."
Sakura stared at him in shock, unable to think of anything to say. It was hard to believe that Konoha would authorize something so ruthless... but on the other hand, it did explain why they would let Sasuke out of the village after what he did. It also explained some of Sasuke's behavior in the field. But it was taking a terrible chance-what if they had been delayed in getting home?
"It was brilliant work, something only a legendary medic like Lady Tsunade could pull off." Kabuto continued. "She didn't share any of the details, even with her trusted apprentice. It took me a year of independant research to come up with the antidote. Combine that with Sasuke's little run in with his brother and, well, he's already made it to Otogakure by now. I'll be joining him soon. The only question remaining is you."
"Me?" Sakura asked, shocked.
"Yes, you." Kabuto replied. "I have need of an assistant, and I'm sure Sasuke would be happy to have a familiar face around."
"You can't think-I would never betray Konoha like that!" Sakura said.
"Hmm." Kabuto said. "They kept Sasuke in the village with the iron chain of a threat to his life, but you're bound by the gossamer threads of a web of lies."
Sakura remained silent. She felt indignant at even the suggestion that she would abandon her village, but Kabuto had revealed too many surprises already for her to feel totally confident in her stance.
"Konoha tells you that the Will of Fire can be found in anybody." Kabuto said. "They tell you that all ninja are treated equally, that everybody has an equal chance to advance. Pretty words, but none of it is true.
"I've read your reports, Sakura." Kabuto continued. "I've seen how quickly you learn. You are one of the finest minds of your generation, and Konoha has you wasting your time tracking down a bunch of two-bit thugs. The bottom line is that if you don't have a bloodline and you aren't an exceptionally good killer, Konoha hardly cares about you. That's why they've been ignoring your intellectual development."
Sakura felt a wave of relief wash over her, but kept it from showing on her face. Kabuto was wrong about her-apparently he didn't know that it was her choice to be out in the field, and if all that he knew about her team was the content of the official reports, he was definitely underinformed. It was an important reminder that she wasn't dealing with some all-knowing big brother explaining how the world worked. Rather, she was dealing with a very smart missing nin on a recruitment kick. Sakura pushed aside the pain of betrayal and focused on the matter at hand.
There was a time when Sakura might have been vulnerable to this kind of sales pitch. She certainly had felt left out at times when Kakashi picked out Sasuke for special training, or when Naruto showed up with the mastery of a forbidden technique. But those times were long past. Once she decided to work hard and improve herself she had received more traning from Ebisu, Kakashi, even an offer of training from the Hokage herself... Sakura no longer felt like Konoha was ignoring her at all.
Of course, right now she didn't want to win a debate with Kabuto. She wanted to get out of this conversation alive and report his continued survival to the authorities. She knew enough about missing nins to know that recruiting pitches could only end in two ways: accepting their offer, or a fight to the death. Kabuto wasn't an opponent she would want to face in a fair fight. Now, on a battlefield of his choosing while she was still recuperating from her injuries, starting a fight would be suicide.
On the other hand, fooling Kabuto would be no picnic either. He had apparently been operating as a spy in Konoha for some time, and she knew he was smart. Still, even a sharp operator would want to believe their sales pitch was working.
Sakura kept all of her newfound conviction out of her voice when she spoke. "Well, it's only natural that more powerful ninja get more attention."
"Maybe, but there's a difference between special training and outright favoritism." Kabuto replied, a new note of confidence in his voice as he sensed her resolve weakening. "If you tried to desert, do you think you would have gotten off anywhere near as lightly as Sasuke did?"
He paused and waited for her to shake her head before continuing. "The only thing Orochimaru cares about is talent, in all of its forms. A genius like you could do well in his organization. What do you say?"
Sakura looked down at her blankets in thought, then looked back up at Kabuto. "What about my friends? My family?"
"Well, Sasuke has already joined us. I'm sure Naruto would be welcome as well." Kabuto replied. "As for your family... they would be granted asylum before we do anything too drastic to the civilians of Konoha."
"Then..." Sakura said, a note of hesitation in her voice that vanished as she continued. "I'll do it. For Sasuke. And for me."
The two of them smiled at each other, each of them planning exactly where best to plant a kunai in the other's back.
ooOoo
Kabuto let Sakura outfit herself in her standard travel gear, and didn't even complain when she took a soldier pill. The end result was that she felt much better physically but with much lower morale. Kabuto should have a decent idea what she was capable of, for him to be so confident in his own abilities was disheartening. It was possible that he just trusted her conversion to his cause, but she felt it pretty unlikely that he would be so trusting so fast.
Once her distinctive pink hair was tucked away under a grey bandanna, Kabuto led her out into the unused back ways through Konoha's hospital. Sakura took note of the body of the guard who had been left outside of her room, adding his death to the list of crimes for which Kabuto would be held to account. They made it all the way to a side exit from the hospital without encountering another living soul.
