Chapter 11
Sustainability Stone Arc part 1
Sarada showers after her morning practice with Cho-Cho, thinking of the Sealing Unit, when her day turns unexpected as soon as her feet leave the house.
Poff!
A small, pink, monkey with an unimpressed face scrunches up at Sarada.
"Sarada Uchiha?" it asks dully, and Sarada is surprised to realize it's male.
"Yes."
"Konohamaru-Sama sent me to summon you at once to the Hokage's office. Be there in ten."
"Why?" Sarada's pitch black eyes bore into the small creature.
The monkey opens his mouth as though to answer, then undoes his summoning.
Poff!
Sarada glares at the empty sidewalk where the monkey was.
"This one. I'll learn how to summon this one, and he will suffer." She vows, and makes her way to the direction of the Hokage Mountain.
Why am I being summoned?
Usually Sarada would have a vague idea of why something happens. She doesn't and that makes her nervous. She quickens her pace, outright running.
The chill air of the still early morning brushes her short pixie black hair in any which way, dancing with the wind without obscuring her vision due to its length.
She reaches the center of the village quickly, and it's just the right time of morning when people are getting around to where they need to be for the day and it's packed.
"Sarada-chan!" a shinobi hurries past her, in a flash of green and eyebrows.
"Lee-san." Sarada acknowledges.
They both stop to a halt, both of their chests breathing hard, having been running.
"I must tell you our training sessions will have to halt for a few days!" Lee says, clapping a hand on her shoulder as though he just told her the world is about to end and they won't be manufacturing anymore candy.
"Okay."
"It is not! However, the spirit of youth is eternal!"
"…"
Its youth, how is it eternal?
"We shall resume them quickly – least of all because Metal has returned to the village as well! And to motivate you through this difficult time – "
"It's really fine –"
" – I've got something special for my new star pupil!" he says proudly.
Sarada stares at him. No.
"I – I should go, I'm late." She quickly tries to escape.
"Yes, I'm needed elsewhere too. But hold onto your nose and make every breath count because it'll change your life! Expect it when I return!" Lee says with gusto and his smile shines.
"Have I ever mentioned I'm allergic to clothes of a certain fabric – "
"Have a youthful day!" he flashes out of sight, and Sarada knows it's not the body flicker jutsu but that Rock Lee is just that fast.
She blinks dumbly, because somehow, she should've seen it coming sooner.
Shaking her head she hurries on, looking out for a purple head on the way – maybe she'll risk being late and run all the way to their meeting place?
"Sarada!"
Relieved, Sarada pauses again. "Sumire, I was looking for you."
"Same!" Sumire breaths a little more evenly than Sarada, and Sarada resolutely tells herself it's because the purple-haired girl ran less. Her braid reaching her waist, the girl calls "I can't make practice this morning!"
"Oh. I can't either. I've got a meeting with Seventh."
Sumire's eyes sharpen with interest. "Me too."
Sarada raises her eyebrow. "We're both called in for a meeting."
"Looks like it." Sumire looks ahead, her deep purple eyes darkening as she watches the Hokage building from afar contemplatively.
"We should go." Sarada says, and both genin flash forward together, to the same destination.
As she's a shinobi, Sarada finds this intriguing, but not that unexpected.
She should've – because it gets stranger.
They arrive to the entrance, and go inside the first floor where the genin administrative missions' desk is. There they meet –
"Wasabi-chan, Namida-chan?" Sumire spots her teammates quickly. "You too?"
"Yep. Figured you too, so we waited a bit." Wasabi popped a bubblegum, her arms crossed across her chest.
Namida looks green. "A-Are we in trouble?" she asks, brown eyes teary.
"All of us?" Wasabi rolls her eyes. "Nah. Come on, let's get this over with."
The four kunoichi go up the stairwell leading directly to the highest floor where the Hokage's offices are (since only shinobi with the right classifications can go up to the levels of Chunin and Jonin, a separate staircase was made so they can avoid the levels they aren't allowed on).
Outside of the Hokage's office, they see two more familiar faces.
The two boys' eyes widen when they see them.
