Harmonia
by Raye Johnsen
'Naruto' is copyright Kishimoto Masashi and all associated parties, NOT ME.
Part Two
Inuzuka Hige blinked and sniffed the air behind him. Beside him, Fuuka softly whined, telling him in her own language that Master Hinata was in front of them, while Arashi was to one side. Hige could smell Tsukasa coming up behind him.
He sighed as quietly as he could -- this training exercise was probably a washout already, but there was no use compounding the problem -- and quietly dropped back to intercept Tsukasa.
The other boy wasn't easy to spot, and if he hadn't had Fuuka's nose on the job, Hige might have missed him. As it was, the other boy's dark green hair -- yet another dye job; Arashi was wild with jealousy that Tsukasa could dye his hair any colour he liked and his parents just let him -- let him blend into the trees that much better.
"Hey," Hige said.
"'Allo," said Tsukasa, who also liked to speak foreign languages at people. Hige ignored it most of the time. Every team had its oddball.
"I think we need to change tactics," Hige said quickly. "Master Hinata hasn't fallen in any of Arashi's traps, and there is a time limit on this exercise."
"We could throw a net over her."
"She'd see it coming."
"We could drop rocks on her."
"From where? This is Master Hinata we're talking about. We aren't combat specialists anyway."
"I think it's a bit late to change the plan any--"
A loud shriek rent the air.
"Arashi," both boys chorused, beginning to move forward to the source of the cry.
They soon found it, in the person of a girl hanging upside down from a noose around her foot, suspended from a tall tree. Master Hinata was standing beneath the tree with her arms crossed.
"It defeats your purpose to get caught in your own trap," she was explaining patiently as the two boys ran up. The girl's long brown plait swung hypnotically back and forth over the grass, and Hige had to warn Fuuka not to attack it. She was still a puppy, after all.
After they had cut Arashi down, Master Hinata lectured them on principles of stealth, and then broke the news. "We have a C-class mission."
"Yeah!" Arashi said.
"What are we doing?" Hige asked.
"Do I have to redye my hair?" Tsukasa wanted to know.
"We're bodyguarding Haruno Sakura's tour, and no, Tsukasa, probably not."
Hige frowned. The name sounded familiar.... "Who's Haruno Sakura?"
Master Hinata smiled. "She's an idol singer. Her stage name is 'Cherry'."
All three gaped at her. "Cherry? The Cherry?" Arashi demanded after a long pause.
"So far as I know, there's only one," Master Hinata replied. "She was a genin of Konoha before an injury forced her retirement, so you may have heard of her from that, too."
All three genin blinked at her.
"Here are the details, so you can tell your parents. People in public view often pick up stalkers, and Miss Sakura, alas, has proven no exception. Up until recently, her stalker has been content with admiring from afar. Now, however, the stalker has begun making threats, and while Miss Sakura feels that she is in no personal danger, she fears for the safety of her backup band and support personnel. We are going to be accompanying her concert tour, ensuring that the accommodation they all stay in and the venues she's performing at are safe, and also guarding the group while they are travelling. It will take approximately two months, and we're going to be travelling all over the country."
Arashi found her voice first. "We're... touring with Cherry?"
"Yes."
Silence reigned again, until Master Hinata finally said, "You'd better go home and pack. We're leaving at dawn tomorrow."
The three strolled down the street towards their houses. "Hey," Arashi said into the quiet, "you guys still coming over my place to listen to Cherry's latest single?"
"Um. Yep. Sure," Tsukasa replied. "I never thought... we're going to meet her."
"We're going to meet her," Hige echoed. Then he grinned. "My little sister Toboe's going to freak."
"Her and the entire Konoha chapter of the Cherry Fan Club," Arashi said distantly. "Good thing we're good at running."
They entered the Taishakus' house, toeing their shoes off at the door. Arashi jumped over the lip of the entryway. "Hey guys," she said, "be careful, there's --"
CRASH!
"-- A trap," she finished.
Hige and Tsukasa looked up through the holes of the net that pinned them down in the hole that the flimsy cardboard, painted to resemble floorboards, had concealed. "Why," Tsukasa asked, quite reasonably, "is there a trap here?"
"To catch burglars," Arashi replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Your dad's a member of ANBU," Hige commented. "Your mother teaches hand-to-hand at the Academy. Everyone knows you're the best in the village at time-delay stuff and traps. What burglar would be insane enough to try your house?"