"By the way," Kabuto said, stopping Sakura from walking out into the street. "I should mention that I killed that guard using a fair approximation of your technique. Also, I made sure that the order forms for the ingredients that went into Sasuke's antidote were in your name."
Kabuto pushed his glasses back, giving Sakura a friendly smile that didn't touch his eyes. "So if you were thinking of calling in ANBU like you did when Sasuke first left the village, well... I'll just disappear, and you'll have some difficult questions to answer."
"I'm hurt that you think I would do such a thing." Sakura replied, wincing internally. So much for any idea that Kabuto trusted her. He now had her neatly boxed in-if she sought help from her village, it was more likely that she'd be stuck in an interrogation cell than that they would send a rescue party after Sasuke.
Sakura pondered her options as Kabuto led her through the village. Even as preoccupied as she was, she noted that no security patrols ever crossed their path-it was a little chilling how much information Kabuto had to have gathered about village operations. She was just wondering how he planned to get them out of the village itself when they reached the wall. Kabuto hardly broke stride as he bit his thumb and ran it along a non-descript section of the wall. With a puff of smoke that part of the wall vanished, revealing a tunnel broad enough for two people to walk side by side.
"They had my team help out with the rebuilding on this section of the wall." Kabuto commented. "I couldn't resist the opportunity."
After they were through the tunnel he smeared some blood on another section of the wall, and the tunnel vanished as if it had never existed. He then healed his thumb with a casual gesture and led Sakura out into the woods.
Half an hour later they were well away from Konoha and the sun was just beginning to set when Sakura decided it was time to make her move. She didn't want to wait until they stopped for the night, and Kabuto was sure to take extra measures to secure her once it was totally dark.
Considering the unknown-but likely quite high-level of skill her opponent possessed, Sakura knew she had to reach deep into her bag of tricks if she wanted to survive the next few minutes. Oddly enough, this meant that her first move would come straight from the Academy curriculum.
Sakura had been tremendously excited when she learned to perform the replacement technique without using hand seals. It increased her ability to evade attacks tremendously, and she anticipated using it offensively to great success as well. Unfortunately, as Ebisu had demonstrated in a painful lesson on overconfidence, the pulse of chakra the technique used to mark the user's destination could be detected by a competent opponent, who would then have an attack ready to meet you on arrival.
One of the advantages of learning to perform the technique without hand seals was that she didn't need to use the technique. That was why Sakura opened up her escape from Kabuto by sending out the chakra pulse that usually marked the beginning of a replacement technique, tagging a destination on the opposite side of him from where she stood.
Kabuto immediately spun to meet what he assumed to be an incoming opponent, and Sakura took advantage of the distraction by dropping a primed explosive tag where she stood and substituting herself with a tree branch that was fifty feet away. Part of her had wanted to press the attack as soon as his back was turned, but she couldn't afford to be caught in close combat with an opponent as skilled as Kabuto seemed to believe himself to be.
Sakura's caution proved justified when the smoke cleared from the explosion to reveal Kabuto to be totally unharmed, appearing to be almost amused by her attack. However, Sakura hadn't been idle. While he was obscured by the smoke she had raised two earth clones. She sent one back towards Konoha, while the other moved to engage Kabuto. At the same time she sent several illusionary clones at Kabuto, launching visually impressive attacks in his direction.
Kabuto ignored the illusionary clones, and dispatched her earth clone after a very brief taijutsu exchange. He then immediately set off after the clone heading to Konoha. That was what Sakura had been expecting-for all his attempts to pin his crimes on her, he still wouldn't want to risk a witness getting back to Konoha and revealing his continued survival. As soon as Kabuto left the clearing where their fight had occurred, she took off, putting as much distance between them as she could without leaving a trail for him to follow.
Kabuto may be a strong fighter, and a master spy, but he had spent almost all of his time in the village. Sakura, on the other hand, had been learning and practicing woodcraft almost non-stop for the last year. She was confident in her ability to evade him, but even so she didn't stop to rest until she felt exhaustion making her movements sloppy, over two hours after the fight had begun.
Sakura secured herself in a tree, out of sight from the ground below, and finally allowed herself to consider her situation. She was all alone, in the middle of the woods of Fire Country. Her teammate had been captured by a legendary ninja, which her village thought was her fault. She was being hunted by the forces of Sound, and soon enough would be hunted by the forces of the Leaf.
All ninja were required to have iron-clad emotional control, and Sakura did her best to live up to that commitment. Still, all she found herself able to do for the moment was cry herself to sleep.
ooOoo
The next morning Sakura took a moment to put her thoughts together while she gnawed on a ration bar for breakfast. Tempting though it was, she didn't dare attempt to return to Konoha. For one thing, she wouldn't put it past Kabuto and his allies to keep a watch on the approaches to the village. Even if she made it to the village, she would then have to attempt to convince the village authorities of her innocence.
