Mission briefings rarely had so many people present for them. Not unless something drastic was taking place. And so it was, the circumstances behind four Jonin and ten Genin being in the Hokage's office at once was indeed because something drastic had taken place.
Teams Seven through Ten stood before Orochimaru's desk, the Hokage sat behind it with his assistant Kabuto stood at his side. The Jonin wore their usual attitudes proudly. Kakashi Hatake, lackadaisical. Kurenai Yuhi, severe and serious. Might Guy posing like a superhero. Anko Mitarashi relaxed and preening. Behind them, their students were less sure of themselves, on edge from the strange request to have all of them present, and yet exclude some. Choji Akamichi and Rock Lee were not present.
Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki may have been on opposite ends of the room from one another but that distance didn't do anything to abate the looks they were sending each other.
"Ninja of the Leaf, this is the situation," Orochimaru spoke, glancing at each Jonin in turn. "Two missions essential to the security of this village and the Land of Fire as a whole must be completed. These missions are time sensitive and require specialists in their fields. The best of the best. Normally I would be hesitant to send such recently graduated Genin on missions of this level of importance, but all present have seen their share of combat despite the peaceful times. It is not in my nature to coddle unnecessarily. We need you four, and so your Genin will learn from you and put their own hard won skills to use in the name of this village. That said, for the purposes of these missions, we will forego the usual teams and assign based on the requirements of the mission. Kabuto."
The silver-haired assistant nodded, unsealing and spreading out a map on the Hokage's desk as Orochimaru continued. "The first mission, Jonin Mitarashi will have command with Jonin Yuhi as her second. You will be going to the Land of Grass. Recent," he glanced Naruto's way, "events, have called their alliance with us into question. The leader of Hidden Grass and I have been in talks to resolve this issue. However, it is necessary that we ascertain as complete a picture of their intentions as possible moving forward. The Chunin Exams are fast approaching and that will leave us focused inward. An opportunity that even a minor village could take advantage of given the inclination."
"Infiltration then," Anko nodded. "Short term or long term?"
"Short," Orochimaru answered immediately. "Only a week at most. Learn what you can in that time. Avoid hostile action unless absolutely necessary. Genin Yamanaka is assigned to you for having training and techniques suited to infiltration. Genin Nara for strategy. Genin Aburame, Inuzuka and Neji Hyuga for observation."
"Understood, Lord Hokage," Kurenai acknowledged with a stiff bow.
"This will be an A rank mission. You will not be disavowed if you are apprehended. Even so," the Snake Sannin stared, particularly at the Genin, "Do not be apprehended. Do not get caught. Are we clear?"
"Yes sir!" the Genin answered in varying states of disquiet.
Orochimaru didn't acknowledge their affirmation in the slightest. He simply moved on. "The second mission. Jonin Hatake, Jonin Guy, a situation has arisen in the coastal town of Kishi. Some sort of explosion occurred that killed an advisor to the Fire Lord. It is assumed he was the target of an assassination. The authorities in the region carried out an investigation but with negligible results. As such, the Fire Lord has requested we investigate the matter."
"Kishi, huh?" the most exuberant Jonin present asked, rubbing his chin. "It's a nice little town! Good beaches, great for running!"
"... Yes. Anyway. The Fire Lord believes the culprits to be a rebellious faction funded by someone in his court. Should this be the case you are to hand over your findings so he may deal with the issue. You are only to confront the perpetrators directly if they are ninja."
"And if they are ninja?" Kakashi asked in a tone declaring they were obviously ninja if they so completely stumped the other investigators.
"Then you are permitted to proceed as you see fit. Naturally you will be taking the other half of the Genin present. Genin Uchiha, Hinata Hyuga, Tenten, Uzumaki and Haruno. This will of course be an A rank mission."
Kakashi nodded. Guy offered a thumbs up. "You can count on us, Lord Hokage!"
"Excellent. Genin dismissed." The Hokage and Jonin waited for the young ninja to vacate the office, off to make preparations for lengthy missions.
