The next day was almost as bad as the first, with the exception that they weren't working with animals: they were carting animal food around, cleaning out the water dispenser making Mika's hair stand on end at the amount of dirt inside the metal fountain, and many other chores.
At six o'clock they had finished and were, if possible, even more exhausted than the day before. Naruto was complaining bitterly as usual, Sakura was keeping herself to herself, and even Sasuke and Mika had stopped their constant chatting. Kakashi bid the farmer and his wife goodbye and led the young group out of the farmyard, dragging their bags along on the dusty ground behind them unenthusiastically. Even Mika had decided that she preferred her old missions to this… and she let them know this on frequent occasions.
They were walking along the woodland road slowly, Naruto dragging along at the back, in silence. Mika noticed her new sensei glancing over his shoulder at them repeatedly, a nervous look on his handsome face. She frowned to herself, wondering whether he was just worried for their tiredness or whether there was something more going on. The young girl glanced over at Sasuke who was also frowning down at the ground, she caught his eye and glanced at the man in front of them; Sasuke nodded, aware of what she meant and letting her know that he had noticed too. Suddenly the jonin stopped and put his hands on their shoulders, looking down at them severely.
'Sakura, Naruto. You two go on ahead.' he told the other two firmly, making sure they wouldn't contradict them. 'I'll catch up to you guys in a minute.' Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other, then at Mika and Sasuke before walking past them slowly, uncertain looks on both their faces. When they were out of earshot but not quite out of view, Kakashi turned back to the couple still present. 'Okay, you both noticed me looking back at you two.' He started, lowering his voice in an ominous way. 'I wasn't checking up on you guys.' he continued.
'Well that was obvious.' interrupted Sasuke rebelliously. Kakashi sighed.
'Someone is following us.' he continued, glancing over his shoulder at Naruto and Sakura who were almost out of sight. 'And I want you two to go and check them out.' Mika's eyes widened in fear, but Sasuke smiled at the prospect of some action. 'They're definitely more than one, but I don't think there are more than three. They won't be watching out for you, because you're going back to the farm because you forgot something. Can you guys handle it, or am I going to have to tell the others and put everyone on red alert?' he asked, looking from one nervous face to the other excited one. Sasuke nodded determinedly, but Mika's pretty face was still indecisive.
'I'm not sure I can handle it.' she said quietly, glancing from Sasuke to her new sensei hesitantly. 'I- I'm not very good, you know… I'm average!'
'Not many people have taken Rock Lee on, Mika.' said Kakashi reassuringly, with a friendly smile just visible through his mask. 'Admittedly you did lose, but you put up a good fight. I believe you can do this.'
'But-' she tried to convince him otherwise, but he was having nothing of it.
'This is a C rank mission where you come from, Mika.' he told her firmly. 'You can do this.' Her young face changed from that of uncertainty, to that of determination and resolution. She nodded to him before he turned away, whispering a small "good luck" and they were gone. 'They'll be okay…' he told himself. 'I mean they got me with their flour bombs… they'll be fine.'
Mika and Sasuke leapt from tree to tree heading in the direction they had come from, hearts pounding with nerves but their young faces were set. They got to the farmyard and stopped for a moment, giving the target time to let their minds wander from the two thirteen year olds dashing off.
'What happens if we're discovered?' asked Mika quietly, her face still set as she gazed off into the dark greenery in front of them from where they were standing on a thick branch. There was a pause as Sasuke thought of an answer.
'We fight till the end.' he said decisively. Mika nodded unwaveringly, her pretty face hard as she imagined what was ahead of them. 'But that's not going to happen.' he added, trying not to seem too pessimistic, but Mika snorted.
'Shall we get on with it then?' she asked looking over at him, her expression hard and neutral at the same time. Sasuke gazed over at his best friend and watched as a mischievous smile crept onto her pretty face which he returned before they both looked back into the darkness before of them.
They leapt off simultaneously into the dark forest, ignoring the dog barking in the background, side by side as they raced back to where Kakashi and the others were still calmly walking. Their hearts were racing with adrenaline and Mika was surprised to find a smile on her face as she felt her blood rushing up and down her thirteen year old body, she glanced over at the dark haired boy running beside her and noticed him biting his lower lip. She reached in her shuriken holster for a kunai knife, just to make sure she was ready for any sneak attack that could appear at any moment. The air rushing past her ears cut off her hearing slightly so she turned her head to the side for a moment, and regretted it. Her plum coloured hair flicked at her face viciously, she turned her head back around and wiped her face with her hand trying to get rid of the locks.