"Well, one might not know where we live," Arashi pointed out.
Fuuka peered down into the hole and made a disparaging comment about humans and obvious traps they missed. Hige restrained himself from an unprintable reply -- Fuuka's mother was the partner of Hige's mother, Inuzuka Tsume, and if she reported what he said (and she would) he'd get it from both of them as well as Fuuka herself.
"Please help us out," he finally contented himself with saying.
"Okay," Arashi chirped, pulling a rope which cinched the net shut under the boys, then pulled them back up out of the hole and finally (using a pulley) wound then over a set of 'safe' floorboards. Arashi released the net, dumping the boys out -- they landed with a very heavy thud -- and then carefully restrung it up to where it had been, replacing the cardboard floorboards. She finally turned to her teammates, who were still lying where they had fallen, groaning theatrically.
"What's wrong?" she asked innocently.
"Even we know better than to go through your house without a guide," Tsukasa said flatly.
"Oh... right," Arashi replied, and the three of them filed through the house till they reached a cheerful girl's bedroom.
It was a bit different to most girls' bedrooms. Most girls didn't have several terrariums with different landscapes set up in them with various traps in their rooms. The Taishaku family cat was lying on the top of one of them, lazily swinging a paw against the glass at the mice inside. Arashi snatched him up and cuddled him. "Don't do that," she mock-scolded him.
"So, music," Tsukasa demanded.
"Here it is," Arashi told him, handing him a burnt umber sleeve with the picture of a lit candle on it and the title 'Eternal Flame'. He flipped it open, popped the small disc off its plastic rack, opened Arashi's CD player and slid the disc in in one smooth motion.
Cherry's sweet contralto opened the song, and then the piano entered, followed by the rest of the instruments. The three lay back side by side on Arashi's bed, listening to the music.
"This is us, y'know," Arashi said softly, as Cherry sang about eternal friendship and unbreakable bonds. "A team. She must be singing about her team."
"Yep," Tsukasa said. "I wonder who they were."
"I wonder what happened," Hige said. "Even when injured, a team's still a team and a partner's still a partner. Even after they're gone."
Fuuka yipped sympathetically, recognising Hige's grief for his first dog-partner, despite the fact that he had died of old age before she was born.
"I guess we'll never know," Arashi sighed. The song ended. "Again?"
"Again," Hige and Tsukasa chorused.
That night, Hige waited until dinner to break the news.
Dinner at the Inuzuka house was loud, crowded and usually punctuated by barking as dogs and humans sorted themselves into some sort of order. It paid to be nice to those Inuzuka who were on kitchen duty that week. Hige had been very helpful to his uncle Kiba a few days before, and now it was rewarded as he and Fuuka were served in good time.
He waited until there was a lull in the table noise to announce, loudly, "I've got a mission. For the next two months, I'm going to be escorting Cherry's tour."
Half the table choked on the food that they had been in the act of swallowing. The door to the kitchen flew open and Kiba came stalking out. "Cherry? You mean Haruno Sakura?"
"Yes," Hige answered.
"And Naruto and Sasuke aren't taking it? They mustn't know, I'll have to tell Naruto...." and Kiba stalked out of the dining hall, obviously intent on informing his friend of his nephew's mission. Hige blinked as he watched his uncle leave, before his attention was distracted by his sister. True to his earlier statement, Toboe was quivering with excitement.
"What happened? Why are you escorting Cherry? Is this an official mission? I wanna go! It's not fair! Mama, make Hige take me!"
"It is an official mission, sis," Hige announced. "Miss Haruno -- Cherry -- has got a stalker and he's been getting nastier, so she got worried and asked the Hokage for a bodyguard for her band. The Hokage gave the job to Master Hinata and my team. And no, you can't come. You're not even a genin yet."
Toboe pouted. "'S'not my fault I'm ten," she grumbled. "Just you wait till I am a genin, Daiki and me'll wipe the floor with you." Her partner gave an agreeing bark.
Hige rolled his eyes. "But you aren't a genin yet," he replied. "I'll get her autograph for you, how's that?"
"An autograph and a ticket to her show in the capital," Toboe replied quickly. "Or I hide in your bag."
"An autograph and three tickets to her show here in Konoha," Hige bargained back.
