Chapter TWELVE

It is three days later when Sasuke receives the scroll containing a brief overview of the mission he has been allocated to, alongside Sakura with Kimimaro acting as proctor. Simply put, they were to hunt down a group of people selling information on different organizations, kill them, destroy all information on Oto and bring back anything that might be useful. It sounded simple enough and Kimimaro held the details of the mission.

Sasuke was in a particularly bad mood that morning. Orochimaru had called him into his throne room first thing in the morning where he had listed out a bunch of rules Sasuke could care less about regarding Sakura. Then Kabuto had decided to pay him a visit and had wished him luck in the most taunting way possible and the only thing that stopped Sasuke from tearing the man apart was the fact that time was near and he couldn't risk messing up. After chasing the medic out, he had sharpened his already sharp kunai more than necessary before he stormed out half an hour late, kind of understanding Kakashi and his tardiness. It felt nice to be late out of spite.

Had he been someone else, he probably will have pulled a Kakashi excuse too, but that was a little too much.

He is an Uchiha, after all.

Kimimaro and Sakura are already waiting when he arrives at the gates. Sakura is chattering happily and while it isn't obvious, Kimimaro is clearly listening.

The pinkette is the first to react upon seeing him. She doesn't seem to mind at all that he has kept them waiting for half an hour. She darts over and gives him a brief hug before she smiles and waves in his face. "Hi Sasuke." She says.

Sasuke simply nods and is about to say something when he catches sight of something from the corner of his eye.

Kimimaro shoots him a dismissive glare and while never admitting it out loud, Sasuke is sure he is a little more rough than necessary when he pats Sakura's head. Sakura doesn't complain, though, so he decides that he gets away with it.

Once satisfied, Sakura turns to Kimimaro. "Can we go now?" She asks.

Sasuke turns to Kimimaro as well. "Orochimaru said you have the details." He says.

Kimimaro nods. "Let's head out first." He says. "We'll talk at the inn tonight."

A part of Sasuke wants to complain but the reasonable shinobi part understands that details and important information and plans were best made when they were rested and relaxed. So he simply nods and they head out.

A few seconds into the journey and Sasuke notices something.

It is something so small and trivial that anyone else would have easily dismissed it.

Not Sasuke, though, because Sasuke is nothing if not observant and it is in his blood to never dismiss something that his instincts point out.

He has seen Sakura during one of her training sessions with some Oto shinobi and had even fought her himself and he knows that skill wise, she is more than able to hold her ground in a fight. However, in missions, he has no idea what role she plays. From their interactions, he thinks that apart from the fighting, she seems to have next to no knowledge about the political side of being a shinobi. She blurts out mission content and has no qualms with sharing fighting tips and it is obvious she isn't suited for a mission that includes interactions.

Still, her steps are confident and just looking at the way she easily keeps up with him and Kimimaro it is obvious she has traveled a countless number of times. He recalls Sakura saying that she doesn't leave Otogakure apart from when she is on a mission and as far as he knew, she was more in than out. Still, no amount of indoor training could compare to the experience or the confidence gained on field.


They enter a small civilian village to spend the night.

Kimimaro goes to get them a room at an inn while Sakura and Sasuke wander off to find them food.

As he watches Sakura skip around with a carefree air about her, Sasuke feels suspicion eat away at the back of his head. It is usual to spend a night at a close by civilian village to rest and plan before moving into the actual village the next day. However, there are a countable number of villages around Tanino village and all were as significant as the one before. The villages in this area ran on trade and as far as Sasuke knew, had no affiliation with any Shinobi village, so unless the group they were looking from were a bunch of farmers during the day, it was highly unlikely their destination was any of those.

And that left the only location in the area that was travelling distance from their current location.

Yoshiwara Village was a red light district known by those who knew. Men and women, boys and girls alike were sent there to earn money or pay back debts and as far as he was concerned, it was a horrible place. Those who had been long abandoned and forgotten by the rest of the world lost themselves from reality and Sasuke had to admit, it was the perfect place to look for a group of people crazy enough to sell information on Otogakure.

"Oh, look, Sasuke!" Sakura tugs on his sleeve and points at a small candy stall. "I want the pink one. Come on, Sasuke, please~" She tugs on his sleeve again.

Sasuke sighs but allows himself to be tugged over to the shop. The old lady running the stall looks up and greets them warmly "Hello."

Sakura smiles back and holds up a packet of pink candy. "May I have this?"

The lady smiles and turns to Sasuke. "Anything else, young man?"

"Hn." Sasuke grabs a few more of the ones Sakura had wanted and places them into pinkette's hands.

The lady chuckles and quickly adds up the price.

Sasuke notices that she is giving them a discount and offers her the closest thing to a smile he can manage. The two of them then enter a small stall nearby and and bought food for the night. By the time they returned to the inn, Kimimaro had spread the futon and was waiting for them. It looked like he wanted to complain about the time but when he saw Sakura happily chewing on the sweets, he simply sent him a sharp nod and smiled in Sakura's direction.

Once settled, Kimimaro pulls out their mission scroll and spread in on the tatami. Sakura and Sasuke gather around him.

"The people we are looking for are a no named informant organization." Kimimaro says. "According to what we have on their history, they all have some sort of tragic past. The man who we suspect to be the leader had his whole family massacred by a hired mercenary."

"So in exchange, he sells information about them." Sasuke scoffs.

"So we kill him?" Sakura asks.

"We need to find him first," Kimimaro points at the photograph and the information beside it. "And make him spill. We want to who he's sold information to."

"What about the others?" Sasuke asks.

"This group isn't a big one. We have the names and faces of all the members and I doubt they'll move separately."

"And why are we here?" Sasuke asks.

Kimimaro looks up at him, eyes equally dark. "Our prey is known to often visit the red light district." He shoots a look at Sakura, who has lost interest the moment the talk became strategic. "And Orochimaru-sama wants Sakura to act as bait."


Darque: So, in Aura Kingdom, this game I'm playing, there's this monster-npc thing with this name that made me want to finish this chapter.

Raven: Oh? And what was it called?

Darque: Raging Sasquack.

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