Sakura POV
"Ok, cute little genin, listen up."
At her sensei's words, Sakura gratefully jumped out of the tree and then collapsed to her knees, breathing hard. Her shirt was soaked with sweat and her hair was matted into an itchy mess on the back of her neck.
Maybe being Sasuke Uchiha's rival wasn't the best idea in the world.
He had woken them up at dawn, like he had promised. But while yesterday, Sakura had complained about the early hour, this morning she kept her mouth resolutely shut and annoyance to herself when Sasuke started them off on a light run through the woods.
Light, her foot.
There were stitches in her stitches by the time they finished their mad dash through the forest. Even Naruto seemed winded. They finally collapsed in the middle of the clearing, but Sakura didn't allow herself to stay sitting for long- she couldn't as Sasuke's rival.
When Sasuke suggested an insane game of tag with shuriken and penalties if you touched the ground, she agreed. And when Naruto complained of the unfair advantage that gave the two of them, Sakura caught Sasuke's glance and allowed that it would give Naruto great incentive. Didn't he learn better under pressure anyways? She didn't miss the strange glance he sent her.
But then Sasuke threw a handful of shuriken at her and she needed to jump into the trees or risk explaining to Kakashi why her ninja skills were so lacking as to both mess up their mission and be hit during a simple game of tag. The talk with Naruto and explanation of her new rivalry would have to wait for a later time.
Kakashi POV
"As glad as I am that you all are taking your warm up exercises seriously," Kakashi swept his eyes over his sweating, crumpled genin. "Please remember that you are not safely at Konoha and, thus, need to have enough energy to complete our mission. And what is our mission, Sakura-chan?"
"To protect Tazuna-san as he completes the bridge." Sakura's tone was neutral but not flat. He cast a quick glance at the pink haired girl and saw that she was staring levelly back at him. Whatever conclusions she had come to after running off last night had stiffened her resolve rather than broke her.
Good, he wouldn't want to be the one to explain to the Hokage why the famous Team Seven had broken up.
"Correct." He shifted to lean back against the tree, "Now, I know yesterday I said we were going to continue searching for Inari, but I've changed my mind. Despite the similarity to the other missing children, we can't rule out the chance that this was politically motivated."
"Wait! What do you mean?" Naruto sat up and squinted at him.
Kami protect him, but it was a good thing Naruto was friends with Sakura. If there had ever been a more ignorant Academy graduate, Kakashi had yet to hear about it. He glanced at Sakura to explain, but was surprised when Sasuke spoke up first.
"Someone might have kidnapped the kid to put pressure on the bridge builder," Sasuke said. Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow.
"Correct."
Sasuke gave Sakura a superior look, but she only smiled sweetly back at him.
"But if that's the case, then it's likely they will send a ransom note at some point, which might give us some clues as to his whereabouts."
"Also, correct."
A scowl replaced Sasuke's smug look and it was Sakura's turn to look faintly superior. Ok…. Kakashi glanced between the two genin, but then sighed. Not worth the mental effort at the moment.
"Oh! Oh! So then we just pay the ransom and get Inari back and everything will be ok! Believe it!"
"Not quite." Kakashi said.
Naruto collapsed to the ground with a huff. "Why not!"
"Naruto, what if the ransom is more than Tazuna can afford? He's not very wealthy. Or what if they want him to stop building the bridge?" Sakura asked. "Plus, it sets a bad precedent to negotiate with kidnappers. If people think it's an effective negotiating tool, you'll see a huge upswing in kidnapping and-"
"Sakura." Naruto had sat up slowly and was staring at Sakura in confusion, "Sakura, we're talking about Inari. Not some random problem in your text book! What if the kidnappers threaten to kill him!"
The kunoichi blanched and glanced at Kakashi for guidance. But Kakshi only stared back impassively. The answer was obvious to him, but this was a good chance to see if Sakura had learned her lesson from last night. When Sasuke opened his mouth to answer, Kakashi motioned him to be silent. Sakura needed to answer this on her own.
