CHAPTER 10:
THE BLOTTO BRIDGE-BUILDER, AND THE BLOOD-SOAKED BROTHERS
Sakura hated that bloody cat. There weren't enough adjectives in the dictionary to properly describe the sheer odium she felt towards the cat. There weren't enough expletives in their language that could help Sakura vent her fury, and considering that she tried to keep a certain amount of decorum, even as a kunoichi, this was saying something.
And she knew that the feeling was mutual with the other members of Team 7. While she was all for D-Rank missions teaching them teamwork and giving them much-needed physical training, she also detested the fact that they were used to dump all sorts of menial tasks on genin teams. With the worst of them all catching the cat of the Daimayo's wife. Tora was considered to be a demon amongst genin teams. And for all the fact that she hated Naruto's disrespectful whining to the Hokage, she had to admit privately that he had a point. While ninja missions weren't meant to be glamorous (a misconception Naruto seemed to insist on having), they weren't meant to be so bloody tedious. Getting bored while looking after a merchant or something was one thing. But doing the same thing over and over ad nauseum was getting ludicrous.
She wanted to do something where her skills might be useful. Nothing too bad, just escorting someone to safety against bandits. A simple C-Rank mission.
Naruto's badgering of the Hokage after their latest capture of Tora managed to get results, though. Not exactly the ones she wanted, though. They did get a C-Rank, but the mission was the escort a bridge builder by the name of Tazuna, who clearly had as high an opinion of himself as his current blood alcohol reading, and a low opinion of the genin team who was assigned to him. The bearded old man even had a sake bottle in his hand, not to mention eyes bloodshot and ruddy face from his drinking. He was to be escorted back to his homeland of Wave Country.
As Naruto had to be held back by Kakashi from attacking the old man after he insulted their ability (calling Naruto and Sasuke little brats, and Sakura a little girl), Sakura decided to give the old drunkard a fright. What she did wasn't exactly a Shunshin, just a burst of speed, leaving behind a clone that rippled and faded. She was behind him within a second. Then, she said, in a deadpan tone, "Boo."
Tazuna leapt into the air, nearly spilling his sake bottle. As he turned on the girl in fright and anger, he found a kunai casually pointed near his belly. "This little girl is deadlier than you," she said quietly. "And both of my fellow genin are better than me."
"Now, now, Sakura," Kakashi chided, albeit with a playful tone. "No scaring the clients."
"Just teaching Mr Tazuna here that appearances can be deceiving," she said, with a sweet, 'butter wouldn't melt in her mouth', smile, lowering the kunai as she did so.
Tazuna's mouth worked up and down like a spasmodic ventriloquist's dummy, before he finally said, "Okay, girl, you've made your point."
"Okay, team, we'll need to pack for at least a two-week mission. We'll meet at the gates tomorrow morning," Kakashi announced. "Should be a simple enough mission…"
As it turned out, it wasn't.
Of the five people present, only three took note of the large puddles they passed several hours out from Konoha. And only two realised something was amiss. Sakura, Sasuke, and Kakashi realised that there shouldn't have been puddles there, as it hadn't rained for some time, not to mention it was a sunny and fairly hot day. Sasuke had dismissed it as irrelevant. Kakashi and Sakura recognised it as being potential enemy action.
Kakashi, noticing Sakura about to look back at the puddles, drew her attention to him, and shook his head ever so slightly. Sakura gave a slight nod in reply. Kakashi was trying to draw someone out, it seemed. That was the only explanation she could think of to ignore such a potential threat.
Suddenly, she heard a noise behind them, and she whirled to find, emerging from out of the puddles, a pair of ninja, dressed in ragged garb and wearing respirators. Their headbands had the distinctive insignia of Kiri, the Village Hidden in the Mist. They wore metal gauntlets, joined by a vicious, bladed chain. And to her horror, they leapt forward and wrapped said chain around Kakashi, who seemed to have been taken by surprise.
Just before they used their chains, and everything went to hell, Sakura knew who they were, thanks to the Bingo Book she had read some time ago. Gozu and Meizu, the Demon Brothers, rogue chunin-level ninja from Kiri, having fled after attempting to assassinate the Mizukage. Noted not only for their chain attack and coordination, but also poison on their weapons, including their gauntlets.
Then, they pulled on their chains, and Kakashi disappeared into a cloud of blood and offal that rained onto the ground in a gory shower. Only Sakura realised that it was a genjutsu: interspersed with the images of Kakashi turning into wet chunks of bloody meat, was a log, turned into woodchips. He had substituted himself with a log at the last moment. Thankfully, the Demon Brothers hadn't noticed.
"Shut!" Sakura yelled. It was her signal to Sasuke and Naruto to shut their eyes. Going through the handseals as fast as she could, as the Demon Brothers prepared to attack Naruto, she put out her cupped hands, and yelled, "Hikariton: Senkou!"
