Chapter 3. The Mission begins.

"Ohayou!" Naruto yawned, greeting Sakura the next morning. The weather was perfect for the beginning of their mission. Sunshine, and no clouds – so there wouldn't be any rain. And it's not too hot. Naruto liked weather like this.

"It's already nine," Sakura told her teammate. "I wonder if Yondaime is like Kakashi, and will come late every day."

"Hehe," Naruto laughed. "Sakura-chan, let's go and accomplish the mission without him!"

"And how are you going to do that when you don't even know the way, baka?" asked familiar annoying voice from somewhere behind them.

"Don't call me that!" Naruto turned and shouted in the face of the hokage. "Blondaime!"

"Baka!" Yondaime repeated.

"Stop you two," Sakura interfered. It was so much like Sasuke and Naruto's verbal fights that it was painful. Then she understood what she has just done. She had asked the 4th Hokage to shut up. "Oh my…I'm sorry…I didn't mean," she tried to apologize while her face's color began to change red.

Yondaime smiled.

"Well, it's not the time for us to argue. We have a two-day trip to the hidden moon village."

"Hidden moon?" Naruto and Sakura asked at the same time.

Arashi ushered his companions to move and then continued talking.

Two pairs of eyes watched them as they disappeared into the forest.

"I still don't get it," Shizune began. "He's Hokage, and he has just returned to the village. People would like to meet their hero more publicly. Maybe we could organize some meeting, but you send him away on a B-ranked mission. Not even "A." Why?"

Tsunade sighed.

"I don't like it either," she confessed. "But it was the elders' decision. He's on probation now. His title as Hokage wasn't taken away from him formally, but in fact, now he is just an elite jounin."

Shizune exhaled in shock.

"Why?" inquisition was in her eyes.

"They are afraid of him," Tsunade explained. "He was… he is the strongest shinobi in our village, Orochimaru was the one who resurrected him."

"They're afraid that he's just Orochimaru's marionette…" Shizune sighed. "So that's why he was happy to get out of here. How long will this probation last?"

Tsunade shuddered.

"Maybe a few missions. If this mission completed successfully…he might be given an A-ranked mission. I don't know. I'll insist, the first chance that I get, for them to give him back his Hokage robes after this mission, dammit!" Tsunade's voice was menacing.

"But what if they fail?" Shizune asked.

Tsunade smiled.

"They won't fail. If it's really Arashi – and I believe he is; he won't fail this mission."

"But what if…what if he's not Yondaime?" Shizune asked. "Then Naruto will be in danger!"

"Have you seen them, Shizune?" Tsunade asked calmly. "Did you see his face when he brought Naruto here? Do you really believe that he'll hurt him again?"

"No," the younger woman answered without hesitation.

"Plus there's another reason for Arashi to participate in this mission," Tsunade explained. "The reason is…"

"This mission is a very delicate matter," began Arashi looking at his team.

"Delicate? Why?" Sakura asked.

"To understand the matter I'll have to tell you a little about the Hidden moon village," he told them. "Actually 50 years ago they were a part of Hidden leaf but for some reason, they separated."

"Separated?" Naruto looked surprised.

"Yes," Hokage nodded. "They say the reason was a conflict between Hokage and several shinobi so they went away and founded their own village. Hidden moon village. Years passed and the conflict was forgotten and the good relationship between Hidden leaf and Hidden moon was reestablished. They're not a very mighty village, but they have their own requests, and also they have a beautiful festival once every 3 years. Their own analogue of chuunin exams."

Naruto and Sakura looked at him attentively.

"You have already tried to participate in chuunin exams, haven't you?" Yondaime asked.

"Yes," Sakura answered. "The exam was stopped due to the sand's and sound's assault to our village."

"Oh," was the only word Arashi could manage. "I've missed a lot."

In his mind he cursed the stupid elders who restricted him from reading all the archived documents. All he had was a few Tsunade's stories.

Thousand of questions were flying around inside his mind. Who were these sound ninja? Why Sand, their ally, was a part of assault? Where was Naruto during this assault? Wasn't he hurt?

He sighed. Questions will wait. He shouldn't attract the attention of his companions to his gap in knowledge.

"So," he continued. "The problem is that some time ago a band appeared in the Moon village."

"A band?" Sakura asked.

"Yes," he nodded. "Several people were found dead. Survivors told of a few masked men using high classed jutsu, forbidden techniques. There is an rumor that some of the villagers are in this band."

"Traitors," Naruto whispered.

"They are afraid of accidents during the exam," Arashi explained. "And they don't want it to be publicly known. Otherwise the village will lose its clients. Our task is to look like village head's guests from Konoha to detect the men from the gang and disable them."

Naruto and Sakura nodded.

"For this mission," Yondaime continued. "I'm not the 4th Hokage. They shouldn't know this. We're just a simple team from Konoha. I'm Arashi, elite jounin from Hidden leaf village. You act as yourselves, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura, genins from our village. Understood?"

"Yes," they nodded again.

"Alright," Arashi smiled. "So we move through the forest until nightfall. After that we rest."

During their trip they didn't talk a lot. Sakura sighed, remembering the old team 7. Sasuke was here, Naruto was complaining, and Kakashi-sensei was reading his favorite book. Everything was perfect. Why did this happen? Why did Sasuke go with Orochimaru? Will the day come when everything will be back to normal?