Bad enough to undergo Ibiki Morino's attempts to get the "truth" out of her, but even worse was the fact that all it would take would be one mole inserted into the Torture and Interrogation group and she would be dead. Ordinarily she would never expect a member of T&I to turn traitor, but if Orochimaru had managed to get a spy positioned as the Hokage's apprentice, all bets were off. If she was going to die, it wasn't going to be in a cell, disarmed by her own village-Sakura would go down fighting for the life of herself and her teammate.
Of course, if she tried to save Sasuke alone, dying would be about all that she could hope to accomplish. If she was going to go up against one of the Legendary Three, she was going to need help. There were very few ninja Sakura trusted to watch her back, especially under the current circumstances, and the first thing she needed to do was to get into contact with them.
Mind made up, Sakura packed up and headed west toward Kusagakure. She steered clear of the roads, the trails preferred by ninja, even the game trails. It added a little time to her trip, but dealing with hunter-nin would have added more. Fortunately, despite the exciting beginning to her journey, the rest of the trip passed uneventfully, and Sakura soon found herself standing outside a familiar teppanyaki restaurant.
Sakura entered the restaurant during the lull between the lunch rush and the dinner crowd, and was pleased to see that the only occupied booth contained the familiar form of Mikio Koriwan, the Kusagakure capo that Kakashi had introduced as the leader of the Green party, the faction of Kusa nin that generally took a pro-Konoha view of things. She was less pleased when a group of four bodyguards stopped her as soon as she walked in the door.
A stranger would have found it to be an amusing scene: four large, heavily armed men nervously confronting an unarmed teenage girl. Sakura wore no marker of her village affiliation, and she was unarmed. Despite that, she stood with the confidence of one who felt her opponents presented no real threat. It was only partially faked-unlike the monsters she'd been fighting recently, the Kusagakure rank and file were barely in Sakura's league when it came to a head to head confrontation.
Mikio came out to defuse the situation before anything other than harsh glances were exchanged, and gave Sakura a measuring look. Sakura couldn't tell if he was evaluating her as a potential ally or bounty.
"Sakura Haruno, all grown up and causing trouble." He said, smiling at her. It didn't reach his eyes. "What brings you to my humble establishment?"
"There have been some misunderstandings." Sakura said. "I'm working to clear things up, but in the meantime I need a little favor from you."
"Well, I'm always happy to discuss a favor for a friend." He replied. "Come, sit."
He led her back to his booth, where they took seats facing across the table from each other. Sakura declined his offer of food, and took a moment to size him up. She was counting on the fact that Kusa nin usually did business based more on personal connections than village loyalty, and that Mikio would see more profit in helping her out than in turning her over to the village.
There was also the fact that from this distance Sakura could most likely kill him if a capture team came bursting in the door. That went unsaid, along with the fact that his people were no doubt securing the perimeter to ensure that she would only be able to leave if Mikio was unharmed and wanted to let her go.
Sakura finally broke the silence. "I need to know the location of Jiraiya the Toad Sage."
"There are easier ways of committing suicide than meddling in the affairs of one the Legendary Three, you know." Mikio replied.
"Do you think I'm crazy?" Sakura asked. "I just need to talk to him."
She actually just needed to talk to his apprentince, but there was no need for Mikio to know that detail.
"Even so, sending somebody along to harass Jiraiya, that's the kind of thing that could create problems for me down the line." Mikio said.
Sakura stared at him for a moment before the ryo dropped. "What do you want me to do first?"
"It's good to see that at least some of you Konoha types can learn the value of a quid pro quo." Mikio said, smiling at her. "As to what I need, it's very simple."
He reached under the table and withdrew an envelope. Setting it on the table, he slid it across to Sakura. She opened the envelope to find a photo of a man in his mid-twenties, along with a description of his daily routine and a brief sketch of his fighting ability. The man was heavily built, with a brutish face that the photographer had caught in an angry scowl.
"This man is a problem that I would like to have solved." Mikio explained.
"Why?" Sakura asked.
"Does it matter?" Mikio replied.
Sakura took a moment to consider her feelings and was a little scared to realize that it didn't matter. She needed to rescue Sasuke, and in order to rescue Sasuke she needed to find Naruto. If some Kusa shinobi she had never met had to die for that to happen, then so be it. She still had her pride, though, and she wasn't about to admit her desperation to a foreign nin.
"Of course it matters. I'm a shinobi, not some two-bit sword for hire." Sakura said, schooling her face to hide her emotions.
"Hmm." Mikio said, examining her. "Fine."
Sakura couldn't tell if it was a note of respect in his voice or a note of irritation at having to explain himself.
"As you may know, politics in Kusagakure can be a contact sport. However, there are rules. No rape, no kids." Mikio's expression turned grim. "Daisuke Endo is a mid-level enforcer for the Yellows, and I'm afraid they need a little reminder that breaking the rules has consequences."