"She's having a show here in Konoha?" Tsume asked, having listened in with the rest of the table to the sibling bickering. "You'll be seeing that one, Toboe."
"But, the capital is --"
"-- too far away for a ten-year-old to go," Tsume declared, in a that-settles-that voice. "You can see her in Konoha."
Toboe subsided with several sotto voce growlings, and Hige's older cousins began to offer advice on travelling missions.
Arashi's parents were less amenable.
They insisted on making a phonecall to Master Hinata to verify what Arashi had told them. Arashi listened in on the extention in her bedroom, and was most displeased to hear her father inform Master Hinata of the family ban on Arashi and explosives (for goodness' sake, she'd been four, and it was an accident, and they'd been needing a new garden shed anyway), but was quite cheered up when she heard that Master Hinata's husband would be accompanying them. Master Naruto was so cool, and he never minded teaching them new stuff. Of course, Master Hinata would tell him off for it later, but it was cool, even so.
She wasn't quite so pleased when she heard that Mr. Uchiha would also be coming.
Arashi had heard a lot about Mr. Uchiha from her father, venting to her mother about his colleagues when they thought she was safely in bed. He was the last of a powerful clan, and so he was rich. He was also crazy, according to her father. Apparently he had a Bloodline Limit that made its possessors psycho. Plus he'd seen and done some truly insane things. "Of course, then the attack happened...." her father would say, and shrug. 'The attack', whatever it was, was something separate yet again. Her father had never explained it. But her father always stayed as far away from Mr. Uchiha as possible. Arashi, with her child's ego, was firmly convinced that her father was the bravest, strongest fighter in Konoha -- he was in ANBU, wasn't he? -- so if he avoided Mr. Uchiha... well, clearly Mr. Uchiha was best avoided.
"I suppose that was inevitable. At least we know Arashi will be safe...." Mr. Taishaku said to his wife after hanging up, as Arashi came down the stairs.
"What's inevitable? How do you know I'll be safe? You're not going to try to keep me home, are you? You know I have to go," Arashi said, all in a rush, sounding very like the precocious thirteen-year-old that she was.
"Uchiha Sasuke will be accompanying your group... for personal reasons. And you'll be safe because he's absolutely fanatic about his teammates' personal safety --"
"-- well, after what happened that time, can you blame him?" her mother muttered.
"So, Arashi, better head up and finish packing your bags," her father finished.
Arashi squealed, hugged both her parents, and ran up the stairs to her room, automatically avoiding the false steps and trigger panels.
Inside her mind, however, a few pieces were fitting together.
/Haruno Sakura retired after an injury. Uchiha Sasuke is fanatic about safety after something happened. And he's coming with us for personal reasons./
/I think I need to talk with Hige and Tsukasa about this./
When Arashi turned up at her team's meeting place at dawn the next morning, she found Tsukasa waiting for her. With bright pink hair.
She blinked for a few seconds, and then said, "I thought you didn't want to redye your hair?"
Tsukasa made a face. "It's washout colour mousse," he replied. "If I dye my hair too often, it'll stop being able to take any colour at all, so I'm trying out other options. I've got more in my pack. Maybe we'll need a decoy for Miss Haruno sometime." He lifted an eyebrow at her. "So, how do I look in pink?"
Arashi paused while she tried to come up with something tactful. Tsukasa naturally had dark hair, light blue eyes and pale skin, so light-coloured hair tended to make him look like a ghost. "Um... you looked better with green," she finally settled on.
"Oh." Tsukasa sounded disappointed.
"The decoy idea is good, though," a different voice commented, and both teenagers turned to see a man in a dark blue and white outfit leaning against a tree on the edge of the clearing.
"Mr. Uchiha," Arashi breathed.
"Taishaku Arashi," he nodded. "Shizuka Tsukasa. It is good to meet both of you."
"Will you be working with us, Mr. Uchiha?" Tsukasa asked politely.
"No," Mr. Uchiha replied. "I will be working with Haruno Sakura personally. But if you need me, I'll help you."
"But isn't Miss Haruno an ex-genin?" Tsukasa asked. "She should be able to take on an ordinary stalker."
Mr. Uchiha threw them an unreadable look but only said, "Sakura is far more than she appears, and the problem is that too many people know it."
"Hey Sasuke! Did you get any sleep last night?"