"Naruto. . . " Sakura glanced at the boy then at the ground, "That's- that's not our decision to make. Tazuna-san hired us to protect him while he built the bridge. If he decides not to build the bridge, because of a ransom. . ."
"But Inari-"
"Would be returned if the demands of the ransom were met." Sasuke cut in with a glare at Kakashi as that would prevent him from shushing him again. Kakashi just blinked at him.
"But the villagers- they need the bridge to be built!"
"Naruto," Sakura looked pleadingly at her team mate, "We don't even know if the bridge would really help. . ."
The blond genin looked back and forth between his team mates, one coolly impassive and one apologetic. His face was contorted in a deep frown and he stared at Sauske with great suspicion. But finally, he came to a conclusion and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"Right."
"Maaa…." Kakshi reached down and rumpled Sakura's head to cut through the tension. "You all look so gloomy. The reason I came out here today is because Uhei thought he picked up a scent trail on the northern side of the island. We're going to track it today."
"Awesome!" Naruto was suddenly all smiles and excitement. Kakashi had to bite back a smile, it was so easy to keep Naruto in good spirits, "When do we head out? I can make clones-"
"Actually, I'll be going alone." Kakashi said. Sakura sent him a concerned glance, "Since we can't rule out the kidnapping as a blackmail attempt, I need you three to be on guard duty at the bridge today."
"Lame!" Naruto complained, scowling at him. "We should be doing something important!"
"Guarding the bridge is important, dobe."
"Sakura," Kakashi patted his kunoichi's head on least time, "You have the most experience in guard duty, so you'll be team leader today. Do you think you can do that?" Unasked was the question if she could stick to the actual mission. Sakura hesitated, but then nodded firmly. Her expression changed to one of set resolve.
"Good!" Kakashi grinned at all three of them, "I'll see you this evening. Work together and there's nothing you can't handle."
Sakura's POV
"Ah! It's such a nice day, isn't it? Eh, old man?" Naruto tried for the sixth time in as many minutes to engage Tazuna in conversation. But the old bridge builder ignored him.
This morning he seemed older than ever. His eyes were deeply lined and his shoulders bowed. If she thought that his pace was slow coming from Konoha, it was plodding now. Still, with her muscles still sore from her mad race in the woods last night, Sakura didn't mind the speed.
She did mind the oppressive quiet. Tazuna's grief was understandable, but it weighed on her guilt like an extra tonne.
"Wow! That is a great tree- don't you-"
"Naruto." Sakura interrupted the boy's latest desperate attempt to cheer up the old man and shook her head at him. Naruto sighed and shoved his hands in his pocket but didn't attempt to point out the sparkly rock, fluffy cloud, or whatever of the other half dozen mundane objects that attracted his fascination. Sakura took his place next to the bridge builder's side.
"Tazuna-san, I don't know if Kakashi told you, but one of his dogs picked up a scent on the northern side of the island. He's gone to go investigate, so there is a chance that he might find Inari." Not a large chance, but surely some hope was better than nothing? Kakashi might not approve of her sharing this information, but at least this time she wasn't making any promises or giving the old man false hope.
She was rewarded with a bleary look. The man didn't look like he had slept much at all the past night. Though from the scent of old sake on his breath, it wasn't hard to divine what he had spent his time doing.
"You'ra good kid, Sakura." He slurred, "How old are ya?"
Sakura blinked in confusion, "I'm twelve."
"Twelve," Tazuna shook his head, "Twelve and worrying about old men like me. Inari- Inari was eight. Did you know that?" The man's voice broke on the name of his grandson.
"Not much younger than you," the man continued, "You shouldn't be here. You're twelve. You should be at- at school. Having fun. Worrying about boys and- and- not worrying about missing kids and learning how to kill. S'not right. S'not right at all." He sighed heavily and fell silent. Sakura cast a concerned glance towards Naruto who only shrugged in response.