Sakura felt her gaze harden. Rape was unfortunately common among missing nin, who were often men that were too strong to be brought under control by the usual law enforcement. She had considered it one of the perks of her job on the jutsu theft squad that she was able to discourage that kind of thing. Violently.
"Fair enough." sakura said, looking at the folder with new eyes. Konoha, like all of the major villages, was very choosy when it came to accepting assassination missions, but something like this would easily pass muster with the Mission Office. "I can take care of it tonight, actually, but it won't be very subtle."
"That's fine." Mikio replied. "After all, the whole point of this is to send a message."
Sakura had a feeling that part of the message was that she was willing to act as his enforcer, but that was a price she was happy to pay. If trading on the reputation Konoha had helped her build up would bring her closer to rescuing Sasuke, then that was what she would do.
ooOoo
Kusagakure's funding system, like everything else about the village, was a labyrinthine mess, but Sakura thought she had a decent handle on the basics. Local merchants would pay to be considered members of good standing in one of the major political parties. In exchange, that party would provide certain services for the merchants, the most notable being to protect them from harassment from either party. Kusa shinobi referred to these payments as "voluntary dues," but to Sakura it seemed more akin to protection money.
In any event, part of Daisuke's duties included collecting these payments, and that evening he would be visiting the shops at the Cherry Blossom Market. Sakura had originally noticed the location simply because the name had jumped off the page at her, but after conducting some initial reconaissance the area was well set up for an ambush. There was enough people around that she could hide in the crowd, but not so many as to get in the way when she decided to make her move. Usually she would do a lot more preparation and background research before embarking on a mission like this, but usually she wasn't worried about hunter nin tracking her down and taking her in for interrogation.
Sakura was currently standing in front of a fruit stand, appearing to examine the selection of apples on offer. However, most of her attention was focused on the sensory input of an earth clone that she had positioned on the other side of the plaza where it could see most of the shops bordering the marketplace while it pretended to read a newspaper. Sakura and the clone were both disguised by the simple expedient of covering their hair-one nice thing about having such a distinctive feature was that once it was hidden, she was nearly unrecognizable.
Sakura smiled to herself when she saw Daisuke swagger out of a store, tucking a small money pouch into his pocket. He had two younger men in tow that Sakura assumed were his subordinates, and the trio was engaged in animated conversation. Sakura waited until they were positioned in between her clone and herself before she made her move, liquifying the ground under Daisuke's feet.
When she had tried this trick on Anko, she had channeled chakra to her feet before sinking more than an inch into the ground. Anko, however, was a combat hardened kunoichi of Konoha who had the advantage of knowing something was coming. Daisuke spent all day bullying civilians around, and was caught completely by surprise. He wasn't able to arrest his fall into the ground until after he had sunk in up to his knees. He was far too late, as Sakura immediately reacted by compressing the earth, crushing muscle and bone to pulp.
While Daisuke howled in agony and doubled over, flailing at the ground with his bare hands, his two subordinates looked around wildly for their attacker. Sakura's clone made the search easy by launching a fireball in their direction. The two men moved to engage the clone while Sakura strode over to Daisuke. Her clone was in the middle of a taijutsu battle about twenty feet away when Sakura grabbed Daisuke by the hair and yanked his head back, exposing his throat.
Her clone took that as a signal to dispel, melting back into the ground and prompting the two henchman to look back towards their boss. They were just in time to watch as Sakura slashed her kunai across his throat. There was nothing they could do but look on in horror as Sakura gave them a cheerful wave and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
ooOoo
"It's done." Sakura announced as she entered the clearing outside of town where she was meeting Mikio.
"I see you live up to your reputation." Mikio replied.
Mikio didn't seem inclined to continue, and Sakura remained silent as she kept her eyes on the man in front of her. After a moment he seemed to come to a decision.
"I really do hate to meddle in Jiraiya's affairs." Mikio said. "But I suppose it's not any great secret that he'll be at the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival in Snow Country next week."
Sakura took a moment to consider the geography. Snow Country was located between Rice Country and Tea Country on the northern border of Fire Country. She could easily make it there in time for the festival, and it would actually be on her path to Otogakure anyways. With all of the horrible things that had happened to her lately, it was nice to catch a break.
"There is one other thing. I need you to deliver a message for me." Sakura said, then detailed what she needed.
"I can do that." Mikio replied, "Consider it a favor for a friend."
Sakura wasn't thrilled to owe a favor to someone like Mikio, but that was a problem she would deal with if she lived through this little adventure.
ooOoo
Naruto Uzumaki was feeling a little conflicted. On the one hand, the food, music, and games being put on as part of the festival were a lot more exciting than camping out in the woods. On the other hand, it really detracted from the festival experience when he didn't have any friends to share it with. On top of that, he didn't appreciate having his sensei abandon him for several days-how was he supposed to learn awesome new techniques and become Hokage if Jiraiya was spending all of his time off doing "research" for his stupid books?
