XII . In which ninja are a gossipy bunch.


Team 7 reunites at the gates at 6am, all three carrying expertly packed bags with their supplies evenly distributed between them. They do trust Kakashi-sensei to be professional and arrive on time, but just to be sure they convince him they have to be an hour early to… get breakfast together, yeah, that. Sensei, by now it's like tradition for the team, so at 6, not at 7. There'll be coffee.

And Kakashi-sensei actually arrives at quarter to seven, so as an incentive they make a big deal about how they were supposed to meet forty-five minutes before. He better hurries to eat the nice homemade food they reluctantly saved for him, his coffee is probably lukewarm by now anyways. And then they all fail at don't feeling dirty for using tsundere methods on him.

Team Momoko arrives at 7 sharp followed five minutes later by Dankishi-san, the caravan leader, who after introducing himself gets the ninja into helping load the carts as the people traveling to Yamaguwa arrives. It's a small group comprising a young married couple, two merchants from the Land of Tea and…

"Obaachan?"

"Oh, Shizuka-chan. Why didn't you tell me you'll be escorting us? Here, take my luggage. This old body should be carrying such heavy things." The old lady drops her stuff on Shizuka arms, and with some sort of esoteric old lady power manages to snatch Gari by the elbow as he passes, much to his team amusement. "This young man can help me get on the wagon."

"Who is that person, Shizuka-chan?"

"My old landlady. I suspect she's a retired shinobi, but I have no way to prove it and she says that's nonsense."

"I now see why you live in your family's house."

"Yeah, (and I'll be able to stop paying rent for the apartment one day.)"

"What?"

"Nothing."

-o-

One would think that a single team should be enough to guard 6 people and 2 wagons if they aren't supposed to encounter danger.

"On the way back we may be escorting up to 30 people," explains Chise while the five genin –Gari is still held hostage by Shizuka's landlady- walk behind the caravan. Momoko and Kakashi are on point, talking. "With only a team as guards the civilians would feel insecure and the occasional bandits overconfident, so they hire two. And thanks to that Dankishi-san can boast that his caravan has never experienced mayor problems, charge relatively high fares that are still less expensive than a C-rank, and get enough clients that he gains back his inversion with a lot of revenue. And that's just for the people, he also moves cargo."

"You know a lot about this caravan, Chise-sempai." Shizuka still feels a bit out of sorts about being doing something so different from canon, and as such is very grateful for the info dump.

"Well, we were a bit curious about it too, so we asked Saito-sensei. He told us that details on this mission are common knowledge among the career genin and higher ranks because it's a regular one."

"He also told us that this is what they call a milk run: a mission that can't be a D-rank just because it's outside of the village," chimes in Gari who has just managed to escape Shizuka's landlady.

"Kakashi-sensei promised us a C-rank!" complains Naruto.

"Well, you are some of this cycle's graduated, aren't you? Saito-sensei had us doing D-ranks for longer and our first C-rank was inside the village-"

"Chise-tan, that was because Saito-sensei wasn't gonna risk little Hotaru's life in some dangerous mission! I'm sure normal teams get to see more action." Hotaru punches Gari in the arm.

"Gari, cut that out!"

"Gari-chan our team is perfectly normal!"

"You have to admit that our team is at least somewhat incesty- ouch, Hotaru pull your punches a bit!"

"Gari-chan! Not in front of our kouhai."

"What! It's true! Hotaru's uncle and Saito-sensei where in the same team and practically married, and they replaced him with Hotaru's sist- stop hitting me!"

"Then stop being a jerk! And she's my cousin!"

"Same difference. So you are basically Saito-sensei's kid- Chise-tan! Tell Hotaru to stop hitting me!"

"Not until you apologise, you jerk."

"That was not cool, Gari."

"… I went too far, didn't I? I'm sorry Hotaru."

"It's ok. Just don't do it again."

"Thanks, bro. I'm sorry, really."

Sheepish, Chise turns to Shizuka and her teammates.

"So… did you get the Tora mission yet?

-o-

Gossiping and complaining about authority figures are favourite activities of teenagers, especially ninja ones, so Shizuka and her team get a bit of context for Team Saito's drama. They are two years older than Team 7 and have been more or less coddled by their sensei, a fact that Gari likes to attribute to Saito-sensei's relationship with Hotaru's uncle and that is a sore point to Hotaru because is somewhat true.

