Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Yay! 100 followers! Little anniversary if I may say so. Thank you all for reading and support.
A/N:
"human speech"
'human thoughts'
"bijuu/summon speech"
'bijuu/summon thoughts'
...o0o...
Naruto: The Red Spiral
Chapter 4: The mission
...o0o...
Team 7 was gathered at the Village gates.
"Did you pack everything?" asked Kakashi.
Simultaneous nods were genins' answers. Despite the presence of everything they needed in the outpost, it's better to be safe than sorry. Kakashi was happy to see all his genins were responsible. He expected Sakura to pack way less than she did, but apparently 'Naruto accident' affected her more than he had thought. Sasuke and Naruto were always more responsible when it came to ninja stuff, so he wasn't surprised by them. What made him unsettled was Naruto's calm attitude. Naruto not being jumpy and cheerful was just wrong in his eyes. He was more like Sasuke now, but he wasn't broody, he was cautious, like everybody around him was enemy, like he didn't trust anyone at all. He was right, but what can you expect from a boy, who was killed by the person, he considered a brother, and then spent a month and a half with reserved Ootsutsuki?
Kakashi signed a paper, Izumo and Kotetsu had given him, and they finally left the village.
...o0o...
The road to the outpost was also unusual. Kakashi expected Naruto to bounce with excitement from an opportunity to see new locations, meet new people, but Naruto just walked his road with half-closed eyes, deep in thought. But Hatake lied to himself, he didn't expect Naruto to act as his previous self, he wanted him to act that way. Like nothing terrible had happened, like everything was fine, but deep down he knew, it wasn't. His team was falling apart and he could do nothing about it. He could only hope.
'Heh, Kusa, how ironic,' thought Kakashi.
He was now in place of his sensei. He had a dysfunctional team and his mission was near Kusa. Again Iwa and Kumo, again Kusa, again a team that couldn't work together. Just like that damn 'Kannabi bridge' mission. There were differences, and Kakashi knew them, but this analogy suggested itself. Kakashi chuckled bitterly which earned questioning looks from genins.
Sasuke was happy, that neither Naruto nor Sakura pestered him. It was like a mission of his dreams, but he still needed to maintain some teamwork level not to get too suspicious, but until his teammates wouldn't act themselves, he wouldn't act either.
Sakura didn't know what to do. She wanted to talk to Naruto, but how could she do it, when she didn't know what to talk about. It was a vicious circle, that was fed by her fears and insecurities. She didn't want to fawn over Sasuke, cause it was what had led to Naruto's near-death experience.
Naruto was just calm. He thought, his teammates didn't care about him, so he expected this kind of walk. So to do something useful, he tried to expand his sensory abilities. He felt fear from Sakura, bitter happiness from Sasuke, and guilt mixed with sadness from Kakashi. He didn't know why these emotions were present, but it didn't matter. He didn't care what they felt if they acted differently from their feelings. Only actions are important.
If he would try to find different, more distant chakra signatures, if he would try to find other strings, he would find an ANBU team tailing them all the time.
...o0o...
Day one. Mystery
The outpost was a small territory, which consisted of a small two-story house with a ten-meter watchtower in the center and a trap field surrounded by a deep moat. But something was wrong, no lights in the house, no sounds. They entered the house.
The outpost was empty. No shinobi, which should be here, Team 7 was supposed to start duty after shift with an old team. No food supply, which should be here either. Nothing. As if the outpost was emptied. But by whom? They searched the whole house. Nothing. Now Kakashi was nervous, cause it seemed like everything and everyone had just disappeared.
"Team, we divide into groups of two. The first one will be Naruto and Sasuke, second - me and Sakura," commanded Kakashi, "you two go around the outpost territory on the left, we will go on the right."
Dark forest, usual for a Fire country, nothing special. The sound of rustling leaves and animal noises. Nothing special, as if everything was right, except it wasn't.
Naruto didn't know what to make of it so he concentrated on his sensory abilities. He found a string to Sasuke, who was ten meters away, two strings somewhere to the right, he felt the same taste he got from Sakura's and Kakashi's chakra. It had to be them. Suddenly he felt a new string. With a spike of chakra, the string became visible, more sensible as if somebody plucked it. Naruto turned his head sharply in that direction.
Curiosity.
Target was in one kilometer, no less, he couldn't see it, not without revealing his Sharingan at least, but he felt as if he stared right into his or her eyes. And someone there stared into his. He concealed his chakra and moved somewhere that fast, Naruto couldn't follow that string. 'Shunshin,' he thought. He couldn't reveal to Kakashi he had felt someone there, they didn't need to know he had sensory abilities, he didn't know how to explain it to them. Suddenly after waking up he began feeling different chakra signatures? In a way, no known sensory ability worked? Kakashi would understand this lie, he was that smart, and Naruto couldn't conceal his emotions that good.
"Dobe," Sasuke called, "Why did you freeze? Did you see something or a squirrel is so interesting, you can't keep eyes off her?"
'Damn his taunts,' Naruto thought, 'they are not even funny.'
"I thought I saw something," he answered.
"Hn, you are paranoid," Uchiha said. He was nervous too, this whole mission felt like a perfect opportunity to remove him, he trusted Naruto, but he didn't want to show his weakness. He wanted to save his face.