His temporary melancholy was lifted when the ramen he had ordered arrived at his table. He carried instant ramen for use while camping out, of course, and Naruto would never disparage any form of ramen, but it was nice to get a proper bowl made fresh to order.
"I should have known I would find you here." The voice came from behind him, and when Naruto spun around on his stool to see a familiar pink head of hair, he almost fell out of his seat.
"Saku-" Naruto said, but was cut off as Sakura put a finger over his lips to shush him. She then surprised Naruto by leaning in for a hug. Naruto would never turn down any form of contact with the girl who owned his heart, but this felt less like a friendly gesture and more like she was clinging to a life preserver. He was about to say something when she pulled back and spoke first.
"It's good to see you too, but you shouldn't be shouting my name out right now." Sakura said, smiling sadly. "There's been a bit of a misunderstanding."
"What-what's going on?" Naruto asked, "what are you doing out here anyway?"
"Listen to me carefully, Naruto. Jiraiya is going to tell you some things that aren't true. He's not lying, he's just misinformed." Sakura replied. "Orochimaru kidnapped Sasuke and made it look like he abandoned the village. He also framed me for some crimes. I managed to escape, and I'm going to rescue Sasuke, but I'll need your help."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go rescue the bastard!" Naruto said. There was no way he was going to turn down the chance to help one of his precious people rescue another one of his precious people.
"Not just yet, I think." Sakura replied, her eyes flicking over to look at something behind Naruto. "But keep your kunai sharp."
"You know brat, usually I'd be ok with you running off with a girl." Jiraiya's voice came from behind Naruto, and sounded unusually serious. "But this one's bad news."
"So cold," Sakura said, bringing her hands up to clutch at her heart, "shouldn't the gallant Jiraiya be helping the damsel in distress?"
"Kid, I help the girls who are in trouble, not the ones who make trouble." Jiraiya said, as he strode forward to stand next to Naruto.
Sakura began backing away as Jiraiya walked forward. There was a sudden flicker of motion that Naruto couldn't quite follow, and when it ended, Jiraiya had Sakura held in a painful looking wrist lock. Despite the situation, Sakura was smiling.
"I suppose there's a reason they call you a legendary ninja." She said, just before her body turned to mud and melted away.
"Sensei! What the hell did you do to her?" Naruto asked, shocked by the sudden turn of the situation from a reunion to a violent confrontation.
"I didn't do anything, brat. Use your head-that was an earth clone all along." Jiraiya replied, shaking the mud off of his hands. Naruto could feel a rush of power being drawn toward the legendary ninja as his eyes changed shape. Then the moment passed, and Jiraiya was back to normal. "Her real body never came within a mile of here."
Jiraiya sighed, before continuing. "I need to have a talk with Ebisu about what he considers an 'adequate level' of elemental chakra control. But right now I need to have a talk with you about teammates."
Jiraiya took the stool next to Naruto at the ramen stand. The recent outburst of violence had cleared the area of civilians, so they pretty much had the place to themselves. Jiraiya threw down a wad of bills at the stand's owner to receive a bottle of sake and some privacy. He downed his first cup in a single swallow and refilled it before he began to speak.
"The first thing you have to understand is that people change. Somebody who started out as a perfectly loyal shinobi can grow into a monster." Jiraiya said. "Many shinobi start out with dreams and ambitions, but in some those turn into obsessions. That's what happened with Sasuke."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"The kid is totally obsessed with growing powerful enough to kill his brother. He's willing to do anything to make it happen." Jiraiya responded. "Frankly, I'm surprised he didn't go bad sooner."
"That's a load of crap!" Naruto responded. "I have a dream of becoming Hokage, but that doesn't mean I'm going to turn evil."
"Brat, you have a dream. Sasuke has an obsession." Jiraiya said, then paused for a moment in thought. "Look, what if I told you that all you had to do to become Hokage is kill old man Teuchi at the Ichiraku Ramen stand?"
"That's ridiculous, I'd never do that." Naruto said.
"Sasuke would." Jiraiya said. "If he thought it would give him the power to beat his brother, he wouldn't even hesitate."
"No way. I know Sasuke, he wouldn't do that." Naruto said. His teammate might be kind of a jerk, but Naruto was sure he would never kill an innocent civilian in cold blood.
"You know, Orochimaru was like that once." Jiraiya said, his eyes unfocused as he thought back into the past. "Ambitious, a real jerk, but a perfectly loyal shinobi. They even thought he might make Hokage."
"But over time, his ambitions twisted him." Jiraiya continued. "Now he's a monster, one that I should have ended years ago. I didn't because I wanted to believe the best of my old teammate."
"Sasuke is nothing like that snake bastard." Naruto replied, hot under the collar. "Once I get him free, he'll come back to the village no problem!"
"Kid, the sooner you accept reality, the less heartache you're going to cause yourself." Jiraiya replied, taking a moment to polish off his second glass of sake.