Only once they were clearly gone and the room secure did Kakashi speak up. "So, you're expecting we're going into a fight, Lord Hokage?"
"It may be possible that you aren't," the snake-like ninja allowed, "But I believe it likely you will meet competent resistance, yes. There have been... Rumblings. There has been dissatisfaction among the other major villages since the conclusion of the last war. The alliance made with Sand fell through only a few years after I took this office. Rock hold a blood vendetta against us and Cloud have always been jealous for being the second most powerful village."
"Sensei, are you saying...?" Anko asked without asking. Her question, her suspicion left unspoken for fear it might make it real.
"I am saying nothing beyond that you should keep your wits about you. All of you. The dangers of Hatake's mission are obvious. However, Anko, I will need you to be thorough in your investigation. We need to know if Grass continues to be a buffer, or if it might become a staging ground for our enemies."
-(-)-
The exit plan was careful and covert for the two teams' real objectives. Each were to leave the village in their regular team assignments over the course of a day, then meet up with the larger group at a location further away from the village. There, they formed their temporary seven man squads and went their separate ways. Naruto and Sakura hugged Ino goodbye, extracting a promise she would be safe before she turned it around and demanded the same from them. Anko's team departed northwest, leaving Kakashi's team nothing to do but make tracks east. There was no delay. The group of seven moved as one, quickly finding the comfortable pace of their slowest and moved with that pace angling east south east past two towns, not stopping at either. Instead, they travelled as far as they could in a day, stopping only once some of their number couldn't keep up the pace any longer.
"Oh-kay!" Guy bellowed as he landed unnecessarily heavily in the clearing he and Kakashi had picked out as their camp. There was no need to be covert about this so it was best to find a comfortable spot. "Looks like we made good time so far! Now it's time to set up camp! You all know what to do!"
It seemed Kakashi certainly did, sitting down and getting comfortable at the base of a tree and pulling out a book. The Genin got to work setting up a temporary camp-site. Firewood and stones for a campfire, edible fruits and game for food and water from a nearby stream. Nothing fancy, just the basics. They carried their own food rations but such things were for emergency circumstances. If they could source nutrition from around them, they had been taught that they should.
Naruto's eyes lit up when he spotted a rabbit, only to blink as a slim knife skewered the thing through the neck. He looked around and frowned as he saw Sasuke smirking at him. "Uzumaki," he said in what might pass for a greeting. "Slow on the draw? Or do you just need to get your eyes checked?" At the word 'eyes', the dark-haired boy's own eyes flashed a signature red, then back to black.
The blond would have liked to say he tried to not respond to the taunting passive-aggression. His mother had said to just keep his temper, pretend Sasuke didn't exist. That was easier when the other young man wasn't actively needling him. "Oof, your eyes looked kind of bloodshot for a second there, Uchiha. You sure you don't need to get them checked? Eye infections are serious business, ya know?"
"Hn. Well you can hide your jealousy however you want," Sasuke smirked, literally looking down on him what with being taller, just enough to be noticeable. "It's not just the Sharingan. I've gotten stronger in other ways too."
"I bet rabbits everywhere are hiding in their burrows," Naruto snarked. But even so, "Stronger in what way? What jutsu do you know? 'Cos ya know, I feel like that's something I in particular might want to know, just in case."
The Uchiha's expression darkened considerably. The implication wasn't lost on him. "You wouldn't even be worth it, Uzumaki."
"Ouch!" Naruto reared back as if struck. "That hurts, ya know! After all it doesn't take much to be worth killing for an Uchiha."
Unwittingly proving the insult to be true, Sasuke's hand reached back, drawing a kunai from his pouch as his eyes once again blazed red.
"Well now!" Kakashi suddenly appeared between the two of them, his lone visible eye smiling as he intervened in the brewing altercation. "Looks like one of my cute little Genin and one of Anko's have a little too much energy to spare! Guy! Maybe we should have them work it off doing something constructive!"