All three turned to see Master Hinata, Master Naruto and Hige walking towards the clearing. Master Naruto walked a little faster, arriving ahead of Master Hinata and Hige, marching up to Mr. Uchiha and clapping him on the shoulder.
"I slept well enough," Mr. Uchiha said. Arashi privately hoped he was lying -- if he got any grumpier, she'd start expecting him to throw kunai in lieu of conversation.
"Is everyone ready?" Master Hinata asked, hefting her own pack on her back. A chorus of affirmatives answered her question. "Then let's go."
Arashi sighed as she fell into line. Tsukasa always took point with his speed and stealth, and Hige always took rear guard with Fuuka, their noses giving them a clear picture of what was behind them as well as what was in front. Her skills, however, were strongest in combat or during a mission, rather than in transit, so she was always in the middle. Unfortunately, this also meant she was walking with the adults. Including Mr. Uchiha. It was going to be a long trip.
It wasn't that far to the capital, only two days' journey. Moving at the steady ninja's half-run, however, the six ninja made it there in just under fourteen hours. They arrived at the gates of the capital just as dusk was falling.
The three genin stood apart from the three jounin, their legs braced apart and their hands on their knees, hunched over and panting. "Don't stand like that too long," Hinata cautioned them. "You'll cramp up. Shake out your arms and legs; we have to get to our hotel yet."
"I'm hunnngry," Arashi whined. She didn't usually act bratty, but she was a year younger than the boys and she wasn't above playing the little kid when it was likely to get results. "I want to eat raaamen," she added, mindful of her audience.
"Mmmm, ramen," Naruto agreed. "Let's shake our legs out and get something good to eat -- chicken ramen...."
"Beef ramen," Arashi commented.
"Pork ramen," Tsukasa added.
"Kitsune ramen with extra fishcakes," Hige said dreamily.
"They've added it to the menu at all the local ramen restaurants," Hinata said in an undertone to Sasuke, who was looking at his companions as if he'd never met them before. "It's really quite good."
"Teriyaki, anyone?" Sasuke suggested.
"Fish teriyaki?" Hige asked.
"Probably."
Hige turned to his teammates. "Fish teriyaki?" he asked.
"Ramen," Arashi said firmly.
"Fish!"
"Fish ramen?" Tsukasa suggested.
"They don't do fish ramen," Hige said sadly. "I've asked at home, remember?"
Hinata stepped in at this point. "Let's go to our hotel. It has a restaurant nearby that serves ramen and fish."
"Yay!" three teenagers cheered and were halfway down the street before they stopped and turned around, obviously waiting for the slowpokes.
"My condolences," Sasuke said to Hinata.
"What? Why?" Naruto asked.
"She's got three genin who are just like you."
"Why, you --"
But they had caught up to the teenagers by then.
The next morning, Hige and Tsukasa rolled out of their futons and staggered into their suite's main room to find four adults sitting there sipping tea. The strange woman had cherry-blossom pink hair and when they came in, she looked up at them and smiled. It was a smile that both boys were very familiar with; it beamed out from posters all over Konoha's music store.
"Hello," she said. "You must be Inuzuka Hige and Shizuka Tsukasa. I am Haruno Sakura, and I'm very pleased to meet you."
Tsukasa inwardly cursed. He'd washed the pink out of his hair the night before and he hadn't even put any streaks in it yet.... /But Arashi said you look better with the green,/ he reminded himself. He bowed and muttered something that could be argued to be "I'm honoured."
Hige also bowed. "It's an honour, Miss Haruno."
"Perhaps you should wake Arashi and the three of you, when ready, can join us in planning," Hinata gently ordered. Both boys blinked and then ran into the other room. Jumping on Arashi's futon, they shook her until her teeth rattled.
"'m up, I'm up, Hige I'll bite you if you don't stop," Arashi protested.
"We gotta get dressed quick, Miss Haruno's outside and we gotta plan and where did I put my sandals?" Tsukasa rattled off, pulling a folded paper screen out of the wall and diving behind it.
"We've all seen bare feet before, worry about covering everything else first," Arashi called back, ducking behind a screen of her own.
"Miss Haruno seems nice," Hige commented as he and his teammates rushed through their morning rituals.
"I hope -- ugh! -- hope you're right," Arashi replied.
"She was sitting next to Mr. Uchiha and he was scowling at her," Tsukasa volunteered.