"Paranoia is the key to the health of paranoid," Uzumaki told thoughtfully.
"Did you spent last week in the library or something?" This taunt was good, yes. What a better way to taunt 'the dobe' than to joke about his vocabulary?
"Hn," Naruto imitated Uchiha himself. Sasuke's eye twitched, but he quickly returned to his cold demeanor.
They finished their part of the job without any more surprises.
Inspection of the territory brought no results from both teams, it was weird, and even with Kakashi's ability to look 'underneath the underneath', he couldn't figure it out. No traces of battle, bo traces of kidnapping, no traces of theft, as if this outpost was empty for weeks. Kakashi didn't know what was wrong, but something definitely was. But they had to complete the mission, so he told his team to take their rooms and go to sleep, he decided to take the first night's watch by himself.
...o0o...
Day two. Guard duty
If you would ask Sasuke about this mission, he would answer, that this is a perfect opportunity to finally kill him. Like Konoha chose this specific mission for his team for an unknown purpose. He had thought about their previous experience as a team, their mission in the Land of Waves, why would jounin listen to a couple of brats, whose only desire is to prove themselves? Maybe Kakashi was too careless? Or was it one of those 'underneath the underneath' situations? Sasuke had awakened his Sharingan, Naruto had used his bijuu power for the first time. Was it a plot or was it an accident? He would never find out and he knew it.
Sasuke was afraid for his life, the only moment like that was that night. That night took everything away from him and he didn't want to lose the last important thing in his life. His goal, his dream, and his desire. His purpose. To kill Itachi. He was ready to sell his soul to the devil to achieve it, he was ready for everything, and he would be damned if he would allow Konoha to take away his goal. They wanted to take his goal, his clan name through this CRA, his clan's money, compound, history. Only for him, the clan heir, to be left with nothing but a sword of the executioner in his gut. This mission was a perfect opportunity to run away, but what would he do without his clan's scrolls and money? Where would he run? He didn't know, but he would figure it out.
Sakura had the same gut feeling, she had had in the Land of Waves. Something had to go wrong. Hell, it already did! She wanted to run away, to hide in her room and not to take part in all this, but she became shinobi, she had no other path. She still had to fix her relationship with Naruto, but how would she do it? Kakashi separated them, even the guard duty sequence was she-Kakashi-Naruto-Sasuke, they had no way to cross. But the main objective was to survive.
Kakashi was pushing back all bad memories, all nightmares that were brought by being around Kusa. 'Obito...' he thought about his friend's sacrifice. But he wouldn't fail, his team would survive. He had to make sure of it, he had already failed too many times, he didn't know, what would he do if he would fail again. So he sat in the watchtower and observed so no one could approach the outpost without being noticed.
Naruto was more optimistic. Hokage's last words meant that he should show his best, and everything would be fine. He knew Indra was wrong, Naruto would find someone to teach him, Hokage's words reassured him. But now they had a lot of free time, and Kakashi still wasn't teaching them, he was spending all his time in the watchtower reading his book apparently. What a waste of time!
When came Naruto's turn to guard, he decided to spend his time usefully. He made ten clones and observed their fights with his Sharingan. He could see all the mistakes, his clones had made so he could fix them. Taijutsu was very important, he knew it, especially after what had shown Lee.
"Naruto," he heard teme's voice and turned around.
Sasuke could swear, for a moment he saw a very familiar red light in Naruto's eyes. But it couldn't be it, right? How could the dobe, who was no Uchiha, he was sure of it, possess his clan's eyes?
"Can't sleep?" Naruto asked.
"Something like that," answered Uchiha, "many things on my mind."
"Mission?"
"Yeah. It's wrong."
"Our future depends on our performance," Naruto said.
"How do you know that?" It made Sasuke interested. What did Uzumaki know, he didn't? And how did he acquire such information?
"Call it a hunch," yeah, how could he know something useful?
They sat for a minute in silence.
"Naruto," Sasuke said, "don't you feel, the village holds you back?"
Sasuke knew from Kakashi about rasengan. How Kakashi, a known prodigy, took six months to study the technique while Naruto learned it in a month. 'How could Naruto manage it? He had to be a prodigy, a prodigy nobody bothered to teach. If you combine this with his natural ability to make plans on the spot, you can get someone who can rival Itachi.' Sasuke had thought during his last training month.
Naruto knew nobody wanted to teach him before he met Iruka. He was the only one who decided to spend his time on ignored and shunned child. Unfortunately, even Iruka never bothered to do more, than what required his Academy duty. So the only teacher who willed to help could help only in academics, the only sphere Naruto had no desire in. Kakashi was too lazy, Jiraiya was teaching something, but he had never really guided. But what will happen now, without the Kyuubi? Jiraiya didn't even visit him after he woke up.
"Yeah, it does," Naruto answered sadly, "nobody besides Iruka and Jiraiya wanted to teach me, but now I have no Kyuubi. I don't think Jiraiya will train me anymore."
"Unlike you, who had to fend off by himself, I could get a teacher. But I was always watched, they never allowed me to make real progress, only what they had planned. When Itachi was encouraged, I am slowed down. Why?"