"Alright, this is totally weird." Inojin says. "Even weirder than Iwabee refusing to brag about a C-Rank mission. This day is strange."
"Are we supposed to go in together?" Namida wonders, nervously tugging on her pigtails.
Shikadai shrugs; his green eyes bored and sharp all at once.
"Let's find out." Sarada calls, and pushes the doors open. She hates being late anywhere, and the monkey did say ten minutes – which was about twenty minutes ago.
The rest follow inside behind her. In the office Moegi, Konohamaru, and Hanabi stand in a group, Shikamaru stands by the window with a tired looking expression and his trusted clipboard, and Naruto Uzumaki sits behind the desk.
"Good morning." The Seventh Hokage says and nods them all inside.
"Now that everybody's here, we can start." Shikamaru-San says, as Hanabi closes the door behind the genin.
Shikadai raises his hand. "Sorry, but Cho-Cho's not here."
"The hospital is overbooked at the moment, which means that most of the Akimichi clan didn't get approved for action yet after their stay there five weeks ago– or at least the paperwork didn't go through the system yet. Which is why Cho-Cho Akimichi can't take part in this mission." Shikamaru says calmly, shrugging.
Inojin shakes his head at Sarada, in what she assumes is his way of whining about troublesome teammates, while being too lazy to say it out loud.
If Sarada knows anything about Cho-Cho, it's that her whining about this will be endless.
Mission. Has there been a mass breakout of cats?
"Alright, you six are going as back up security to an SSS-class protection mission." Naruto Uzumaki says gravely; chin resting on his hands resting on top of his desk.
Sarada, Shikadai, Inojin, Sumire, Wasabi, and Namida stand straight backed in the Hokage's office, either trembling from excitement (Wasabi) to just trembling (Namida) to being too shocked for any reaction (Everybody else).
"SSS-Class?!" Shikadai calls, eyes wide, looking over at his dad. "You're joking –ow!"
Inojin steps off Shikadai's foot with a smirk. "He means, we'd be honored, Lord Seventh."
Sarada glances back at Konohamaru, standing next to the two jonin kunoichies.
He nods at her in encouragement and she resists rolling her eyes.
A little heads up would've been appreciated, Sensei.
Still, there's no denying this is a chance to prove herself.
Namide, shaking and trying to look as small as possible, is standing very pale and Sumire grabs her arm quickly so she doesn't knock over everyone in the line.
"S –S-S-S-s-S-class…" she calls shakily, looking faint.
"That's too many asses, Namida-chan." Inojin informs her, grinning.
Next to Namida, Wasabi is chanting "Yes!" over and over again, her fist in the air, looking absolutely thrilled.
"Ah – haha." Seventh laughs awkwardly, watching their varied reactions, burdened.
Sumire's face is serious when she raises her arm in the air.
"Yes, Sumire?" Naruto nods at her.
"Hokage-Sama, I have a concern; wouldn't it be strategically wiser to send someone better equipped to handle something like this? We are, after all, genin."
Wasabi seems ready to launch herself at her teammate. Naruto seems to approve her question however, and answers her.
"Let me assure you, that you will be joining Iwa shinobi with plenty of experience, not to mention Moegi and Hanabi are both Leaf jonin and will be joining you on this mission."
Sarada turns to send her sensei a cold look, but Konohamaru quickly looks away, pretending he can't see it.
"I'm afraid there are no available higher ranking shinobi at the moment – and everyone else has their own missions to complete. You six are sent as extra security measures, that is it. You follow your orders, and you stay out of the way when needed."
"Iwa shinobi?" Sarada frowns. "Why would they reach out for our help, when they're one of the great five shinobi villages, Lord Seventh?"
"Iwakagure, the Hidden Stone Village, are stretched thin themselves right now." Shikamaru-san says. "Let me say this right now; several parts of this mission are classified, even from you. You'll be told what you need to in order to do your jobs, but that's it."
There's a tense silence in the office, as the six genin friends share glances.
