Chapter II: Nightlife at the Inn
A few drops signaled the beginning of rainfall, quickly transforming the dusty trail to mud.
"…" Sasuke casually fingered a shuriken while Naruto gripped a kunai, all while latter railed on Sasuke's superiority complex; an argument that had already been finished a couple years back. The two boys dropped behind Kakashi in preparation of an attack.
Kakashi didn't bother to release Sakura. Instead he waved his hand, motioning for the two to put away their weapons.
"Eh, no need to be on guard." Sasuke glanced at Kakashi while Naruto looked gave the man an odd look but kept his mouth shut. Six years and a leadership position had taken toll on the Number One Surprising Ninja.
"From this point on don't refer to me with my first name," Kakashi continued, "Call me 'senpai'." Sasuke raised an eyebrow and Naruto blanched. The first words that came into Sakura's mind were 'Mid-Life Crisis'.
"You guys are now classified as Leaf Chuunins. Never reveal your surname to anyone. Especially you, Sasuke." Sasuke and Sakura grasped the situation and Naruto nodded in a manner his team immediately recognized as 'I don't understand, so I'll ask Sakura-chan later'.
This was a covert operation. The fact that their status had been changed as well as their identity was proof of political tension between the Cloud and the Leaf. Perhaps the Cloud was still disappointed in its failure to obtain the Byakugan? Then why did Tsunade-sama send two Sharingan users; an ability that was also notoriously coveted?
"Hey look!" Naruto interrupted Sakura's thoughts as a village slowly emerged from the fog.
The rainfall had slowed the group's pace and demanded a delay in their travel schedule. Thinking could wait until later. Food was the team's main concern right now.
Sasuke glanced around the forest. The stalkers had vanished.
—
After spending several hours in the rain, Sakura felt her cold skin buzz and dissolve into the hot water. She closed her eyes and sat with her head tilted back far enough to touch the stone edge of the bath. Keeping her injured shin just above the surface of the water she basking in the heat and steam that whispered around her face. I could stay here forever, Sakura thought, listening to the uninterrupted gurgles from the continuously running spring that provided hot water.
Being the only female in the team had its perks; Sakura had a whole room to herself while the remaining three slept in the next room, as well as a bath. Unfortunately, the male and female sides of the bath were only separated by a thin, wooden fold-out wall. Sakura had worried about some clumsy oaf 'accidentally' knocking over the makeshift divider (namely Naruto), so she seized the chance to bring some kunais and smoke bombs.
"Ano-sa, ano-sa," Sakura heard Naruto's voice echo from the other side of the bathhouse, "Isn't it weird that Ka— Um, senpai doesn't take a bath?"
"What about it?" The second voice was undoubtedly Sasuke's. Sakura had a good idea where this conversation was headed.
"... If senpai needed to wash... He would have to take off his mask, wouldn't he?" Sakura slowly opened her eyes and sighed.
"Naruto, we've been trying to look under senpai's mask for six years. We've bought him twelve bowls of ramen, tried to remove it while he was asleep about ten times, blatantly attacked him three times, which adds up to twenty-five attempts," Sakura paused to lift her head. "And none of them were successful."
"But we're um, chuunins now! We can definitely succeed! Right, Sasuke?"
"..." The other boy's lack of response told Sakura that he was interested in Naruto's devious plan but failed in breaking out of character to acknowledge it.
Sakura rose and snatched a towel from a wooden basket she had set beside the pool. Even if both Naruto and Sasuke became Hokage, she doubted that their streak of defeats in their zealous quest to see Kakashi's face would give way to success. The deities that provided the blessings to the Uchiha and Uzumaki were already hard-pressed when scraping up enough chances for the two to be alive at all. No way they were going to exhaust their efforts on something like this.
Ridiculous, she thought, securing the towel around her. Nothing could possibly convince that man to show them his face. Proclamation set in steel, Sakura made her way to the showers.
—
"…"
"…"
"… So… Who wants the bed?"
—
Sasuke tossed and turned on the floor. It was not necessarily the floor that was uncomfortable; it was that fact that Naruto had beaten him in an argument. Next time he would have to research a little 'Dead last' and 'idiot' can only last for so long.
There was also the feeling of something messing that he couldn't shake since their 'little walk' to the city. Eight people trailing them, yet not attacking.
"Can't sleep?" A voice broke through Naruto's snores and Sasuke's thoughts.