"Sakura-chan," Naruto's whisper brought her from her thoughts.

"What?" she asked.

"Did you notice? He acts strange. He didn't know anything about the sound's assault!"

"And now what?" she whispered back. "He hasn't been here for a while, have you forgotten?"

"But he's Hokage! He could read archived documents!"

"Maybe he had no time," she shrugged. "Naruto, he hasn't been there for 13 years! He can't know everything that has happened!"

"Still, I don't like it," blond boy told.

"Naruto, you move too slowly!" Yondaime turned to them. "We won't arrive before the festival if you keep that pace!"

"Ok!" Naruto shouted and murmured to himself. "Baka."

Sakura sighed. Maybe this team wasn't so different after all.

The sun began to disappear and Yondaime ordered them to stop.

"I'm going to sleep," Naruto declared immediately after eating his dinner and went to the tent.

Sakura looked at the Hokage. Was it just a shadow from the camp-fire or did he really look like he was disappointed?

"I'll keep watch," Arashi told her, sitting down near the fire.

Sakura sat nearby. This mission had awakened too many memories of Sasuke. It was one of those nights. The sort of night when she couldn't sleep, and would stay up staring at the ceiling. Remembering.

Yondaimed looked like he was lost in his memories as well.

"I wonder what he's thinking about," Sakura thought. "Maybe about his death. How does it feel, to die and then to be reborn again. Everybody he knew is 13 years older, or dead. And now he's in a village with a bunch of young shinobi he doesn't know. What about his loved ones? Did he have a wife or maybe a girlfriend? She's much older than him now. What if she's already married?"

"What do you think about Naruto, Sakura?" Yondaime's voice snapped her out of her reverie.

She stared at him. Why in the world was he talking about Naruto?

"Naruto…" she began. "…is a baka."

Arashi stared back at her in surprise.

"Oh…" she realized that she said that aloud.

"Are you trying to kill us, dammit?" her inner herself shouted.

"Well…" she began again. "Sometimes Naruto acts foolish, and he is stubborn. Well, actually at times, he isn't so bad."

"Say something good about him, dammit!" her inner herself shouted again.

Sakura stopped. What was she talking about? Naruto saved her life; he was the star of the chuu'nin exam, and now all she could manage is that he was baka?

"He makes people believe in themselves," she finally told him. "He has grown a lot after graduating. He can use techniques I never dreamed about, and he saved my life several times."

Yondaime smiled.

"As I expected from him…" he began and stopped.

"Expected?" Sakura repeated in her mind. 'How could he know Naruto from before? He died the day Naruto was born, right? So why did he say that. How…'

"So, who's in your team?" The Hokage asked, not letting her continue her flow of thoughts.

"Kakashi-sensei," Sakura answered.

Yondaime's smile became wider.

"Kakashi," he repeated. "I feel Sarutobi's hand in this business."

Sakura stared at him blankly. What did he find so amusing?

"So…" he continued. "The third one must be Uchiha. Am I right?"

This name pronounced aloud became like a knife in her heart.

"Y..yes," she answered. "Sasuke."

Arashi looked at her attentively. Was it just him was there too much pain in her voice?

"What happened to him, Sakura?" he whispered. "Where is he now?"

'I won't cry…I won't...' Sakura told to herself and looked into the piercing eyes of the 4th Hokage. His look was full of compassion, understanding.

"He…he…" a lone tear fall down from her cheek followed by another one. Rubbing her eyes Sakura began her story about the team 7, the chuunin exam the cursed seal, Orochimaru, and Sasuke. Talking made her feel better.

Yondaime didn't interrupt, and let her cope with her feelings.

"You know," he told her when she finished, "There's a chance for him. He can be saved."

"Really?" Sakura's eyes filled with hope.

"I can't promise, but we'll try something. We have time. Now go to sleep. Tomorrow will be a difficult day. I can feel it."

"But…" Sakura began. How could she explain to him she couldn't sleep anyway? After this talk about Sasuke…

Arashi understood without words.

"I'll teach you one technique," he told her. "But promise me you won't use it too often. It can be dangerous if you get too addicted to it."

"Technique? What kind of technique?" Sakura asked trying not to look like too interested. The Yondaime Hokage was going to teach her a technique! Cool!

"It's not very difficult," he told her. "Concentrate your chakra first, and then dissipate it. Make it run slower. It's tanuki neiri no jutsu."

"Tanuki neiri? I have read something about it. And it will help me sleep?"

"Yes," Arashi smiled. "But if you use it too often you won't be able to sleep without it. So use it only when you really need it. Like today."

"Ok," Sakura concentrated. "I'll try…Concentrate, and dissipate…" she murmured. "Tanuki neiri no jutsu!" she yelled loudly, and then fell asleep in a moment.

"Whoa, you're quite a talented girl," Yondaime exclaimed, catching her. "First attempt and complete success. It took some time for me to learn it."

Saying this he laid her down in the tent. After, he looked back at Naruto who slept soundly. His arms were spread wide and he smiled to somebody in his dream.

Arashi smiled and moved his hand to move a blond curl away from his face. He stopped it a centimeter from the kid's face afraid of moving. Then he clenched his hand in a fist and moved it away standing up.

"Good night, son," he whispered soundlessly.