Disclaimers: blah blah blah.
::burns Japanese dictionary:: (Stupid neolithic crap!) Thank you Inuko Raima!
Chapter 7: Reminiscence
The Bureau swarmed with people, reminiscent of Tazuna's house. Ninjas of all shapes and sizes bustled about; collecting pay from high ranking missions, scouring the bulletin boards for easy jobs, arguing with other ninja.
"Hey." A thought occurred to Naruto. "This is a Ninja town, right? Why do they have a Freelance Bureau?"
"Do you remember when we met Zabuza?" Sakura said. "Kakashi-sensei told us about their barbaric exam. I bet it has to do with that. You know, like, people not wanting to take the exam means less employment. Low employment means poverty. Poverty means a lower standing as a world power."
Naruto scratched his head.
"Wha...?"
"Hopeless." Sakura glared at him. He glared back.
"Whatever." Sasuke muttered, "Let just do this thing and go."
They pushed their way through the violent crowd to the job-postings board, hidden behind its own wall of people.
"Ouch!" Sakura yelped as someone elbowed her rib cage. "Okay, Naruto, you're going to have to find us one."
"Eh? Why?" He wondered as he pushed though a giggling couple.
"Because you're the smallest." Sasuke said with difficulty.
"Hey!" Naruto grumbled.
"Live with it!" Sakura placed a hand on Naruto's back and roughly shoved him through the crowd.
"Waaaaaa- Ow!" Naruto's face smacked against the wooden board.. "Are you trying to kill me, woman!?"
"We'll meet you out front!" Sakura waved as she and Sasuke disappeared into the sea of people.
Muttering curses to himself, Naruto stared up at the plank covered in papers looming above him.
"Let's see... 'Find a Cat', 'Weed a Vegetable Garden', oooo... 'Escort Woman to Hima.'"
Naruto reached up to grab the flyer, but someone beat him to it.
"Gotta be quicker than that, shrimp." A deep voice echoed from somewhere above.
"Hey!" But the flyer and its thief were gone.
"Damn it!" Naruto reached for another flyer, but this too was snatched away. He tried again, but to the same outcome. Naruto smacked heavily against the board as new ninja pushed through.
"AAAAH! Alright! That's it!" Naruto clasped his hands together. "Sexy no Jutsu!"
Over the up roar of the crowd, Sakura and Sasuke still heard the command. They rushed forward as the smoke cleared and found about twenty poor victims lying dizzy in a pool of nosebleed. Those unaffected, mostly women, gawked awkwardly. Naruto changed back in a puff of smoke and snatched the very last mission off the wall.
"Got one!" He announced proudly to Sakura and Sasuke, holding it up.
"That's wonderful." Sakura mumbled, eying the killer-intent looks from the many kunoichi present. "Let's leave. Now."
-
"Hmmm..." Sasuke held the flyer up to the light. "No wonder it was the last one; it pays cheap."
"Then it's a good thing we're not in this for the cash then." Sakura panted, draping herself limply over a branch.
Naruto's little stunt in the Freelance Bureau had not gone over too well with the locals. The trio had been run out of town by an angry mob and sought shelter in a tree.
"Naruto, don't use that technique for a while," Sakura whined, "I guess we won't be invited back, or at least not in these disguises."
"Yeah, when are we going back to our old styles?" Naruto asked as he poked at his dyed, black hair.
"Not yet." Sasuke inspected the flyer. "It's too soon and we're too close to Konoha. We should continue this Aoi/Akane/Kirimaru thing for a little longer before switching to someone else."
"Awww..." Naruto hung limply from his branch.
"'Please inquire on Biscuit Island. See Shinrimaru.'" Sasuke read. Sakura pulled out a world map.
"'Biscuit Island'?" Naruto mumbled. "Sounds tastey."
"Biscuit Island." Sakura repeated, running a finger over the names. "Ah-ha! It's an island just off the northwest coast. Shouldn't take us long to get there."
"Alright!" Naruto jumped up, "Then what are we waiting for?!"
Sakura and Sasuke gave him blank stares.
"How the hell does he have so much energy?" Sakura wondered aloud.