"I like her already," Arashi commented.
by Raye Johnsen
'Naruto' is copyright Kishimoto Masashi and all associated parties, NOT ME.
Part Two
Inuzuka Hige blinked and sniffed the air behind him. Beside him, Fuuka softly whined, telling him in her own language that Master Hinata was in front of them, while Arashi was to one side. Hige could smell Tsukasa coming up behind him.
He sighed as quietly as he could -- this training exercise was probably a washout already, but there was no use compounding the problem -- and quietly dropped back to intercept Tsukasa.
The other boy wasn't easy to spot, and if he hadn't had Fuuka's nose on the job, Hige might have missed him. As it was, the other boy's dark green hair -- yet another dye job; Arashi was wild with jealousy that Tsukasa could dye his hair any colour he liked and his parents just let him -- let him blend into the trees that much better.
"Hey," Hige said.
"'Allo," said Tsukasa, who also liked to speak foreign languages at people. Hige ignored it most of the time. Every team had its oddball.
"I think we need to change tactics," Hige said quickly. "Master Hinata hasn't fallen in any of Arashi's traps, and there is a time limit on this exercise."
"We could throw a net over her."
"She'd see it coming."
"We could drop rocks on her."
"From where? This is Master Hinata we're talking about. We aren't combat specialists anyway."
"I think it's a bit late to change the plan any--"
A loud shriek rent the air.
"Arashi," both boys chorused, beginning to move forward to the source of the cry.
They soon found it, in the person of a girl hanging upside down from a noose around her foot, suspended from a tall tree. Master Hinata was standing beneath the tree with her arms crossed.
"It defeats your purpose to get caught in your own trap," she was explaining patiently as the two boys ran up. The girl's long brown plait swung hypnotically back and forth over the grass, and Hige had to warn Fuuka not to attack it. She was still a puppy, after all.
After they had cut Arashi down, Master Hinata lectured them on principles of stealth, and then broke the news. "We have a C-class mission."
"Yeah!" Arashi said.
"What are we doing?" Hige asked.
"Do I have to redye my hair?" Tsukasa wanted to know.
"We're bodyguarding Haruno Sakura's tour, and no, Tsukasa, probably not."
Hige frowned. The name sounded familiar.... "Who's Haruno Sakura?"
Master Hinata smiled. "She's an idol singer. Her stage name is 'Cherry'."
All three gaped at her. "Cherry? The Cherry?" Arashi demanded after a long pause.
"So far as I know, there's only one," Master Hinata replied. "She was a genin of Konoha before an injury forced her retirement, so you may have heard of her from that, too."
All three genin blinked at her.
"Here are the details, so you can tell your parents. People in public view often pick up stalkers, and Miss Sakura, alas, has proven no exception. Up until recently, her stalker has been content with admiring from afar. Now, however, the stalker has begun making threats, and while Miss Sakura feels that she is in no personal danger, she fears for the safety of her backup band and support personnel. We are going to be accompanying her concert tour, ensuring that the accommodation they all stay in and the venues she's performing at are safe, and also guarding the group while they are travelling. It will take approximately two months, and we're going to be travelling all over the country."
Arashi found her voice first. "We're... touring with Cherry?"
"Yes."
Silence reigned again, until Master Hinata finally said, "You'd better go home and pack. We're leaving at dawn tomorrow."
The three strolled down the street towards their houses. "Hey," Arashi said into the quiet, "you guys still coming over my place to listen to Cherry's latest single?"
"Um. Yep. Sure," Tsukasa replied. "I never thought... we're going to meet her."
"We're going to meet her," Hige echoed. Then he grinned. "My little sister Toboe's going to freak."
"Her and the entire Konoha chapter of the Cherry Fan Club," Arashi said distantly. "Good thing we're good at running."
They entered the Taishakus' house, toeing their shoes off at the door. Arashi jumped over the lip of the entryway. "Hey guys," she said, "be careful, there's --"
CRASH!
"-- A trap," she finished.
Hige and Tsukasa looked up through the holes of the net that pinned them down in the hole that the flimsy cardboard, painted to resemble floorboards, had concealed. "Why," Tsukasa asked, quite reasonably, "is there a trap here?"
"To catch burglars," Arashi replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"Your dad's a member of ANBU," Hige commented. "Your mother teaches hand-to-hand at the Academy. Everyone knows you're the best in the village at time-delay stuff and traps. What burglar would be insane enough to try your house?"