"Maybe, they are afraid you will pull out another Itachi?"
Sasuke said nothing. They were afraid. If one Itachi could kill the whole clan, how dangerous did it make him? How dangerous Sasuke himself could become.
"You want to leave, right?" Naruto asked.
"No, I don't," lied Sasuke and went away.
He didn't want anyone to know about his plans. If at least one person knew, he wanted to go rogue, he would be executed, and with Naruto being so close to Hokage it was especially dangerous. So he went away to wait for his turn to do the guard duty.
...o0o...
Day three. Tower defense
After night guarding duty Team 7 gathered for breakfast. If you can call eating bars a breakfast.
"Kakashi-sensei, will you teach us something?" asked Naruto.
He was eager to learn at least something, even the weakest jutsu. Sasuke didn't say it, but he totally agreed with blond. Sakura was fine with sitting in a safe place such as this house.
"Huh, did you say something?" Kakashi asked not removing his eyes from his favorite book. Naruto gritted his teeth.
"Ka-ka-shi-sen-sei, will you te-ach us some-thing," Naruto spelled. It was partly done to annoy back Kakashi, but mostly it was because of his temper.
"Hmmm... I don't know what can I teach you with our situation," said lazy jounin, "We have to be at full power if something happens. I would advise you to read something, but there is nothing to read. You can meditate though, it is helpful."
"Yeah-yeah, thank you," Naruto's words dripped with sarcasm, "maybe something really useful? We can't meditate to death someone who managed to empty the whole outpost!"
"Learning new jutsu takes time, you can't learn it in a few days," jounin explained calmly.
Naruto calmed down as if he had lost his hope in his sensei. "Sorry, sensei, I was wrong," he said.
Something had died in Kakashi at that moment. "it's all right, we all can do mistakes," he said with an eye smile, but on the inside, he wanted nothing more than to teach Naruto at least something, but the situation was far too dangerous. Without Kyuubi in his gut, Naruto had lost a huge part of his stamina. Kakashi needed all his genins in the best shape to fight an unknown threat, he couldn't risk tiring them with training.
After breakfast, Naruto entered his room and decided to meditate following Kakashi's advice. His temper changed after being with Indra, he became a lot more patient, so now this meditation was something he liked to do, it was an opportunity to develop further his ninshu skills. So he decided to train his sensory skills, he wanted to find, was that person, whom he had sensed on the first day, just some passing ninja, or was he an enemy on this mission.
He tried to expand his senses farther, but it was almost impossible to find someone. After half an hour of meditating, he finally sensed someone. Many people approached their base.
BOOM!
One of the traps had worked. One bandit less, or they had defused the paper bomb trap.
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke met in the dining room, Kakashi appeared near them via shunshin. "We are under attack. The outpost building is important, we must keep it intact, so we have to fight outside. Use shurikens and kunais first, jutsu second. I sensed about thirty enemies, five of them are chuunin level, two genin and others are simple bandits. Three chuunins and about fifteen bandits are going from the north, two chuunins and ten bandits are from the east, others are from the west. I will go to the north, Sasuke, and Naruto to the east, Sakura to the west. If you can't defeat them, stall. I will try to finish my fight quickly.
And they separated.
...o0o...
with Kakashi
As Kakashi had promised, he dealt with his enemies quickly. jounin against bandits is overkill. With a speed, they couldn't comprehend, he killer all bandits with a simple kunai in a couple of minutes. Chuunins waited for something or they didn't want to get in crossfire cause hired thugs were throwing iron in all directions trying to hit Kakashi.
"Fuuton: Daitoppa!" exclaimed one chuunin.
'Wind? That's a rare one,' thought Kakashi. He saw then a very attractive log in the middle of the clearing. 'Interesting.'
"Doton: Doryuheki," Kakashi protected himself with an earth wall.
Gusts of wind hit the wall, but the wall didn't break. Kakashi jumped and landed in front of the wall. That chuunin threw kunais with explosive tags on it. Kakashi substituted with that log.
But it was a trap. Wires appeared from the ground and tied Kakashi.
"Katon: Ryuuka no jutsu," one of enemy chuunins said.
Flames resembling a dragon flew towards leaf jounin. Kakashi saw that wires are connected to the fire using chuunin and the third one which had yet to take part in the battle.
"This is your end!" exclaimed wind using chuunin.
"Raiton: Kage bunshin no Jutsu," pronounced 'Kakashi' and dissolved into lightning, which paralyzed two chuunins through wires.
Kunai empowered by Raiton chakra broke through the wind user's chest. "What a shame, your teamwork and planning are really good," he said. Then he simply threw kunais into paralyzed enemies killing them, "but if you were more observant, you could understand that I've made a wall instead of dodging to substitute myself with a clone."
His battle ended, now he had to help Sakura, he was sure Naruto and Sasuke would manage.
...o0o...
with Sakura
This was just another time when Sakura understood how useless she was. She had to train more, maybe even get rid of her diet as she was told by all older kunoichi. But it was already late to change something, she had to fight for her life. But were her fighting skills good? No, her best results were in academics. For the first time in her life, she wanted to be Naruto, who was the opposite.