"How do you even know all this? Sakura says you're wrong about Sasuke." Naruto said. He didn't want to step all over the real pain that Jiraiya obviously felt over the betrayal he had suffered at the hands of Orochimaru, but he wasn't going to just give up on his friends.
"Oh, right, her. You don't know what she's been up to, do you?" Jiraiya said, somehow sounding even more glum as he knocked back another swallow of sake. "Your little girlfriend massacred a Rock genin team on her last mission, then helped Sasuke skip town before she abandoned the village herself."
"What? Sakura would never do something like that." Naruto said, shocked.
"Do you want to see the letters from the Tsuchikage? She damn near kicked off the next shinobi world war-it was lucky for us she was a missing nin before we even got the protests from Iwa." Jiraiya replied. "Or I could show you the autopsies from the trail of bodies she left behind her on her way out of Konoha?"
Naruto didn't reply, stunned. He couldn't imagine the girl he had known for so long doing something like that, but Jiraiya seemed absolutely sure-and had the evidence to back it up. It just didn't make sense.
"Why would she..." Naruto trailed off, almost whispering.
"She's been in the field a lot over the last year, Naruto. A lot of fighting, a lot of killing." Jiraiya said. Again, he seemed to be lost in memory as he spoke, as if he was seeing something that wasn't there. "Some people wilt in life-and-death situations, some people handle it ok, and some people start to like it. We saw it a lot after the last war, people who had gotten used to being in crazy battles every day, who couldn't adjust to a normal lifestyle in peace time."
"She reminds me a lot of one kid I knew. A really talented ninja, and just the sweetest kid you ever met. They threw him on the front lines, and he just kept proving himself, day after day." Jiraiya paused to take another sip of his drink. "Then the war ended, and everybody came home. He was still a model citizen, courteous and polite-then one day Itachi decided to kill his family, just to see if he could."
"We just talked to Sakura. She's not some crazy psychopath like Itachi." Naruto protested.
"She's a trained ninja. Of course she's not some cackling maniac all the time." Jiraiya said. "But whatever plan she's trying to recruit you for, it's just going to end in blood and tears."
"You're wrong. I don't know why you're wrong but you are. Sakura and Sasuke are two of my precious people, and I'm going to bring them back to the village, believe it!" Naruto announced, then deflated slightly. "But I don't have any idea how to get in touch with her now."
"That's a good thing, brat. You shouldn't be so eager to repeat my mistakes," Jiraiya said, leaning forward to look Naruto in the eye, "and I won't let you do it either."
"Whatever," Naruto grumbled, and the conversation wound down from there. Naruto headed back to the hotel room while Jiraiya stayed at the bar for the moment, intent on drowning some bad memories. Naruto was drained after the emotional confrontation and was ready to make an early night of it.
Naruto was doing a routine check of his gear before turning in when he discovered that he had inadvertently deceived his sensei. One of his kunai had been switched out for a kunai with a note wrapped around the handle.
Unwrapping the note, Naruto saw a map of the surrounding area, with a spot outside of the city marked with an X, and a note in Sakura's handwriting.
"Wait for your opportunity, you'll know it when you see it. Meet me by the waterfall. Please, Naruto, you're my only hope!"
ooOoo
Naruto spent the next few days waiting for his chance to go join Sakura. He didn't seriously consider telling Jiraiya about the note. The way Naruto figured it, either Jiraiya was right, in which case Naruto needed to talk Sakura back into being a good guy, or Jiraiya was wrong, in which case Naruto needed to help save Sasuke.
Naruto knew that people considered him a little simple-minded, but he firmly believed that life was pretty simple. People just made it complicated.
Unfortunately for Naruto, while Jiraiya didn't appear to suspect the existence of the note, the Toad Sage did keep Naruto in his sight at all times. Instead of turning Naruto loose on the festival, Jiraiya had him stand lookout for his daily research. The two ate all of their meals together, and Jiraiya had Naruto move his futon into a shared hotel room. The two didn't spend any time apart until the evening of the third day after Sakura's appearance.
Jiraiya had dragged Naruto out to a bar for dinner and the two of them had just settled into the booth when a woman walked up to them. She lacked the subtle musculature and graceful movements of a trained kunoichi, but everything else... well, she could have modeled for the cover of one of Jiraiya's books (Naruto felt that reading the books was perverted, but there was no harm in looking).
"Excuse me," she said, once she was within earshot. "Are you Jiraiya-the Jiraiya?"
Jiraiya stood up and did his ridiculous introduction speech. By now Naruto had learned to tune out his sensei's antics, and he focused instead on the woman's reaction. Instead of being put off by his behavior, she was staring at Jiraiya with rapt attention and even blushing a litle bit.
"Oh, I'm so happy to meet you! I'm Mimi, and those are my sisters Cici and Lili." She said, indicating a table across the way. The two women sitting there could have been twins-triplets if you included Mimi. "We were wondering..."