"Well, one might not know where we live," Arashi pointed out.
Fuuka peered down into the hole and made a disparaging comment about humans and obvious traps they missed. Hige restrained himself from an unprintable reply -- Fuuka's mother was the partner of Hige's mother, Inuzuka Tsume, and if she reported what he said (and she would) he'd get it from both of them as well as Fuuka herself.
"Please help us out," he finally contented himself with saying.
"Okay," Arashi chirped, pulling a rope which cinched the net shut under the boys, then pulled them back up out of the hole and finally (using a pulley) wound then over a set of 'safe' floorboards. Arashi released the net, dumping the boys out -- they landed with a very heavy thud -- and then carefully restrung it up to where it had been, replacing the cardboard floorboards. She finally turned to her teammates, who were still lying where they had fallen, groaning theatrically.
"What's wrong?" she asked innocently.
"Even we know better than to go through your house without a guide," Tsukasa said flatly.
"Oh... right," Arashi replied, and the three of them filed through the house till they reached a cheerful girl's bedroom.
It was a bit different to most girls' bedrooms. Most girls didn't have several terrariums with different landscapes set up in them with various traps in their rooms. The Taishaku family cat was lying on the top of one of them, lazily swinging a paw against the glass at the mice inside. Arashi snatched him up and cuddled him. "Don't do that," she mock-scolded him.
"So, music," Tsukasa demanded.
"Here it is," Arashi told him, handing him a burnt umber sleeve with the picture of a lit candle on it and the title 'Eternal Flame'. He flipped it open, popped the small disc off its plastic rack, opened Arashi's CD player and slid the disc in in one smooth motion.
Cherry's sweet contralto opened the song, and then the piano entered, followed by the rest of the instruments. The three lay back side by side on Arashi's bed, listening to the music.
"This is us, y'know," Arashi said softly, as Cherry sang about eternal friendship and unbreakable bonds. "A team. She must be singing about her team."
"Yep," Tsukasa said. "I wonder who they were."
"I wonder what happened," Hige said. "Even when injured, a team's still a team and a partner's still a partner. Even after they're gone."
Fuuka yipped sympathetically, recognising Hige's grief for his first dog-partner, despite the fact that he had died of old age before she was born.
"I guess we'll never know," Arashi sighed. The song ended. "Again?"
"Again," Hige and Tsukasa chorused.
That night, Hige waited until dinner to break the news.
Dinner at the Inuzuka house was loud, crowded and usually punctuated by barking as dogs and humans sorted themselves into some sort of order. It paid to be nice to those Inuzuka who were on kitchen duty that week. Hige had been very helpful to his uncle Kiba a few days before, and now it was rewarded as he and Fuuka were served in good time.
He waited until there was a lull in the table noise to announce, loudly, "I've got a mission. For the next two months, I'm going to be escorting Cherry's tour."
Half the table choked on the food that they had been in the act of swallowing. The door to the kitchen flew open and Kiba came stalking out. "Cherry? You mean Haruno Sakura?"
"Yes," Hige answered.
"And Naruto and Sasuke aren't taking it? They mustn't know, I'll have to tell Naruto...." and Kiba stalked out of the dining hall, obviously intent on informing his friend of his nephew's mission. Hige blinked as he watched his uncle leave, before his attention was distracted by his sister. True to his earlier statement, Toboe was quivering with excitement.
"What happened? Why are you escorting Cherry? Is this an official mission? I wanna go! It's not fair! Mama, make Hige take me!"
"It is an official mission, sis," Hige announced. "Miss Haruno -- Cherry -- has got a stalker and he's been getting nastier, so she got worried and asked the Hokage for a bodyguard for her band. The Hokage gave the job to Master Hinata and my team. And no, you can't come. You're not even a genin yet."
Toboe pouted. "'S'not my fault I'm ten," she grumbled. "Just you wait till I am a genin, Daiki and me'll wipe the floor with you." Her partner gave an agreeing bark.
Hige rolled his eyes. "But you aren't a genin yet," he replied. "I'll get her autograph for you, how's that?"
"An autograph and a ticket to her show in the capital," Toboe replied quickly. "Or I hide in your bag."
"An autograph and three tickets to her show here in Konoha," Hige bargained back.