"Ah…" Sasuke answered dully. He changed his position for the umpteenth time. "Kakashi. What are we really doing?" While monetary transactions had taken place in the lobby, Sakura confided her theories about the mission scroll to Sasuke and Naruto in the lobby. An extra one and another half minds wouldn't hurt in speculating.
"Mmm… Well, it's nothing pleasant." If Kakashi had another title other than 'Copy Ninja', it would have been 'Man of Many Understatements'. This mission would be quite eventful.
Sasuke's eyes swirled red a split second before something smashed through the window. He yanked Naruto out of slumber and off the bed, immediately somersaulting to the middle of the room as his back slammed into Kakashi's. Four figures immediately surrounded the two.
It was all Kakashi needed to size up the opposition. Chuunin level. Sasuke and Naruto could handle them easily and Sakura…
Sakura
There was a gurgle as two ninja fell with kunai lodged in their throats. Naruto's body was awkwardly positioned upside-down where he had fallen, legs suspended in the air and previously sleepy and blissful demeanor disintegrating like a watered soufflé. Recovering from his initial shock and flipping his body right-side up, he proceeded to grumble about 'damn rookie ninjas and their stupid flashy entrances'.
"Sasuke! Naruto! I'm going to check up on Sakura."
"Roger!"
—
The team was twelve again as Sakura watched Naruto and Sasuke bicker on what seemed to be the one who could summon the strangest creature they could imagine. So far, Sasuke was winning with his creation: Gai-sensei's head on Tsunade-sama's body. It was one of the very few times Sakura began seriously questioning Sasuke's sanity rather than Naruto's or her sensei's.
"I can do better so you'd better not get overconfident!" Naruto bit his thumb and began performing seals.
"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" To Sakura's horror, a giant frog-man (that looked quite familiar) was summoned beneath Naruto and began chanting like a monk while it commenced to destroy Konoha.
"Sakura! Oi, Sakura!" She noticed Sasuke calling out her name and shaking her by the shoulders, not paying the slightest attention to the rather disturbing performance provided by Naruto.
"Sakura!" Sakura gave a start as her eyes snapped open and peered at the face before her.
"Kakashi-sensei?" She reached under her pillow and grabbed a kunai while quickly noting two corpses obscured by shadows next to the veranda door.
Before she could react, Kakashi grabbed Sakura, dragging her to the floor as shrapnel exploded from the veranda and tore though the bed. For a few long seconds, the room was flooded by what looked like thousands upon thousands of metal shards which Sakura beheld with wide eyes as Kakashi flattened her to the ground and covered her head with his arms.
The shrieks of metal stopped abruptly and gave way to the soft pattering of the rain. The sounds of warfare had also ceased from where Naruto and Sasuke were located.
I can protect myself.
The defiant thought popped into Sakura's mind, bringing her back from her daze and changing her disposition from shocked to angry. That attack was for her. If anyone was to be damaged, it would have been for her. She had no need for a bodyguard. What was Tsunade-sama thinking while she assigned teammates?
Using an unnecessary amount of force, she pushed away the arms that covered her head with one hand and her ex-teacher with the other. She did not want to be protected like this, and of all people, she expected Kakashi to understand more than her two other cohorts. Kakashi, however, only paused and raised an eyebrow at Sakura's accusing glare before getting up.
She's changed a bit, he observed calmly.
Sakura could now clearly see that Kakashi had several blades protruding from his shoulder and one that was lodged dangerously close to his spine. There was no poison, and the injuries were, for the most part, rather basic. Had he worn his vest, the carpet would have been spared, she thought. Poor carpet.
Rising indignantly from the floor, Sakura reached for her medicine pack from where she feel and saw that the mattress had transformed into something that resembled a tub of shuriken. In fact, her whole room glittered from assorted blades and metals lodged into the floor, furniture, walls and everything in between.
Kakashi looked about and said, "I suppose you're not too keen on sleeping here tonight."
"I can take care of myself," Sakura snapped. Her voice betrayed all the signs of an irate teenager, but her hands were gentle as she cut through his shirt to remove the shrapnel.
"Hai, hai."
Sakura stopped for a moment. After sizing up the situation, sleeping alone with rain spraying into the room and two dead ninjas staring at her with glazed eyes for the whole night was an experience she would like to avoid.
"I get the bed."
—
Author's Notes:
Many thanks to those who reviewed and left criticism w Especially Maya (no, you're not a flamer ) and Silent Angel (who just revealed to me that part of the first chapter I added didn't show up... O.o).
I try to keep the character in character as much as I can, so I'm happy.
It seems like I need a beta...
(EDIT April 23, 2013: Tidied up)
"Fanartist"