She was no good in an open fight so she decided to rely on trapping. She decided to stall them with traps and hope for help from any teammate of hers. She placed explosive tags all around herself and hoped, it would stop her enemies. But a few minutes without explosions proved her wrong. She saw five thugs and two genin-level bandits twenty meters from her.
She threw kunai with explosive tag in them, but her throwing skills were lacking. She missed what caused laughter from her enemies. Ten meters behind them the tag exploded.
"You can't intimidate even a newborn, girl," said one thug and licked his lips.
"But she seems cute with those exotic pink hair," added another with a feral smirk.
She was paralyzed from fear. She was never so scared in her life. Neither Zabuza nor Orochimaru scared her that much. They could kill her, yes, but what these guys wanted was completely different. How would she look at herself in the mirror after that, how would she face her friends? Even death wasn't as scary as a possibility to experience what they wanted to do with her.
One of the thugs lunged at her, she took kunai and made a swing, he dodged. She decided to punch him. Even a genin is physically stronger than a usual bandit because of chakra. She hit him in the stomach, he coughed and threw up. Sakura was disgusted with this sight and forgot about other enemies. Thug caught her outstretched arm, she struck him with another. He was hit dead in the head with her kunai. She had forgotten she had kunai in her hand.
It was her first kill, she froze again. Thousands of thoughts raced through her mind, she became scared of herself. Her hands were caught. The shock from the first kill and from their shameless actions mixed with each other. She could do nothing.
"Such an innocent girl," her mind didn't perceive what was happening, she just heard words and saw pictures, but her mind didn't process it.
Her cheek was licked. She tried to turn away.
"It looks like, she isn't trying to stop us. Maybe she likes it?" she heard another voice.
She was pushed to the ground.
'Please, let it be over,' she pleaded inside.
Her dress was drawn up
She closed her eyes, but their actions stopped.
"It's over, Sakura," she heard a familiar voice, "they are dead, everything is fine."
She opened her eyes trembling in fear of what could happen. In front of her was drenched in blood Kakashi with kunai in a hand. She hadn't seen him in such a serious mood since Wave mission, but now he wasn't just serious, he was angry. She couldn't see his face, but his lone eye told her everything.
Suddenly Kakashi looked around as if he felt somebody. His eye tried to trace any movement but after ten seconds he stopped. He held out his hand and helped her to her feet. His clone appeared near him. Real Kakashi disappeared in a burst of speed and only the clone stayed.
"Let's go," the clone said and helped her to get up.
...o0o...
with Naruto and Sasuke
Unlike Sakura, who was awfully scared, Sasuke and Naruto were eager to fight, to prove themselves.
Naruto couldn't flood the battlefield with clones like he had done it when he had had the fox and its endless supply, but he still could make enough.
"Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" he said surprising Sasuke with how calm he said it instead of usual yelling.
Twenty clones appeared and ran towards bandits. Naruto himself stood still watching the battle. It surprised Sasuke again cause he expected Naruto to lunge forwards ahead of his clone army.
Uchiha didn't want to lose this challenge, but he knew his chances were slim. How could he defeat more bandits than an army of Narutos? He couldn't. So he decided to fight chuunins.
With Sharingan activated he attacked both of them. One of the enemy chuunins pulled out tanto, another pulled out wakizashi. Sasuke had to take kunai in each hand to match them and they started the fight.
When Naruto saw, his army managed to beat all bandits, he turned his head to Sasuke's battle. Sasuke had a big problem. Chuunins were as fast as him, but stronger. Sharingan helped him with avoiding most of the hardest strikes, but he was still getting tired. Naruto knew Sasuke won't hold much longer so he had to help.
"I don't need your help, dobe," Sasuke said when Naruto blocked a strike from one of the chuunins. His pride acted when it shouldn't.
"Shut it, teme," Naruto growled. Unlike Sasuke, who could use his Sharingan, Naruto was limited in his abilities, so he had a hard time fighting a stronger, faster and more experienced opponent.
Sasuke's opponent jumped back and shouted after completing a handsign sequence, "Suiton: Teppodama".
"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu," Sasuke answered. Jutsus collided and fog flooded the battlefield.
For Naruto, it meant only one thing. He slowly closed his eyes, his opponent saw it as a moment of weakness and he could be right but he didn't know one thing about young Uzumaki. He attacked and when there was only one meter between them, Naruto's eyes suddenly opened. Two-tomoe Sharingan stared into the eyes of chuunin. He gasped in surprise. Naruto poured more and more chakra into his eyes to make his reflexes sharper. Without moving from the spot, Naruto twisted his body so that the wakizashi blow missed. Chuunin wanted to tell his accomplice new information, but he felt he couldn't speak anymore. His lungs flooded with blood, Naruto's kunai was right in his chest. It was Naruto's first kill. He froze. Was he a monster, like everyone had told him? No, he wasn't, he reassured himself. They were wrong, all of them. Especially without Kyuubi inside of him. The only thing that scared Naruto was that he could love it. And a few questions were on his mind. Would it be easier with time? Will he remain to be human? The third tomoe appeared in each of his eyes and then his eyes turned back to their usual blue color.
He heard the loud chirping of a thousand birds. he saw, that Sasuke's Chidori cut through the enemy's tanto and shoulder. He cried from terrible pain feeling and fell to the ground not breathing.