"Yes, Kakashi! We are of one mind!" Guy leapt in, literally jumped into the conversation. "I think it's time for a little training using my patented restraining weights!"
"Great idea! Get them to burn themselves out before they refuel with dinner!" He took a set of weights from the other Jonin and casually handed them to his Genin who struggled to lift them. "Sasuke, you can stay here. Naruto, how about... Over there behind that copse of trees." Where they wouldn't be able to see each other.
The blond shot one last sour look at the Uchiha, before turning and slowly walking away with the bulky weights, strapping them around his wrists and ankles.
Sakura, who had been watching what might have become a serious incident with concern, let out a sigh of relief as the Jonin intervened. That could have gone badly. Well, it could be argued it still went badly. Two ninja getting forcibly separated didn't say great things about unit cohesion. And to act like that on an important mission... But it still could have gone worse. She moved to follow Naruto to check whether he was okay... And saw Hinata already making her way over there. Well. She couldn't say she should have seen that coming. To think the shy Hyuga would actually put herself out there.
She wanted to feel angry. Jealous. But... It was hard to feel angry at Hinata at the best of times. She was so constantly unsure of herself. To get angry at her for finally making an effort to get what she wanted would be horrible. So what it was possible Hinata would be another woman. Sakura herself was another woman. It was an adjustment, trying to see her relationship with Naruto the same way Ino saw it.
But if Naruto was already being handled after a fashion, that left...
The pinkette sighed to herself as she approached the Uchiha as he did the angriest vertical push-ups she had ever seen. "Hey, Sasuke," she greeted, sitting on a nearby tree root.
The angry young man grunted, sparing her only a glance and recognising her by her hair. "Haruno. What do you want? I'm busy."
"I thought I might see how you're doing," Sakura shrugged with an attempt at a genuine smile. "I haven't seen you at all since the academy. I wanted to catch up." Not that she talked to him much in the academy either. No one did.
Something Sasuke was more than well aware of. "Catching up implies you knew me at all in the first place."
"I know you didn't like talking to other people about as much as they didn't like talking to you," she countered. He wasn't entirely innocent of his ostracism either, though it would be unfair to pretend he was the most at fault.
"Hn," he grunted, still doing his exercises despite the heavy burden of the weights. "Does everyone hate me because I hate them, or do I hate them because everyone hates me? It's a real chicken and egg problem. Thanks, Haruno. I'll think about that while you go bother someone else."
Yeah, she wasn't going to do that. "You think everyone hates you?"
The Uchiha's movements stuttered hard enough he had to reset his position, so floored he was by the stupid question. "Of course they do. Don't be an idiot."
"They don't hate you, Sasuke. Not everyone at least. Heck, not even most people." She was surprised no one had told him this before. "They hate your dad. You..." She considered sugar-coating it but from what little she knew about him, she believed he would resent that more. "You aren't important enough to hate."
Once again, she caught him with a statement that completely threw him off. This time he didn't even bother going back to his exercises, simply rolled his legs back to stand over her and glare. "Not important enough? Everywhere I go I get looked at with suspicion. I'm Sasuke Uchiha, son of the traitor Fugaku Uchiha, brother to the head of the traitorous Uchiha clan, Itachi Uchiha."
"Those certainly are some important names that aren't yours," Sakura countered without even blinking. "Meanwhile you're Sasuke Uchiha, Genin of the Hidden Leaf. What have you done to make people hate you?"
"I don't need to do anything," he sneered, "Everything my father did, everything my clan did, the hatred for that passes down to me!"
"Does it?" she asked. "I came over here to talk to you. Do you think I'd do that if I hated you?"
"Yes." He was so sure of himself. "You can try to hide it all you want but there's no getting away from it. What my father did means the whole village will hate me for the rest of my life." He would have continued, if it weren't for the sound he was met with at his dire proclamation. "Are you laughing at me?"