The Demon Brothers squawked through their respirators as their eyes were seared by the strobing flash of light, and Naruto leapt into the air to avoid their charge, having barely been shaken out of his shock of seeing Kakashi apparently die by Sakura's command. "Damn!" one of them screamed as they tumbled to the ground in an undignified sprawl. "Bitch, I'm gonna take you out before we get the old man!"
Sasuke sneered, and kicked one in the head, while Naruto did the same to another, knocking the belligerent brothers out. And then, Kakashi appeared with a Shunshin nearby. "Excellent work, you three."
Sakura sighed in exasperation, while Naruto and Sasuke emitted sighs of relief. "Did you just use the Ancient Ninja Art of Not Telling Us What You Were Doing(1)?"
Kakashi did that smiling thing with his eye again. "Of course. I noticed that you saw through my substitution and genjutsu, Sakura. A prodigious feat for your age and experience. Well done. You all did very well, although my main reason was not to see how well you did, but to see who these two were really after. They could have been targeting us, or in all likelihood, me. Or they could have been after Tazuna."
Kakashi's demeanour changed from cheerful to grim, even angry as he approached the bridge-builder. "Which turned out to be the case. You paid for a C-Rank mission, which is for protection against bandits and brigands. Not against ninja, especially not those targeting you for an assassination, rogue or not. That makes this a B-Rank mission at the very least. It was very fortunate for you that my genin team managed to hold up so well against these two chunin. Because if the Demon Brothers had killed them, but had failed to kill you by some miracle…I would have. Lying about the potential rank of a mission is a serious offence, so I suggest that you tell the truth…starting now."
Sakura shivered at the amount of killing intent Kakashi let loose at that moment. Tazuna didn't take long to break, especially as he was a bit stunned and dazzled by Sakura's jutsu. And the story he told was a chilling one, one that explained very well why he couldn't pay them.
Wave Country had recently fallen under the power of Gato. Although Gato was officially a shipping baron, even Sakura had heard of shady rumours around the man, that he was involved in illicit trafficking of all kinds, from drugs to slaves. Wave Country had all but been taken over by Gato not long ago, with the diminutive tycoon controlling the shipping on and off the island nation, and used bribery to keep in power with the political authorities. In truth, Gato was becoming king in all but name of Wave Country, and a brutal despot at that. Everything that he could gouge out of Wave, he did so, without any semblance of mercy. Any resistance against him, he brutally crushed.
Tazuna was working against that, though. He was trying to build a bridge to the mainland, so that goods could be delivered over said bridge, to break Gato's stranglehold. But during a trip to the mainland of Fire Country to try and hire equipment and obtain building supplies, he heard that Gato was hiring assassins to deal with him. Tazuna had made it to Konoha by hitching a ride with some merchants who had already paid for a ninja protection detail(2), but once at Konoha, he was forced to lie: Wave had few funds left that Gato hadn't already taken for himself, and what little that hadn't been already committed to the bridge was all he could spare for this mission.
Sakura felt sorry for the old man, but the truth was, he had already lied about the mission's rating. And they were out of their depth, or at least the three genin were. Kakashi could probably handle this mission.
Naruto, however, resolved to continue on. And Sakura hoped, with any luck, that they wouldn't encounter any more rogue ninja. Or at least nobody more dangerous than the Demon Brothers. They had gotten very lucky.
"Kakashi-sensei, would the bounty on these two cover any good part of the difference in fee?" Sakura asked as a thought occurred to her.
"Part of it, but not all of the difference. We will continue, though. Truth be told, someone like Gato could encroach on our territory if he tightens his hold on Wave Country, anyway. So we'll continue."
Sakura sensed that, despite the pragmatic answer of her teacher, he too was reluctant to leave Wave Country to the predations of Gato. So she resolved to help Tazuna as well.
The trip over the ocean to Wave Country was done covertly over the mist-laden ocean…well, as covertly as possible when you have Naruto involved, though at least he understood the need for quiet once it was explained to him. Sakura was as impressed by the massive bridge as Naruto was, she had to admit. It was clear why Tazuna and the fisherman ferrying them over saw it as a sign of hope.
With the Demon Brothers out cold, Kakashi couldn't interrogate them as to who their master might be. He decided that getting Tazuna back home swiftly meant more. During the boat trip, he asked Sakura to see if there was anything in the Bingo Book about known associates, particularly amongst rogue ninja from Kiri.
She flicked through the book, and what she found was disturbing. There was always the possibility that they could have been hired by Gato independently, but they had been known, on occasion, to work for another ninja with the appellation of 'demon'.
She remembered seeing the man's entry while waiting for Kakashi on their first day as Team 7, and trying hard to forget what she had read. She reluctantly told Kakashi what she suspected: that they may have one of the most infamous jounin-level rogue ninja from Kiri after them.
Kakashi nodded, and told everyone to be alert. Naruto, it seemed, took these words a little too closely to heart, as he threw a kunai into the bushes, only for a rabbit to stumble out, frightened.