She leaned in and began whispering in Jiraiya's ear. After a moment he started blushing, and then a small trickle of blood started leaking from his nose. When she finished talking Jiraiya gave a perverted giggle, and then posed with his hand over his heart.
"Let it never be said that the gallant Jiraiya failed to satisfy the needs of a fan!" Jiraiya announced, then turned to Naruto with a more serious look on his face. "Kid, the bartender here is a friend of mine. If you have any trouble, go see Hiroshi, ok?"
Left unsaid was the fact that Hiroshi would be making sure that Naruto didn't wander off. Naruto grumbled his acquiescence and Jiraiya disappeared so fast he left an after-image behind. Naruto turned back to his dinner, a little irritated at being abandoned so easily.
It actually took half an hour for Naruto to consider that this might be the opportunity Sakura had been talking about. It didn't seem like a very Sakura-like thing to do. On the other hand, she had a pretty limited set of options available when it came to manipulating Jiraiya. Newly resolved, Naruto looked around the bar, trying to think of a way out.
The bar was actually pretty sparsely populated. A large group of men had commandeered two of the booths across the way, and were well on their way to getting plastered. Two couples were scattered at the tables set in the middle of the floor. Otherwise, it was just Naruto and Hiroshi-it didn't seem likely that Naruto could just get lost in the crowd.
Naruto was distracted from his thoughts by a sudden need to perform every ninja's first suiton jutsu. He frowned and tried to ignore the sensation before he was struck by a moment of inspiration. He chuckled to himself and stood to go to the bathroom.
Naruto was a little irritated when he headed into the back area where the restrooms were located and turned to see Hiroshi poking his head into the hall. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man, who held his hands out in a placating manner.
"Hey, Jiraiya said I need to keep an eye on you." He explained.
"I just need to take a piss. You want to come in and hold it for me?" Naruto asked. The bartender replied by flipping him off, but didn't make a move to follow Naruto into the men's room.
The facilities were pretty basic. A single stall and urinal were illuminated by a flickering light bulb. The light cast some odd reflections off of the tiled walls, and it took Naruto a moment to confirm that he was alone. He took care of his business and then summoned a shadow clone.
"You know what to do." Naruto instructed.
"Sure thing, boss." The clone replied, heading back to Naruto's table.
Then there was nothing for it but to wait. Naruto positioned himself as if he was using the urinal and tried to calm his nerves. He always felt more anxious when he was waiting for something to happen than he did in the middle of a fight.
It felt like hours had passed before the door finally opened. Naruto flushed the toilet and turned to see one of the men from the party stagger into the room. He smiled to himself, as this was just what he had been hoping for.
"Hey, buddy, do you know the time?" Naruto asked.
"Huh? I don't know, kid." The man replied, a little confused. "Could you scoot over, I seriously need to take care of a situation here."
"Yeah, sorry about this. I just needed to know what your voice sounded like." Naruto replied. The man didn't have a chance to react as Naruto sucker punched him. He carefully caught the unconscious body and bound and gagged the man securely before setting him on the toilet and closing the stall door. Then Naruto took a look at himself in the mirror before carefully performing the hand signs for the transformation technique. When he finished, a perfect duplicate of the man he had just knocked out was looking back at him.
"Not bad, kid." Naruto said, trying out the voice. As far as he could tell, it was good enough. He flashed himself a thumbs up in the mirror and plastered a pained look on his face before he ambled back out into the restaurant and made his way over to the partying group.
"Hey," Naruto said, tapping one of the men closest to him on the shoulder, "What's my share of the bill so far?"
"Huh?" The man said, before looking back at him. "About six, seven hundred ryo I guess, but the night is young, man."
"I know, but I ate something that really disagreed with me." Naruto said, clutching at his stomach for emphasis.
"Oh shit, I knew that sushi place was dodgy." The man replied, face paling.
"Could have been, I could just be sick, I guess. I just gotta get home." Naruto said, dropping a wad of bills on the table. "You, uh, might not want to use the bathroom here, if you know what I mean."
The other men at the table made their goodbyes, but nobody seemed eager to get too close or to head out with him, which suited Naruto just fine. He walked out of the bar, carefully not paying too much attention to his clone as he passed by.
Once he was outside, Naruto limited his celebration to a single fist pump. He still had a lot to do tonight, but it was good to know that he was still one of Konoha's trickiest ninja.
ooOoo
Naruto would be the first to admit that he wasn't Konoha's number one ninja for reading maps. That said, he thought the map that Sakura had drawn for him really wasn't that great if you weren't already familiar with the surrounding area. He didn't know where any waterfall was, and the only thing the map really told him was that it was northwest of town.
He spent a few hours wandering around in the dark, wondering if their little adventure was going to end before it really began. It wasn't until the second time he was water-walking across a totally annoying river that he had the bright idea to follow the river in his search for a waterfall.