"We understand that he wouldn't want to nominate us for the chunin exams two years ago. Most jounin hold their genin from them for at least a year, but then he keep us from participating in the next ones too. Even if we were unlikely to pass, almost no one gets a promotion on their first try, we'd had the experience."

"And I know that he wanted to talk Momoko-nee into dropping from the exam the first time she took it until my aunt got wind of it and shoot him down."

Shizuka, who knows that canon Kakashi-sensei not only nominated his rookie team to the chunin exams 4 months after they graduated, but before that had allowed them to continue on a mislabelled mission, decides to keep her mouth shut and don't add salt to the wound.

Fortunately, Naruto, who is almost physically incapable of prudence, doesn't know canon Kakashi-sensei and groans dramatically.

"I'm sure Sensei will be like that too, he still doesn't even teaches us cool ninja stuff. He just have us do the same boring chakra exercises again and again."

"And he always choses the most tedious missions."

"And… uhm he never makes the effort to wash the thermos after he finishes his coffee." He actually seems to be a more attentive teacher than his canon counterpart, so Shizuka is not going to complain about his teaching.

"Boring. Eh, Naruto-kun?" Because Shizuka was desensitised to sudden appearances by her cats, she jumped half a meter less high than her teammates when they heard Kakashi-sense's voice coming from behind their backs. "And tedious. And I don't seem to make the effort. Uhm? Very well, I see I'll need to step up your training."

"Really?" Apparently Naruto is also incapable of perceiving an ominous approaching menace.

"Of course Naruto-kun. But it will have to wait until the caravan stops. In the meanwhile… SAKURA!

"Eep! Yessir!"

"You'll be running ahead to scout, you can take Sekisaki-kun with you. Naruto-kun and Shizuka-chan will be following the caravan by the branches, each one side of the road."

"But Sensei! We still don't know how tree walk!"

"Well, then you'll have to do it the old fashioned way. So, GO!"

"Yessir!"

-o-

The caravan stops for a late lunch and Kakashi-sensei calls them back. It's a brief pause so fortunately for the genin, but unfortunately for the more handsome of the two merchants from Tea, Shizuka's landlady doesn't have time to exchange her hostage for a younger one. Shizuka doesn't know how Hotaru has so far avoided her.

When they begin to move again Kakashi-sensei sends Hotaru and Chise replace Naruto and Sakura (they know tree walking and have an easier time for it) at the flanks of the rearguard, and goes himself in the scouting position.

Sakura and Gari are about as winded as Shizuka (Naruto doesn't tire very fast and when he does he recuperates quickly). Kakashi-sensei had them fall back to report at intervals of time just to send them running ahead again, so they practically ran laps all morning. They walk along Momoko, who is too star-struck to be sympathetic.

"If sempai says so, it must be good for you, guys."

"And since when do you take jounin so seriously, Momoko-nee? Also weren't you supposed to lead or something?" Asks Gari eyeing her suspiciously. "Do you have a crush on him? Do we have to tell Souji-san to tell Haruko-san to have a talk with him?"

"OfcourseIdon't. And please don't involve my uncle or, sage forbids, my mother on this." Momoko is apparently a lot more composed when not in the presence of (in)famous people. "It's just. Kakashi-sempai is famous. He was promoted to chunin like at 6. And I once saw a bingo book mom got from a Kiri ninja that says to approach him with caution. They warn shinobi from the Bloody Mist about him. How cool is that?"

"Kakashi-sensei is famous?" Chorus Naruto and Sakura.

"Yeah, he's the famous Copy-ninja that knows a thousand jutsu he learned from his opponents!" Momoko turns to Shizuka. "You don't seem that surprised? You knew of him?"

"Uhmm, well," Shizuka tries to look as much uncomfortable as she cans so no one asks her and she doesn't accidentally reveals to much of his backstory. "He's Sharingan Kakashi."

"Oh, yeah." Momoko looks a bit uncomfortable herself, eyeing the Uchiwa embroidered in Shizuka's sleeve. Success. "You should know."

"Witchy-zuka! You knew he was famous and didn't tell us?" Before Shizuka has the need to think of a response, because her plan failed as it didn't account for Naruto, something she should already know better to do, he steamrolls past to another question. "And what's that sharingan thing?"

"She is on your team and you don't know? Do you know your team at all?"

"Gari-kun!" Momoko apologetically drags him away to let Team 7 have their own drama in private.