Kakashi and Sakura, however, realised something at the same time. No wild rabbit would have a coat that well-groomed, and certainly not have that pure white coat at this time of year, not for the breed. It had been kept indoors, and used for substitution. Someone had been in those bushes, and had used the rabbit to lull them into a false sense of security by substituting with it. Kakashi roared, "Down!", even as Sakura was pushing Tazuna down on instinct.
A massive sword spun overhead, and embedded itself into a tree. And to Sakura's horror, a very familiar ninja appeared, perching himself on the handle of the gigantic sword.
Tall, muscled, his lower face concealed by bandages, he was certainly intimidating enough, perched on his sword. But Sakura knew who it was. She had seen that face in the Bingo Book.
"Quick," she hissed at Sasuke and Naruto. "Manji position, around Tazuna. That's Zabuza Momochi, a jounin-level rogue ninja. Kakashi is the only one that can handle him!"
"So the girl knows who I am?" Zabuza asked in his low rasp of a voice. "I am flattered to be chief amongst the nightmares of a lowly Konoha genin." He then looked down at Kakashi. "And here is Kakashi of the Sharingan, the Copy Ninja."
"You three, stay back. Protect Tazuna at all costs," Kakashi said, reaching for his headband. "I'll need to go all out."
As he raised the headband, revealing the Sharingan concealed beneath, Zabuza seemed to smirk beneath his bandages. "The Sharingan, so soon? It's something of an honour to be taken seriously enough that you'd need that. You aren't my concern, though. The bridge builder is. His life is forfeit. Yours aren't necessarily. You can take your brats playing ninja, and go home."
"I'm sorry, but no." Kakashi tensed, ready to fight. "Protecting him is our mission."
"Admirable. But foolish." As Zabuza prepared to fight, Sakura tensed. Her heart pounded in her chest. She remembered what she had wanted, a more interesting mission than catching that bloody cat.
Well, be careful what you wish for, she reflected with one of the few remaining calm parts of her mind, lest you actually get it.
CHAPTER 10 ANNOTATIONS NO JUTSU!:
And there you have it: the beginning of the Wave Arc.
The next chapter will be a bit of a change. Instead of being from Sakura's point of view, it will be mostly from Haku's point of view. Partly because I want to find a new way of writing this battle sequence, partly because I am crap at writing battles, and partly because…well, you'll see.
Review-answering time. jgkitarel: You're probably right that Sakura may not be the first to think of it, but she is the first who wants to take it as far as she can.
Suzululu4moe: It was something I was considering, and I have decided. The Hikariton: Senkou technique will affect doujutsu more. I've decided to have Sakura face Neji during the Chunin Exams (after he beats down Hinata)…and I am sure you can guess the outcome.
LegendaryWriterS: I've already answered his review in private correspondence, but I will answer it again here. Firstly, making Sakura more like she was in Shippuden was completely accidental, as I haven't even watched beyond the Wave Arc in the anime. I was inspired by the way Hermione Granger was developed in White Squirrel's excellent Harry Potter fanfic The Arithmancer. In said story, Hermione's skills are so good, she actually creates her own spells, hence Sakura's development of Hikariton.
The pairings won't be NaruSaku or SasuSaku. Sasuke will hopefully develop into a better character, but who he's being paired with, I dunno. The pairing with Sakura, however, will be revealed before long. I'm sure many people will be surprised.
I haven't actually watched that many episodes of Naruto, and I've only read the first five volumes of the manga, with my having skimmed through volumes 6-11 to get more character cues for characters like Hinata, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya. It's sad when I prefer fanfic (or at least the best of it) to canon.
bloomsburry: Thank you for your enthusiastic support, and I hope my version of Sakura will live up to expectations. All-caps reviews, however, do tend to set my teeth on edge.
dreaming of rocketships: Unfortunately, until you mentioned it, I've never heard of Noragami. And I have only read the first volume of Fairy Tail, though I intend to try and read more. Also, Hikariton will not be about making light do impossible things per se (despite the fact that ninjutsu does all these impossible things anyway). That being said, Sakura WILL develop an actual proper attack, if not more, that involves light. You'll see the debut during the Forest of Death, if not earlier (like, say, during the battle against Haku).
Guest: As mentioned above, it won't be Naruto who faces Neji in the Chunin Exams.
CelticMonk: Canon to the manga or the anime? I don't really know. Does anyone?
1. A quote from Naruto: The Abridged Comedy Fandub Spoof Series Show, though it is Kakashi saying (after stopping one of the Demon Brothers) "I used the Ancient Ninja Art of Not Telling You What I Was Doing. And now I'm okay!"
2. One plot hole that few Naruto fanfics (at least that I have read) fail to point out is, how did Tazuna get to Konoha safely in the first place once he learned Gato was sending assassins after him? It took a moment to come up with a plausible answer.