"She's having a show here in Konoha?" Tsume asked, having listened in with the rest of the table to the sibling bickering. "You'll be seeing that one, Toboe."
"But, the capital is --"
"-- too far away for a ten-year-old to go," Tsume declared, in a that-settles-that voice. "You can see her in Konoha."
Toboe subsided with several sotto voce growlings, and Hige's older cousins began to offer advice on travelling missions.
Arashi's parents were less amenable.
They insisted on making a phonecall to Master Hinata to verify what Arashi had told them. Arashi listened in on the extention in her bedroom, and was most displeased to hear her father inform Master Hinata of the family ban on Arashi and explosives (for goodness' sake, she'd been four, and it was an accident, and they'd been needing a new garden shed anyway), but was quite cheered up when she heard that Master Hinata's husband would be accompanying them. Master Naruto was so cool, and he never minded teaching them new stuff. Of course, Master Hinata would tell him off for it later, but it was cool, even so.
She wasn't quite so pleased when she heard that Mr. Uchiha would also be coming.
Arashi had heard a lot about Mr. Uchiha from her father, venting to her mother about his colleagues when they thought she was safely in bed. He was the last of a powerful clan, and so he was rich. He was also crazy, according to her father. Apparently he had a Bloodline Limit that made its possessors psycho. Plus he'd seen and done some truly insane things. "Of course, then the attack happened...." her father would say, and shrug. 'The attack', whatever it was, was something separate yet again. Her father had never explained it. But her father always stayed as far away from Mr. Uchiha as possible. Arashi, with her child's ego, was firmly convinced that her father was the bravest, strongest fighter in Konoha -- he was in ANBU, wasn't he? -- so if he avoided Mr. Uchiha... well, clearly Mr. Uchiha was best avoided.
"I suppose that was inevitable. At least we know Arashi will be safe...." Mr. Taishaku said to his wife after hanging up, as Arashi came down the stairs.
"What's inevitable? How do you know I'll be safe? You're not going to try to keep me home, are you? You know I have to go," Arashi said, all in a rush, sounding very like the precocious thirteen-year-old that she was.
"Uchiha Sasuke will be accompanying your group... for personal reasons. And you'll be safe because he's absolutely fanatic about his teammates' personal safety --"
"-- well, after what happened that time, can you blame him?" her mother muttered.
"So, Arashi, better head up and finish packing your bags," her father finished.
Arashi squealed, hugged both her parents, and ran up the stairs to her room, automatically avoiding the false steps and trigger panels.
Inside her mind, however, a few pieces were fitting together.
/Haruno Sakura retired after an injury. Uchiha Sasuke is fanatic about safety after something happened. And he's coming with us for personal reasons./
/I think I need to talk with Hige and Tsukasa about this./
When Arashi turned up at her team's meeting place at dawn the next morning, she found Tsukasa waiting for her. With bright pink hair.
She blinked for a few seconds, and then said, "I thought you didn't want to redye your hair?"
Tsukasa made a face. "It's washout colour mousse," he replied. "If I dye my hair too often, it'll stop being able to take any colour at all, so I'm trying out other options. I've got more in my pack. Maybe we'll need a decoy for Miss Haruno sometime." He lifted an eyebrow at her. "So, how do I look in pink?"
Arashi paused while she tried to come up with something tactful. Tsukasa naturally had dark hair, light blue eyes and pale skin, so light-coloured hair tended to make him look like a ghost. "Um... you looked better with green," she finally settled on.
"Oh." Tsukasa sounded disappointed.
"The decoy idea is good, though," a different voice commented, and both teenagers turned to see a man in a dark blue and white outfit leaning against a tree on the edge of the clearing.
"Mr. Uchiha," Arashi breathed.
"Taishaku Arashi," he nodded. "Shizuka Tsukasa. It is good to meet both of you."
"Will you be working with us, Mr. Uchiha?" Tsukasa asked politely.
"No," Mr. Uchiha replied. "I will be working with Haruno Sakura personally. But if you need me, I'll help you."
"But isn't Miss Haruno an ex-genin?" Tsukasa asked. "She should be able to take on an ordinary stalker."
Mr. Uchiha threw them an unreadable look but only said, "Sakura is far more than she appears, and the problem is that too many people know it."
"Hey Sasuke! Did you get any sleep last night?"