"This is over," Naruto said.
"You left bandits alive," Sasuke said readying his kunai. He slit their throats with no hesitation. Naruto saw Sasuke as a merciless killer.
'You should be one if you want to kill your own brother,' Naruto thought and frowned cause he had been on receiving side of this. No, he couldn't trust Sasuke and his hints about desertion proved it even more.
Suddenly, the chuunin that was hit by Sasuke's Chidori jumped up, it turned out he wasn't pierced, just brushed. How? Did that chuunin manage to use genjutsu against sharingan?
Sasuke wanted to throw kunai in him, but Kakashi's hand stopped the swing. Chuunin disappeared in shunshin.
"We must let him go," Kakashi said.
"Why?" asked irritated Sasuke.
"Precaution," jounin answered, "this mission is beyond our abilities. I will send a message to Hokage."
"What's wrong? We don't have too strong enemies, right? No one like Zabuza?" asked Naruto.
"I'm not sure and... Sakura might not be able to continue this mission."
"Why?" Naruto wouldn't surprised if Sakura might not want to continue the mission, but not being able is a different story.
"She was nearly raped and her first kill went really bad. I was in time to save her, but I sensed someone behind the tree. Then chakra signature disappeared, it's ANBU level. I don't think leaf ANBU would be there without intervention in our mission, so it must be enemy ANBU. This is A-rank or likely higher," he explained.
"Now, go and have a rest, by tomorrow I should receive Tsunade-sama's reply," he said.
This difficult day has come to an end.
...o0o...
Day four. Tracking
The night was awkward. When Naruto and Sasuke came into the house and saw Sakura's state, they became terribly worried. Despite Sasuke's desire to cut all his bonds, he still got used to his team and it pained him to see Sakura like that. She was in a catatonic state at first, then Kakashi led her in her room, talked with her, and managed to calm her down to an extent. She was in no condition to continue this mission. She had spent the whole night staring at the ceiling.
"I've got an answer from Hokage-sama," Kakashi told his two male genins dispelling Pakkun.
It picked their interest.
"We have to find out, who exactly was behind this attack, ANBU will take our place at defending the outpost. I've suspected such turn, that's why I had allowed that chuunin to escape," explained jounin.
"Isn't tracking Team 8's specialty?" Naruto asked surprising both Kakashi and Sasuke.
"It is, but... Despite me being a ninjutsu specialist, I'm one of the best Konoha trackers," he said with a smile.
"What about Sakura?" Sasuke asked, "she's a dead weight now."
"She is..." Kakashi reluctantly agreed, "but she is a part of a team, we can't just leave her here alone, right?"
"Why can't we send her back? With Naruto for example," he proposed. His pride was still hurt from the fact that Naruto had defeated more enemies than he did, so he wanted to get rid of his blond rival to get even.
"I can't send one incapable genin accompanied by a genin, Sasuke. We are on A- or even S-rank mission, being without me means death. Besides, Naruto is a good shinobi with some really essential skills, especially for this mission," was this the first compliment, Naruto heard? Maybe it wasn't, but it still brought him happiness.
"So what will we do?" asked Naruto.
"I will do the tracking, you will watch and learn."
"What about Sakura?"
Kakashi sighed, "she will have to go with us, I would like to send her back to Konoha for her own good, but we don't always do what we want."
...o0o...
At the place of Naruto's and Sasuke's battle
"You see the blood trace?" asked Kakashi.
Genins nodded.
"That is the reason I let him run away. I thought we could be given a new objective so I didn't bother about killing or following him. His Chidori wound wouldn't be lethal and will leave a trace of blood we will follow. Blood has a very specific smell, you have to memorize it. A light metallic scent," explained Kakashi.
Naruto and Sasuke nodded as they knew this scent for their own reasons. This scent tormented Sasuke every night when he had dreams about the Uchiha massacre. Sakura nodded too, but she still wasn't with them.
"Let's go," Kakashi said, "you will try to find a direction, I will correct you. Put more chakra to your nose to enhance your sense of smell."
About ten kilometers they followed the blood trail. Of course, genins didn't do much, but they still had some success, especially Naruto, which made Sasuke envy again. They arrived at a river, that cut through a huge part of the Fire Country. The trace ended here. Looking on genins' faces jounin could tell they had a question. What to do now when there is no trace of blood?
"Well, it seems, our previous method doesn't work anymore," Kakashi stated, "but the main lesson of tracking is to never give up until you've tried everything."
He pointed at another shore of the river, "See?" in the grass lied a few used bandages made from sleeves, "we know he at least crossed the river."
"He could make a fake trace," suggested Sasuke.
"He could, but unlikely," told Kakashi, "he wasn't heavily wounded, but he still was. He must be healed somehow, so he should go to the hospital. The closest hospital is five kilometers from us, in Meadow Town."
"Bandits must have arrived from somewhere," said Naruto, "why didn't he go to their camp?"
"That's a good question," agreed Kakashi, "but they may not have medics... or they may not have a base anymore... They didn't look like a band, more like many groups hired to fulfill that mission. Likely, they have their boss in that town."
They crossed the river and Sakura found a piece of clothes further in the forest.
"Sensei," she said and shown what she found.