He was rewarded a few moments later when he heard the roar of a waterfall up ahead. He was about to congratulate himself when a pink haired missile launched herself out of the surrounding woods and latched onto him. Naruto was stunned into inaction for a moment before he collected himself and patted Sakura on the back. When she looked up at him her eyes were bloodshot and she had a look of utter relief on her face.
"You came," Sakura whispered, and Naruto felt a knot of tension he hadn't fully realized was present in his chest melt away, as Sakura certainly wasn't acting like a cold blooded killer. "It took so long, I thought I would have to do everything by myself."
"You know me, I never go back on my word!" Naruto said, as Sakura released him and began leading him through the woods. After a moment, he scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly. "I just had a little trouble finding this place, that was all."
"Oh?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah, once Jiraiya was out of the way I got out of town, no problem." Naruto replied. "Hey, how did you manage that? When Itachi sent him a woman under genjutsu the pervert figured it out pretty quick."
"Hm," Sakura said, stopping as they arrived at a clearing next to the waterfall. She spoke a little louder to be heard over the sound of the rushing water. "There was no genjutsu. Mimi is the president of the Snow Country Icha Icha fan club, women's division."
"What?" Naruto asked, shocked that any women would read Jiraiya's books.
"He may be a pervert, but Jiraiya writes good smut. At least that's what I hear." Sakura said, blushing a little bit. "I didn't need to use genjutsu at all, just let Mimi know where to find the mysterious Jiraiya. She even offered to give me her autographed copy of Icha Icha: Fifty Shades of Orange."
"So..." Naruto said, curious but not quite willing to come out and ask how Sakura had responded to the offer.
"Anyway," Sakura said, obviously changing the subject, "You need to get out of those clothes."
"Aha! You are a pervert!" Naruto said, pointing an accusing finger at Sakura.
"Don't be an idiot." Sakura replied, tossing a scroll at Naruto that he caught just before it slammed into his face. "Jiraiya is a seal master, who knows what kind of tracking seals he put on your stuff? There's a complete set of new gear for you sealed in that scroll. While you're at it you should wash under the waterfall with the scent-changing soap, too."
"Hey, I can't just ditch all my stuff!" Naruto said, indignant.
"Look, it's bad enough that we're going to have Jiraiyah tracking us down." Sakura replied, obviously unmoved. "If he has a seal that leads him straight to you, we're not going to get out of Snow Country."
Sakura paused for a moment as a thought struck her. "Actually, he could have put a seal on you, too. Did you get any new tattoos on this training trip?"
"Um, no," Naruto said, flinching as he thought of the seal on his belly. "Jiraiya definitely hasn't put any seals on me."
"Naruto..." Sakura said, a warning tone in her voice. "There's something you're not telling me."
Naruto just returned Sakura's gaze for a moment, then sighed. It was obvious that she wasn't going to let this go. "I do have a seal, but Jiraiya didn't put it on me. So it's no problem. Don't worry about it."
"What? How do you know he can't track you with it anyway? What do you even know about how seals work?" Sakura asked.
"It's not a tracker, it's the seal for the Kyuubi!" Naruto blurted out, annoyed with Sakura for questioning his judgment. Then he realized what he had said and cringed, waiting for Sakura's reaction. She didn't say anything for a moment, and he looked up to see a thoughtful look on her face.
"Huh," Sakura said, "that explains a lot."
She didn't seem inclined to say anything more, and Naruto felt a flash of anger as the secret he had been so worried about sharing was dismissed so casually.
"That's all you have to say?" Naruto asked.
"What? You think I'd treat you any differently?" Sakura said, smiling at Naruto before smacking him lightly on the back of the head. "Don't be stupid."
Naruto just stared at her. Ever since he learned about the demon sealed in his belly, he felt like he was living a lie. Like his friends wouldn't be his friends if they knew the truth about him. To have the secret come out and be accepted so easily... he felt like if he wasn't careful he would just float off into the night sky. After a moment he turned away and wiped his cheek dry where some of the spray from the waterfall must have landed on it.
"There is one other thing." Sakura said, catching Naruto's attention just as he had shucked off his jacket. "I need to know, what are you willing to do to save Sasuke?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"I mean, we're going up against Orochimaru, here." Sakura said. "He-"
"I'm totally ready to kick that snake bastard's ass this time, believe it!" Naruto interrupted.
"That's not what I mean. If everything goes well, we won't even fight Orochimaru at all." Sakura said. "But he has a lot of powerful ninja working for him, and if we slip up at all the whole mission will be a failure and Sasuke could die. What I'm asking you is how far you're willing to go. There aren't going to be any friendships formed on this mission-nobody like Haku or Gaara. All there will be are allies and enemy targets.
"I'm willing to do anything if it will bring Sasuke back. Anything." Sakura continued, her words colored by a fierce certainty as she held her hand out to Naruto. "I need to know, will you do the same?"
"Whatever it takes." Naruto said, softly, clasping her hand. "I'll do whatever it takes to bring Sasuke back. That's a promise."
ooOoo