-
A day later, the three arrived on Biscuit Island and at once began their search for Shinrimaru. He wasn't hard to find; all the locals knew him. Apparently, he had been a great lord not a decade ago, but had lost it all in Water Country's instable economy. He now lived in a shack by the water.
The team investigated the ribbon of beach, shoes off and toes wriggling playfully in the sand and water, until they came to this shack.
The term "shack" was an overstatement for this structure. Creaky wooden panels held up a rusted tin roof and, somehow, it became a living situation. The trio felt humanly wrong and abnormally large as they approached the homely shed.
Naruto extended a shaking hand to the plywood door and rapped his knuckles against the moldy slate. The door echoed and they yelped as it fell in. Sasuke grabbed the circular hole (in place of a knob) and yanked it back up before it hit the ground.
"Awww... Don't bother with that old thing." A wilted voice called. "It's always falling. Come on in."
Obeying the disembodied voice, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura stepped into the one-room shed. The inside reflected years of weather. The large, elevated wooden flooring filled the room and was covered with sand and water stains. To the left, lay a simple mattress, to the right, a bureau. A small fire pit roasted a kettle in the center of the hut across from which sat a haggard old man (or at least he looked old).
"Are you Shinrimaru?" Sasuke asked as they dropped their shoes by the discarded door and stepped onto the hardwood flooring.
"Yes," the old man nodded, "How may I help you?"
Sasuke held up the flyer.
"You're looking for ninja?"
Shinrimaru gave them a blank look.
"You three kids are going to help me? I asked for upper level ninja, not academy students"
"You got a problem, geezer!? Mmph!" Sakura clamped a hand tightly over Naruto's mouth.
"I can assure you, sir, that all three of us are at a chuunin level." She smiled brightly while easily subduing the flailing Naruto.
Shinrimaru sighed.
"Very well. Sit down and I'll tell you what I need."
They did as they were told.
"I have a daughter around your age," Shinrimaru began, "and about two weeks ago she was kidnapped. It's your job to get her back. Here's a picture." Sakura took the photo and Naruto leaned over her shoulder to look at it. The face below glowed with a bright smile; she was very pretty, with long, black hair and livid, green eyes. She had a quiet, shy look about her that gave away a gentle disposition.
"Wait a minute," Sasuke said, "Why did you wait this long before hiring someone?"
"Akari-chan, my daughter, doesn't live with me. She goes to Sorano Fuuka."
"Really?" Sakura exclaimed, "That's so cool!"
"Eh?" Naruto scratched his head.
"Sorano Fuuka is a very prestigious post-academy ninja school with a focus on sealing. It's situated way up in Lightning Country. But Shinrimaru-san, you don't exactly look wealthy. How did you pay for tuition?"
Shinrimaru smiled.
"Back when I first lost my title, I decided that I didn't want Akari-chan to live like this, poor, decrepit... Espeacially, because she is so smart and has such a bright future ahead of her. So I sold all my possessions and gathered what money I had to send her to that school."
Sakura smiled sweetly.
"You must really care about her."
"She is everything to me." Shinrimaru grinned nostalgically. "That's why you must get her back."
The three nodded in unison.
"Do you have any idea where she might be?" Sasuke asked, looking at the photograph.
"Yes," Shinrimaru pulled a box toward him and began rummaging through it. "I also know who took her." He pulled out two pieces of paper; a flyer and a photograph. He handed the latter over first. "This is the man. An old rival of mine, Usomaru. I believe he's entered her in this." He handed the flyer to Sasuke, while Naruto and Sakura ogled at the fat, bald man in the photo.
"'Young Teen Queen Pageant for Kunoichi on Sea Breeze Island. Presented by NinCola'?" Sasuke read quizzically. "Why?"
"I'm guessing it's a combination of his hate for me and his love for get-rich-quick schemes. The pageant's winner takes home a lot of money."
"What's this guy's problem with you?" Sakura asked, looking up from the photo.
"Well, he was a lord of this country before I was, but the economy toppled him over, and I quickly took his place. I heard he got a job as second-in-command for a shipping monopoly in Wave Country, but that collapsed two years ago when their CEO was slaughtered. He came out of it a rich man, but a lot is never enough for some people."