"Hmm, it seems, he really went to Meadow Town," Kakashi mused, "we separate here. Sasuke, stay with Sakura, I and Naruto will go check the town."
"Why him?" Sasuke asked.
"His ability to spawn Shadow Clones will be very helpful if we will need to escape."
...o0o...
with Naruto and Kakashi
"Sakura doesn't deserve what she got," Naruto said as they jumped from branch to branch.
"She doesn't," Kakashi confirmed, "it was a three-side attack, we had to make protection from all sides. I didn't expect Sakura to win, I expected her just to stall them long enough. I took down my enemies fast enough, but Sakura turned out weaker than I thought. My miscalculation nearly led to her breakdown. I almost failed... again."
"Why couldn't we just sit in the outpost and defend from there?"
"The outpost is more than just a building. Genins don't know it, only jounins and barrier corps shinobi, but outposts form a network. Under each building is a fuinjutsu pattern, each building is connected with another. It allows us to track huge amounts of chakra moving through Fire Country. We can't detect small groups of shinobi, only big ones like an army. The same system is in a village, but on a smaller scale and with a more sensitive sensor system."
"Wow, now it makes sense."
"Yes, with tensions in the ninja world we can't risk losing even one outpost," Kakashi said as they got closer to the town.
"What do we do now, sensei?" asked Naruto. He saw that Kakashi was opening a bit more, more like he should have been from the beginning so he decided to give him a chance.
"We will go to the hospital, plain and simple. If he's not there, we will search around the town."
...o0o...
with Sasuke and Sakura
All this time Sakura sat on the shore of the river and stared in water. If someone would see it, he could joke that she did a pretty good Sasuke impersonation.
"Am I really that pathetic?" Sakura asked. She didn't expect to receive an answer from her teammate.
"Yes," was Sasuke's harsh answer.
Sakura sighed and thought about what Kakashi had told her the night after the attack.
"Sakura, you must understand one thing. What you have faced is a usual thing between women and thugs. This is the harsh truth of the shinobi world. Strong ones force weak ones, and weak ones succumb to strong ones. All your life as a kunoichi you depended on your teammates expecting them to do all dirty work, while you can be a princess of the adventure. Despite what you may think, it wasn't my intention to get you in that situation, no. It was an accident, a terrible one, but an accident nevertheless. You need to grow as a kunoichi or just leave shinobi forces. It won't make you weak, this job is not for everyone, trust me. Especially if you are female. This is the reason why most Hidden Villages don't have a genin level kunoichi older than sixteen. They either quit or become stronger," Kakashi said.
"So what? You tell me to give up?" She asked, "I've spent whole my life trying to be a shinobi. Now you tell me to back off?!" she was hysterical.
"I don't. It's your choice," Kakashi shook his head, "but you must understand, you dreamed of your own imagined world, the world where Sasuke will always save you and you will be like a princess of Uchiha prince, not of the real world of shinobi. And as I said, this job is just not for everyone. You have made your first kill. Do you feel yourself like a monster?"
"Yes..." answered the girl weakly.
"You are not."
"I am not? But it felt like... it felt horrible! I don't feel guilty..." she cried. Two sides of her were in conflict. One side told her that murder is a terrible deed, another side was rationalizing it saying she did what she had to do to defend herself, and they couldn't come to a consensus. Not without someone who could give her psychological advice. Fortunately, she had Kakashi.
"Sakura... I won't sugarcoat it. It is horrible and it will never get easier. You can get used to it, numb the feeling, but it will always be there. The only thing that will keep your sanity is understanding who do you kill and why. If you kill to defend yourself, to save your comrade, to help someone, it's fine. But if you start killing for the sake of killing, you are going the wrong path. Sasuke was ready was the world of shinobi from the beginning, Naruto on the other hand... He had no choice except to be a shinobi, but I will be honest with you, he only accepted this world after Sasuke killed him. Now you have the choice, Sakura, you either accept this world or give up. At first, I wanted to calm down you or something, but if even after Wave, after the Forest of Death, and after Invasion, you didn't want to become the shinobi you had to be from the beginning, I decided to give you this talk. To be honest, I had to do it a long time ago..." and Kakashi left the room leaving her to her own thoughts.
"I think, I should quit being a shinobi," she confessed, "I'm not a prodigy like you or a strong-willed person like Naruto, I'm not from a clan like all Rookies, I don't have a dedication like Lee or Tenten."
Sasuke thought again about Naruto being a hidden prodigy. 'She has almost perfect chakra control and a good memory, 'he thought, 'why can't she become iryonin or genjutsu user?' He knew where did it come from, but she was so weak-willed. He wanted not to give a damn about it, but something inside of him told him to give her advice.
"You lack spine," Sasuke said, "if you're not ready to fight for what you want, you will never succeed. In anything."
Sakura just nodded. She knew he was right, but what could she do? Sasuke wanted to become shinobi to avenge his family, Naruto wanted to become shinobi to be Hokage. What did she want? To be Sasuke's wife? To follow her friend Ino? Was there at least something really important she wanted to achieve?
...o0o...
Day five. Capture and interrogation
The next day Naruto and Kakashi were sitting on the roof and watching through the window of one of the houses.