"Look everyone, this is a task not under either of the two villages, but a joined one of the Shinobi Union Alliance. And it's important it goes well. You'll be guarding something historic and powerful as we've decided to transfer it to a more secure location. We have no confirmation that anyone will interfere, however there is a third party we're sure will be interested in doing just that. That is why we want you alert, and at your best. If there's anything, anything at all, you aren't sure about, you should ask the captains of this operation – Moegi and Hanabi."
Naruto hands over a mission scroll to Hanabi.
It's gold, in color. I've never seen a gold mission scroll before.
Moegi claps her hands together. "Alright, you six are ready for this?!"
"Yes!" they all call out at the same time.
"Good." Moegi nods. "Seventh, Shikamaru-San, Konohamaru." She nods in farewell, and opens the door."Let's go, no point in wasting time."
"Good luck." Konohamaru calls after her, as the genin start piling out of the office. When Sarada passes by him he says "Seriously good luck Sarada – be careful, kore!"
If you're so worried, why aren't you coming with me?
"Right." She closes the door after herself, and walks after a still trembling Namida, who seemed to have forgotten how to walk in any other way that doesn't make her look like a frozen popsicle.
"What the hell is everyone else doing right now?!" Shikadai bursts uncharacteristically as soon as there are only genin within hearing distance.
"What do you mean?" Inojin asks, glancing at his teammate.
"There's no way they would assign us this mission if they had any other choice – so where are the other shinobi right now? How come all the ANBU's, Jonin and Chunin are so busy?"
"A bit of a coincidence, isn't it? That all of our shinobi are busy right when all of Iwa's are as well." Sarada points out, remembering how Shikamaru-san danced around this point earlier.
Shikadai blinks at her. "You're right."
Sumire seems to contemplate this. "Well, they did let slip that this is a joined thing going on with the Union Alliance – maybe this is going on in all of the five great nations?"
All five stare at her.
"What the hell is going on?" Wasabi demands. "Is there some international emergency they're trying to keep quiet?"
"Wasabi you're always coming up with conspiracy theories." Namida complains, visibly on edge. "Please stop, I'm nervous enough."
"Somehow that sounds plausible right now." Shikadai frowns.
"Hey, let's head out!" Moegi and Hanabi return with the proper paperwork to leave the village, and the group follows them to the front gates.
"Guys! GUUUUUUYS!"
The group pauses.
Shikadai winces as Inojin sighs. "Here we go." Inojin says.
Cho-Cho runs their way, looking highly indignant.
Moegi-Sensei looks very uncomfortable.
Before Cho-Cho reaches them she's already yelling "- This is so unfair -!"
"Cho-Cho, there's nothing I can do – you aren't cleared for duty –" Moegi raises her hands up, trying to calm her down.
"Five weeks! I've been discharged five weeks ago! This is stupid!"
"I don't make the rules, and it was flu season recently, so hospitals are still slow with their paperwork – you'll have to sit this one out." Moegi pets her on the head comfortingly. "Come on, let's go."
"I wish I was you right now Cho-Cho, this will be so troublesome!" Shikadai tells her, yawning, and goes off after Moegi, and Team Hanabi, and the three Genin girls.
"How can you leave me behind?! This is stupid!" Cho-Cho stumps her foot.
"Sorry Chubbers." Inojin calls, and then runs away quickly.
"Don't call me Chubbers!"
"Bye Cho-Cho, don't you dare skip practice while I'm on this mission." Sarada tells her sharply, before going too.
"Some friends the lot of you! All three of you stink!" they hear her scream.
"All three of us?" Shikadai asks, glancing at Sarada.
"I told her to train." She tells them.
"That'll do it." Inojin pops a bubble with his gum.
Yesyesyesyes! I've been building up for this for a while! Are you ready for it?!
Also - thank you for all of the support! For now I'll keep updating here, since there are a lot of you who really want me to! But for the record my username at AO3 is SheRipper as well, so you can find me there too.
And to all the many guests and friends, the site doesn't let me reply to the reviews very comfortably (and to guests not at all) so just wanted to tell you - THANK YOU! I read and appreciate everything people write on my stories! Son'O'Man, your comments have been especially engrossed and I wish I could reply in full, but just thank you for caring so much about this story!