All three turned to see Master Hinata, Master Naruto and Hige walking towards the clearing. Master Naruto walked a little faster, arriving ahead of Master Hinata and Hige, marching up to Mr. Uchiha and clapping him on the shoulder.
"I slept well enough," Mr. Uchiha said. Arashi privately hoped he was lying -- if he got any grumpier, she'd start expecting him to throw kunai in lieu of conversation.
"Is everyone ready?" Master Hinata asked, hefting her own pack on her back. A chorus of affirmatives answered her question. "Then let's go."
Arashi sighed as she fell into line. Tsukasa always took point with his speed and stealth, and Hige always took rear guard with Fuuka, their noses giving them a clear picture of what was behind them as well as what was in front. Her skills, however, were strongest in combat or during a mission, rather than in transit, so she was always in the middle. Unfortunately, this also meant she was walking with the adults. Including Mr. Uchiha. It was going to be a long trip.
It wasn't that far to the capital, only two days' journey. Moving at the steady ninja's half-run, however, the six ninja made it there in just under fourteen hours. They arrived at the gates of the capital just as dusk was falling.
The three genin stood apart from the three jounin, their legs braced apart and their hands on their knees, hunched over and panting. "Don't stand like that too long," Hinata cautioned them. "You'll cramp up. Shake out your arms and legs; we have to get to our hotel yet."
"I'm hunnngry," Arashi whined. She didn't usually act bratty, but she was a year younger than the boys and she wasn't above playing the little kid when it was likely to get results. "I want to eat raaamen," she added, mindful of her audience.
"Mmmm, ramen," Naruto agreed. "Let's shake our legs out and get something good to eat -- chicken ramen...."
"Beef ramen," Arashi commented.
"Pork ramen," Tsukasa added.
"Kitsune ramen with extra fishcakes," Hige said dreamily.
"They've added it to the menu at all the local ramen restaurants," Hinata said in an undertone to Sasuke, who was looking at his companions as if he'd never met them before. "It's really quite good."
"Teriyaki, anyone?" Sasuke suggested.
"Fish teriyaki?" Hige asked.
"Probably."
Hige turned to his teammates. "Fish teriyaki?" he asked.
"Ramen," Arashi said firmly.
"Fish!"
"Fish ramen?" Tsukasa suggested.
"They don't do fish ramen," Hige said sadly. "I've asked at home, remember?"
Hinata stepped in at this point. "Let's go to our hotel. It has a restaurant nearby that serves ramen and fish."
"Yay!" three teenagers cheered and were halfway down the street before they stopped and turned around, obviously waiting for the slowpokes.
"My condolences," Sasuke said to Hinata.
"What? Why?" Naruto asked.
"She's got three genin who are just like you."
"Why, you --"
But they had caught up to the teenagers by then.
The next morning, Hige and Tsukasa rolled out of their futons and staggered into their suite's main room to find four adults sitting there sipping tea. The strange woman had cherry-blossom pink hair and when they came in, she looked up at them and smiled. It was a smile that both boys were very familiar with; it beamed out from posters all over Konoha's music store.
"Hello," she said. "You must be Inuzuka Hige and Shizuka Tsukasa. I am Haruno Sakura, and I'm very pleased to meet you."
Tsukasa inwardly cursed. He'd washed the pink out of his hair the night before and he hadn't even put any streaks in it yet.... /But Arashi said you look better with the green,/ he reminded himself. He bowed and muttered something that could be argued to be "I'm honoured."
Hige also bowed. "It's an honour, Miss Haruno."
"Perhaps you should wake Arashi and the three of you, when ready, can join us in planning," Hinata gently ordered. Both boys blinked and then ran into the other room. Jumping on Arashi's futon, they shook her until her teeth rattled.
"'m up, I'm up, Hige I'll bite you if you don't stop," Arashi protested.
"We gotta get dressed quick, Miss Haruno's outside and we gotta plan and where did I put my sandals?" Tsukasa rattled off, pulling a folded paper screen out of the wall and diving behind it.
"We've all seen bare feet before, worry about covering everything else first," Arashi called back, ducking behind a screen of her own.
"Miss Haruno seems nice," Hige commented as he and his teammates rushed through their morning rituals.
"I hope -- ugh! -- hope you're right," Arashi replied.
"She was sitting next to Mr. Uchiha and he was scowling at her," Tsukasa volunteered.
"I like her already," Arashi commented.