"He's rich, huh?" Sasuke repeated.
"That means he'll probably have ninja protecting her." Sakura said.
Shinrimaru hung his head.
"Don't worry, Shinrimaru-jisan." Naruto grinned brightly, extending his arm to the man and lifting his thumb upward. "We'll rescue Hikari-chan!"
"It's Akari-chan."
"Whatever!"
-
"Uwaaahh!" Sakura pushed her new long, platinum locks out of her face. "It's so pretty!"
It had been three days since they left Shinrimaru and Biscuit Island and, if Naruto had thought Water Country was hot, he knew nothing of Sea Breeze Island. The purely tropical land mass lay just off Fire Country's eastern sea border. It was very touristy, a packed metropolis of expansive shopping centers, white beaches, turquoise surf and complete with a Mega Dome ten times the size of Konoha's Chuunin Stadium waving a sparkling banner reading "Young Teen Queen Pageant for Kunoichi!! Sign up now! (Presented by NinCola)."
They had sorted out the plan on the boat. Aoi, Akane and Kirimaru were replaced by Pageant Contestant Haruko and her two bodyguards.
"Geh!" Naruto tugged on his collar.
"Stop it, Naruto." Sakura scolded, "Those suits are rentals."
The heat was bad enough without the black suits Naruto and Sasuke wore. With the addition of the dark sun glasses, Sakura thought they looked less like bodyguards and more like the mob. (A very handsome mob too, she giggled to herself.)
Sakura herself had rented a long white wig and a pretty, white lace dress that stopped short at her knees and tended to spin every time she turned. She finished off the style with white flip-flops and her old, blue contacts; she didn't think her own mother would have recognized her.
"Let's go sign you up." Sasuke announced grudgingly as messed irritably with his tie.
"Okay!" Sakura laughed like the sun on water. She happily skipped off to the Mega Dome, the other two trudging along behind her.
-
After waiting in line for what seemed like hours, Sakura received her sign-up papers. She moved back to a table to fill it out, humming a little song all the way.
"Why are you so happy?" Naruto asked. He couldn't remember a time when he was more miserable. He was hot, the suit itched, and he hadn't eaten ramen in three weeks.
"Don't you know? It's every girls dream to be in a pageant."
"Are you serious?" Naruto muttered cynically.
"Yup."
"What about Temari?" Sasuke pointed out.
Naruto tried to imagine Temari in an evening gown prancing around on stage. He found himself rolling on the floor laughing. A few people looked in their direction.
"Okay, maybe not." Sakura scribbled on her questionnaire. "'Talent'... What should I do for a talent?"
"Heavy lifting!" Naruto suggested, picking himself off the floor.
"Bad idea." Sasuke put out Naruto's idea like a match in a hurricane. Naruto threw him a dirty look. "This thing is highly publicized. It would be bad if got around to the Hokage."
"Then I'll sing a song." Sakura made some scratches on the paper. Sasuke and Naruto gave her questionable stares.
"What? We're just here to retrieve Akari-chan. If I was trying to win, I'd do heavy lifting." She made a couple more marks and got up. "I'm going to go turn this in. You guys wait here."
Sakura hummed a tune as she skipped to the entry box and slid the paper into the slot. Something on the ground caught her eye.
"What's this?" She leaned toward it. A lone kunai rested on the maroon carpet. It shone bright against the dark floor, but Sakura noticed it had several scratches.
It's been used before.
A piece of pink, braided string, garnished with a cylindrical bead, was wrapped three times around the circular loop handle. Sakura paused and checked for traps. No strings lead to the kunai and she couldn't feel the presence of chakra. Slowly, she leaned down to pick it up.
Two hands landed on the kunai, one of which wasn't Sakura's. Slowly, she raised her head to the other's eyes.
Sakura's heart jumped and squeezed itself into her esophagus. She choked and pulled her hand back, like the kunai was on fire.
"Oh, this is mine." The other said.
Sakura's jaw slacked as she gazed upon the girl.
INO!?
Author's Notes: BWAHAHA! Cliffhanger! ::feels evil::
Next Chapter: The Pageant begins! Friends become enemies! What the hell is going on!?