Suddenly, just when she had got back on course, something threw itself out of the tree Sasuke had been about to land on and grabbed hold of the dark eyed boy, pulling him down to ground level. Mika stopped in her tracks and leapt down to his aid, only to find him fighting against a tall man with a balaclava on and no visible headband on. He was wearing a black, long sleeved shirt and kaki shorts, showing his calves which were covered by dirty crimson bandages which might have been white once.
'Did you honestly think that we wouldn't notice you?' he asked as Sasuke dodged a kick to the head. He threw out his fist which Sasuke grabbed, pulling the man's body down and bringing his knee up to meet him, colliding them with a painful crunch. The man pulled back, rubbing his nose and glaring at Sasuke menacingly before pulling out a large shuriken, the likes of which Mika hadn't had to deal with before now, and threw it at Sasuke. Sasuke threw himself on the ground and kicked out with his left leg, making the man stumble backwards and miss his giant shuriken which Mika caught messily.
'Mika!' cried Sasuke as he pulled out a kunai knife. 'Tell Kakashi there are three!' he shouted firmly. Mika grinned maliciously as she lobbed the heavy shuriken (with difficulty) at the opponent who was forced to let himself fall to the ground to keep his head, allowing Sasuke to kick him in the face.
'Already on it!' cried the girl proudly, pulling out another kunai knife and twirling the two on both her index fingers. She ran at the man who had got to his feet again and jabbed one of the knives into his right leg, feeling the sickening feeling of torn flesh and warm blood on her fingers. She heard him growl in pain and watched his hand rush to stem the flow, giving her the chance to swing around behind him and stab the second knife into his right shoulder, as she hoped against hope he was right handed.
'What do you mean?' asked Sasuke who had also rushed forwards and was busy distracting him so that the young girl could finish her work with her kunai knives.
'When he caught you I automatically used a clone to run and tell Kakashi.' she explained before she was kicked in the side of the face, letting out a small "oof" as she fell to her knees, glaring up at the man. She jumped up and took up Sasuke's work of distracting him while the boy worked on a jutsu.
'Fire style! Grand fireball jutsu!!!' he cried, giving Mika time to leap out of the way before he threw a huge amount of fire out of his mouth, the way his father taught him years ago. Mika shielded herself from the heat and flames with her arms which she could feel burning, making her teeth grit together in pain.
When she felt the heat die down she looked up again, the decisive frown still covering her forehead, she inspected the back of her arms and found all the tiny hairs burnt off. She smiled and showed Sasuke whose face didn't change.
'We should make sure the others are okay.' he said, looking down at the man he had basically just burnt alive. Mika inspected the body and found that he was still breathing, so she turned him onto his back and poured a bit of water onto his face, pulling the charred balaclava off, before opening his shirt to let the air get to him.
She stood up again and nodded to her team-mate before following him as he leapt off into the forest again in search of their friends. They hadn't gone far before they could hear the distinct sound of battle raging, they followed the sounds and found Kakashi finishing off the last of two shinobi who were dressed in the same sort of outfit as Sasuke and Mika's opponent.
'Thanks Mika.' he said when he saw them arriving, his face hard and menacing but his voice was as friendly as ever. 'Very good quick thinking.' he continued, looking around at the woods still surrounding the dusty dirt road. 'But there are still more. I'm not happy with our situation.' he finished glancing around quickly, still frowning distrusting.
'What happened to you guys?' asked Naruto as they set off again down the road, looking pointedly at Mika's bruised cheek, her bloody fingers and Sasuke's blood flecked face. Sakura was simpering beside the dark haired boy who sighed exasperatedly, rolling his eyes.
'A big guy challenged us.' answered Mika shortly with a tired smile, glancing around nervously. 'He was bigger than those guys.' she added, jerking her head in the direction they'd just come from.
'Did you kill him?' Sakura asked Sasuke, completely ignoring the brown eyed girl who rolled her eyes. 'Hmm? Did you kill him Sasuke?' she asked again when the boy seemed not to have heard. He looked down at her darkly.
'No.' he answered shortly choosing not to go into great detail. 'Couldn't have done it without Mika.' he added, turning and smiling at the girl who wasn't looking at him but he watched as a smile snuck onto her features preceded by a cerise blush.
'Could we please focus on hurrying up, please?' said Kakashi from where he was walking, a few yards ahead of the others. 'I don't know if I made myself clear earlier.' he continued, glancing over his shoulder. 'We're not out of the woods yet.' he finished, looking around him intently.
'Hahaha! Nice pun sensei!!!' cried Naruto, scratching the back of his neck. But when the jonin turned around to glower at him he decided that it wasn't intended and chose to keep quiet after that. The small group walked along in silence, each one on red alert as they scanned their environment trying to assertain that they were no longer in danger, but for the moment they all knew that there was quite a while to go before they'd be safe.