Indeed they had found the day before missing chuunin in the hospital. Sure, it had been possible to take him from there, but he still had been wounded and they didn't have the needed abilities to heal him. Besides that, there was a chance he would meet his employer.
"Kakashi-sensei, I find this mission weird," Naruto confessed.
"What do you mean?" Kakashi too thought something was wrong. From a strangely empty outpost and hidden ANBU-level ninja to this ridiculous idea to give a team of one jounin and two combat-capable genins of three a mission to catch an unknown enemy in an unknown place.
"He is a chuunin, but let's be honest, whole our mission except for that battle is genin level. No need in jounin, I and Sasuke alone could manage. Even battle was hard only because we couldn't let the outpost be destroyed and well, the only problem was Sakura. And now we have a chuunin that left an obvious trace to this town. Is he really a chuunin? It's either bait or... I don't know."
At that moment it all clicked in Kakashi's head. This whole mission was fake, a test from Konoha higher-ups to see if his team could work again. His team so far proved they could work together, but he will ask the Hokage what the fuck had she been thinking when she allowed this incident with Sakura to happen. Of course, he won't tell his genins about it, he knew it will only make it worse.
"Well, I share the same feeling, Naruto. I just hope it all will be fine in the end," he eye smiled.
They watched as that chuunin entered a room where were two bodyguards, thugs obviously, and an unknown person dressed in a black cloak with a white mask, presumably the employer, sitting in the chair.
"Hello, Maina Kyara, how was your mission?" asked the boss too calm.
"We failed, Oyabun," Maina kneeled in front of the boss. It seemed he was afraid of whatever punishment he could receive.
"What was so hard? Only one team: three genins and one jounin. Was impossible for you and your friend?"
"We had to fight the last Uchiha and former jinchuuriki, they were stronger than us. We were doomed to fail," he answered.
"How unfortunate..." he mused, "what should I do with you?"
"I'm sorry, Oyabun, this will never happen again!" pleaded Maina.
"Sure, it won't," boss pulled out a sword.
The window shattered, and Kakashi and Naruto jumped into the room.
"Kage bunshin no Jutsu!" Two Naruto's clones appeared and immediately attacked thugs.
Real Naruto jumped at that chuunin. Chuunin jumped back to evade genin's attack. Naruto threw kunai at him, Maina deflected it with ease.
'Tiger, Ox, Dog, Rabbit, Snake,' Naruto thought as he passed the handsign sequence, "Fuuton: Daitoppa," he cried and breathed out a huge gust of wind. Chuunin was hit with a full blast and thrown into the wall.
Meanwhile, Kakashi tried to capture Boss, but he evaded all jounin's attacks. 'It's definitely a jounin or even an ANBU level,' thought copy-nin. Kakashi's and Oyabun's kunais clanged and their eyes met. 'Genjutsu: Sharingan,' Kakashi thought and used a little distracting genjutsu to conceal kunai in his other hand. He stabbed hidden kunai in the enemy's leg, and with a loud pop, Boss disappeared in the cloud of smoke. 'Shadow clone? The whole time? Then what was the point of fighting?' He turned around and saw as Naruto's enemy was thrown into the wall. Chuunin lost his consciousness.
"Good job, Naruto," he said, Naruto nodded in response.
Kakashi pulled out ninja wire and some chakra restricting seals, "Now we will tie him."
...o0o...
"Morning," Kakashi greeted awakened chuunin.
Said chuunin groaned and slowly blinked to comprehend what was going on.
"Where am I?" he asked.
"Does it matter?" asked jounin.
"I suppose, it doesn't," he answered. Annoyance was visible on his face, he clearly didn't think he would be caught like that.
"Will you answer willingly? Or I will have to use force?" asked Kakashi in a careless tone. He was a famous jounin after all, he didn't have to be intimidating, he had his name to do it for him.
"My name is Maina Kyara, former genin of Kusagakure no Sato, left when I felt that my growth was hindered by my village. Reached the chuunin level on my own," he said.
"Well, that's all entertaining, but... Who hired you and why?" that was the most important question for Kakashi. Could he trace the employer to Konoha?
"I suppose, I can't tell you now," chuunin said with a little smirk.
"Is there something I can do to change your mind?" asked Kakashi lifting his headband making his Sharingan visible.
"You don't get it. It's not that I don't want to tell you," he opened his mouth, "I can't." There was a cursed seal on his tongue. Surprising.
'Such bad luck, I have stopped learning seals after Minato-sensei death,' thought Kakashi, 'now we have to carry him to Konoha. Heh, escort mission? Maybe the seal is a fake, who knows? If he is not a Konoha agent, he shouldn't have a fake seal, it's a too smart move for an ordinary rogue genin, even if he did reach the chuunin level.'
"Well then, till next time," Kakashi knocked him out, "well, let's carry him, Naruto."
"Hai, sensei," replied Naruto and created a few clones to carry the prisoner. Kakashi did all the job if you can call a minute-long conversation a job, now he had to carry that chuunin at least to the meeting point with Sasuke and Sakura.
...o0o...