"Uhmm the sharingan is my clan's kekkei genkai." Sakura seems to comprehend quickly why Momoko backed up so quickly. And Kakashi probably wouldn't mind to much having his students know just this bit of his tragic past. "It's in our eyes and when we activate it lets us do some cool stuff, though the Hyuuga's byakugan is cooler." Because it doesn't needs terrible scarring trauma to be activated. "I haven't activate it yet." Which is weird because Sasuke did. "And I almost don't wanna because it's heavy on our bodies." And psyche.

"But Kakashi-sensei isn't from your clan, is he?"

"No, he isn't."

"Then his eyes ("just one"), then his eye is… is…"

"Yeah, from a friend who must have cared about him a lot." Shizuka doesn't care much about Obito, but Kakashi does so she isn't badmouthing him.

"That's… that's…"

"Just don't think about it too much."

"That's why he was assigned as your sensei, Shizuka-chan?"

"Most probably, Sakura-chan. But I'm glad to be here in this team with you two and him."

-o-

In the evening, Momoko, remembering she's supposed to be leading this mission, reluctantly at first, but then more firmly when she sees Kakashi-sensei's approval, orders the caravan to stop for the night when they pass a good spot for the camp. After every traveller is set, the fire is smokeless-ly burning, and the horses are tended to, Kakashi-sensei further rewards Momoko by asking her permission to take his team a bit away for training.

"O-of course sempai! My team and I can guard the camp in your absence!"

"I will only be gone for a couple minutes and I'm just taking them a bit further away into the woods, Momoko-kun."

"We won't disappoint you, senpai!

-o-

The instructions for the tree climbing exercise are just as Shizuka remembers from Eli's memories. Just as she predicted, Sakura gets it at the first try and manages to get to the crown without much problem. It's harder for Shizuka and Naruto, though, so Kakashi-sensei and Sakura settle at the base of a tree to watch them slowly make progress.

Thanks to the fact they been doing chakra control exercises like crazy for months it doesn't take them as long as it did in the manga and get back to the camp with enough time for a late dinner.

-o-

The next day they show an impressed Team Momoko the fruits of their training and for the second day of the journey the genin are more evenly rotated between the guard positions.

In the evening the caravan is close enough to the town they chose to don't stop for the night and the ninja fall closer to the wagons to guide them in the dark.

Then they arrive at Yamaguwa.


These notes are super huge and I apologise beforehand.

- Good news! I got the job!

- Bad news, I won't get much writing time, but I'll try, don't worry.

- The only reason Kakashi didn't keep them running all day it's because I needed them to have that conversation :P

- Tragic backstories are keep inside the team, people. Shizuka is only comfortable oversharing with people she loves.

- There are no cars in the ninja world (or at least in this ninja world), so horses. I mean, they could go entirely on feet or have manpowered vehicles, but I like horses.

-Oh, and I'm going with the following time line/calendar thing: The graduation from the academy is in the last days of March and the new cycle starts in April (like in Japanese schools), the chunin exams are held on January and July. Right now they are in a nebulous time between May and June.

-Aaaaand Some mini-bios for Team Momoko/Saito:

Norimura Momoko. A 17 years old chunin. She was promoted in the exams just before our heroes' graduation. Her mom, Norimura Haruko, is a scary jounin and there's no father on the picture, Norimura is her maiden name.

Suehisa Hotaru. A 14 years old genin. His family life is complicated: His dad, Suehisa Keisuke, was in the same team as his uncle, Norimura Souji, and his sensei. His mom, Norimura Hikari, died in the Kyuubi Attack and his dad committed suicide by mission a bit later, so he was raised by his uncle and Saito.

Sekisaki Gari. A 14 years old genin. His parents where civilians that died in the Kyuubi Attack, and he meet Chise at the orphanage. He has a sister 5 years older, Ume, that became his guardian as soon as she graduated from the academy... at twelve. That wasn't that good for him because he ended up spending a lot of time alone at home.

Ikeno Chise. A 15 years old genin. Both her parents were chunin and also died at the attack. She meet Gari at the orphanage and after they graduated she moved in with the Sekisaki siblings but goes back to play with the younger children in her free time.

Takagi Saito. A jounin. He and Souji were dancing around each other for years until Hikari and Keisuke died. Then they began to be in an on-off relationship that exasperates everybody that knows them. He got hurt in a solo mission and is currently hospitalised. He is an overprotective mother hen because he lost his first genin team in a c-rank gone wrong years back; no one in Team Momoko knows.