"Hey- hey! Old man. Check out- uh-check out this leaf! These are some pretty weird holes aren't they?"
Tazuna didn't respond.
Naruto's POV
Finally, they reached the bridge! Naruto cheered and ran ahead- glad to finally be done with the escort service from the house.
(If you were any good you'd have cheered Tazuna up.)
Yeah, it had hurt a little bit when Kakashi had made Sakura team captain because she had more guarding experience. Not that she didn't deserve to be team captain, because she was smart and awesome even if she was acting super weird lately. But he had spent the last four days guarding the bridge with his clones when Sakura had only spent the first day, but-
(But not even your Sensei recognizes you or your skill. Overlooked. Again.)
But that didn't matter!
"Oi! Oi! Hey everyone! It's me in person this time!"
Though he only got hazy memories from his clones when they dissipated at the end of the day, after four days of guarding the bridge, he knew all of the workers names and they knew his. They were an awesome group of people- almost as happy to answer his questions as Sakura! And they loved old man Tazuna. If any group of guys could cheer up the old man, it would be them!
But none of them looked up when the four approached.
Maybe they hadn't heard Nartuo!
"Hey! Isamu- how is that arm doing? Oh-Shirou- gonna finish the beam support today?"
But Isamu didn't look up from where he was mixing the cement and Shirou, who only yesterday had been teaching Naruto dirty fishing songs, turned away at his approach.
(Same as the village. Same everywhere you go. You can fool them for a little, but they will figure you out eventually. Why did you expect anything else?)
"Um. Guys what's going on?" Naruto glanced around the milling crowd of bridge workers, but no one returned his glance or appeared to hear him.
(You aren't deserving of the attention.)
Was there some sort of genjutsu? Yeah. That had to be it. They were stuck in some illusion.
"Hey, Sakura. I think they are under a genjutsu-"
But he was struck silent by the hard expression on Sakura's face. Her lips were drawn into a thin line as she turned to the old man. It was as though the sun had gone out of the sky, to be replaced with thick clouds. Actually, it was super misty here on the water.
"Tazuna-san, would you please speak to your laborers."
"Actually, we want to talk to you, ninja-san." Gorou stood up and stepped to the front of the group. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at Sakura. Naruto was suddenly struck by how short they all were compared to the men, but Sakura only stared back at him levelly as though she were the taller one.
"Yes, Gorou-san?"
"You promised that you would help us find the kids. So, where are they?" He glared down at the kunoichi and Naruto had to repress the urge to jump in front of Sakura and tell him to back off. Instead he glanced around.
Huh, it was really misty. But it hadn't been misty this morning at the house.
"We have not been able to find them. I am very sorry." Sakura's voice was calm. "Right now our sensei is following up on a lead regarding Inari and we have been sent here to guard you from any threats."
"Sakura-" Naruto tugged on her sleeve wanting to point out the gathering mist, but Sakura shrugged his hand off.
(How can you even trust that you know what is going on? Maybe you're wrong. Maybe you should just stay quiet?)
"Not now, Naruto." She hissed, eyes not leaving Gorou's. But Sasuke had noticed the mist as well and exchanged a quick glance with Naruto.
(Now she won't even listen to you.)
"Protect us?"
Gorou spat on the ground, "How are three kids supposed to protect us? You can't even-"
"Sakura!"
A huge sword landed between them- sinking into the concrete as easily as if the bridge were made of soft cheese. Naruto grabbed the back of his team mate's shirt and hauled her away from the man and the sword- back to the formation around the old man.
"Long time, no see, you brats!"
A/N: And the plot actually progresses! What is this nonsense? Between this and the next chapter, I was experimenting with bouncing around more between perspectives to keep the chapter interesting and moving ahead. Any thoughts?
As always, you guys are the reason that writing is so much fun. I love to hear what you liked, didn't like and what you would like to see more of. Happy December 1st!