Days six and seven. Escort
Kakashi was happy, that Sakura was looking better than the day before, Sasuke was the same as always... Maybe a bit more broody due to Kakashi taking Naruto instead of him, but other than that he was fine. Naruto was fine for his new personality as far as Kakashi could say. Their prisoner was too willing to go with them and it was unsettling lazy jounin.
Everything seemed fine, too fine for a real mission, it was more like a D-rank than anything. Both Kakashi and Naruto felt their ANBU escort but didn't share this knowledge. Kakashi didn't do it not to make his genins worry, and Naruto cause he didn't want to tell about his abilities.
At night they chose the order Naruto-Kakashi-Sasuke letting Sakura sleep and rest the whole time. The next day they finished their travel and were getting closer to the village gates. Kakashi noticed that Sakura was more relaxed with each passing meter, Naruto seemed indifferent, but something was worrying him. What seemed weird was Sasuke. He was very thoughtful after last night and it seemed wrong to Kakashi. What could have happened to make Sasuke from his usual broody self to this? It felt as if he was questioning himself. But what?
And only two people knew the answer: Sasuke and Maina.
Last night
"You are an Uchiha, right?" asked Maina to start a conversation.
"So what?" Sasuke wasn't in the mood to talk with anyone, especially their prisoner.
"Nothing, just want to talk with you."
"And I don't," Sasuke stopped arising discussion.
"Don't be so rude," joked chuunin.
"Hn."
"As I said," his whole posture changed, his voice became silky, and eyes turned from brown human to yellow snake-like, "don't be so rude, Sasuke-kun."
Sasuke was shocked. This whole time they had traveled with Orochimaru! How couldn't they notice, how couldn't even Kakashi notice? Was the difference in their powers so huge?
"How does Konoha treat you?" asked traitorous sannin.
"It's..." Sasuke hesitated and lied, "fine."
"Sure it is," Orochimaru didn't believe even for a second.
"You don't have to believe me."
"And I won't," sannin chuckled.
"What stops me from waking up Kakashi and telling him about you?" asked Sasuke.
"Sasuke-kun, no need to play these games with me. We both know, you just wait for me to tell, what I have to offer. If you don't know, Konoha seriously thinks about killing you after making you impregnate several women, if you didn't do that already. Then they will just dispose of you. Even this mission is nothing more than a fake, a test to see if your team still can work together. And if your team fails... You know what will happen."
"I've already guessed that they want to kill me, I've even planned to leave, but I had no real idea how to," Sasuke confessed, "does Kakashi know about the mission?"
"He wasn't told, but he should have guessed by now. If not, then I'm disappointed in Kakashi-kun."
"What do you propose?" Sasuke asked.
"You will be called to Hokage tomorrow, I will be there. If you will come packed up for leaving, I will take you with me. If not, then good luck staying in the village that will kill you," Orochimaru made his famous smile.
Sasuke nodded. Orochimaru's eyes, posture and voice changed back, "It was good to talk with you, Sasuke," he answered in 'Maina' voice and closed his eyes falling asleep.
Sasuke was left alone with his thoughts.
Team 7 and their hostage entered the village gates.
"You can go home, for now. I and Maina will go to Hokage," said Kakashi and his genins nodded.
A/N:
And cut.
8k words. So far the biggest chapter.
This chapter took a lot from me, It was really tiring writing it. When I came up with this idea of a mock mission, a task per day, I thought it will be something easy, but in reality, making this chapter not so rushing was pretty hard and I don't think I succeeded.
I decided to change Sakura from a useless fangirl to a fine kunoichi. She won't be Tsunade's apprentice, that's for sure, but she will improve. I had two choices with Sakura: either kill her or change her. Killing made no sense, so the choice was obvious. Of course, I could do some bashing, but I don't want to see bashing in this fic. I think, everyone more likes character development instead of bashing, right? (Though I guess Sasuke/Sakura/Kakashi/civilian council/etc bashing is a guilty pleasure for many people here)
Orochimaru made his first appearance in this fic. I guess it's obvious that Sasuke will leave with him. Was it Orochimaru all the time as Maina Kyara? Yes, he was. How could Kakashi not sense him? Well, he is a sannin, he could hide his presence from Anko, who was his former apprentice, being right behind her and from Sarutobi being in the same room during preliminaries.
The next chapter will be the final one of the intro of my fic, Sasuke and Naruto leave Konoha. (I guess it's obvious too)
Some people wrote about 'hating Jiraya'. Jiraya is right about letting Naruto live his life for a short time, but Naruto (as all kids are) is hasty, he doesn't want to wait. Have you ever bothered your parents to give you a gift earlier than they should on Christmas or New Year? I think, many kids did. Naruto is the same.
Will Naruto be powerful? Yes, he will. He will be Madara-like in his powers, which is pretty obvious considering he is another Indra's champion.
Next chapter he will get his Mangekyo. Do you want me to write down all its abilities in the next chapter or later when abilities will be revealed?
And Naruto won't learn Edo Tensei. Just not. I have thought about it in the beginning, but I found no need for it.
I think that's all that I wanted to say, but maybe I will edit this A/N later if I'll want to add something important.
Also, I have a desire to write something stupid (more stupid than this fic, I mean). Maybe some banishment/west/neglect fic. Something cliche and silly. It's your choice, I just want to write something trivial for relaxation.
R&R
Till next time