Laughing was a little strong. She was giggling. "I'm sorry, it's just... You're so dramatic!"
"Excuse me?"
If the medic heard the threat in his voice, she ignored it. "I mean, do you hear yourself? Telling me how I feel like you know me at all."
"I don't need to know you," he spoke through gritted teeth, "Even if it wasn't a basic truth of my clan's reputation, you mocking me tells me everything I need to know."
"Gods protect me from an Uchiha drama queen," Sakura tried to hide her smile and words behind a hand. "Sasuke. The village don't hate you. They're uneasy about you, I'll give you that much. But do you really think the kids in our class hated you? We never even met your dad, or the people he killed. I think he was a traitor who deserved what he got but that's about as far as it goes. I wasn't even a toddler by the time it happened! You think I have enough of a grudge against your dad that I'd hold it against you?"
"They all hated me," he insisted, "Why else would they glare at me, treat me like I'm scum when I never did anything to them?"
"Because every time someone tried to talk to you, you glared at them until they went away," she shot back. "Sasuke, our class didn't like you because you acted like a jerk and pushed everyone away! That's it! That's all it was! You were so sure everyone hated you, you turned everyone against you! I mean yeah you would've had a harder time than most but you didn't even try to make friends."
"Why would I even try after what happened with Uzumaki?"
Sakura's face creased in confusion. After what happened with Naruto? "You mean... When you got into a fight?"
"The very first day of the academy and someone already hated me enough for that. You think I even had a chance after that?"
"I think we're remembering that day differently," she responded with a frown. "For one thing, you'd already decided on your glaring at anyone who talked to you policy." She would know. She had been one of those people who tried. She didn't have many friends at the time and she was trying to fit in. "And as for what happened–"
"All it took was hearing my name during roll call for him to stare at me like I was the one who killed his family."
"And like you did with everyone, you glared back," Sakura finished. "Were you expecting him to take that well?"
"I didn't even do anything! I just wanted him to stop staring at me like that!"
Sakura didn't say anything. Just stared, wide-eyed, gesturing as if to say 'Yeah?' begging him to make the connection himself.
He did, turning away to not see her expression telling him exactly how obvious it should have been. It was an easy thing to think from the outside, but in his world where the Uchiha fan was a rallying call to treat him with suspicion, it was easier for a kid to turn that right back around on people than to take it on the chin. "I didn't do anything. But he looked at me as if I did. I just wanted him to stop."
"Well..." It hurt Sakura to admit this but, "He's probably the worst pick if you want someone to give you a chance. Your clan nearly destroyed his, unprovoked. I'd be surprised if he ever stops resenting the Uchiha. But," she stressed, "It's not making it more likely to happen if for the first time you've seen him in months you decide to immediately pick a fight."
"Yeah, well maybe you should tell your boyfriend that," he retorted with little heat. More to get the last word than anything.
The pinkette's head reared back, surprised he knew that she and Naruto were involved. She hadn't exactly advertised it. Still, "Don't try to turn this around, buster. I watched the whole thing."
"Whatever," he muttered, turning to do exactly what the Jonin had 'suggested' and work out more energy. This time by punching a tree. It helped him get out some of his frustration. Enough he could get his thoughts in order. "He hates me. He has more right than almost anyone. But the way he looks at me, it's the same as how the whole village look at me. Like they're all waiting for the moment I'll 'turn', 'show my true colours'. The moment I do what my father and Madara did before me and turn against the village. Every time I see that look I want to scream that I didn't do anything but I can't. Because no one will care. No one would believe me. I'm the traitor's son, just like my brother. We'll spend our entire lives atoning for what our clan did and we just have to hope that's enough." He winced as his punch became sloppy, turning from a solid hit to a glance against the rough tree bark that tore his knuckles. "So, got anything to say? Any words of wisdom? Some obvious solution I'm too dumb to see?"
"No," she stood, approached him while shaking her head.
He rolled his eyes. "Exactly. So–"
He hissed as he felt her take his fists in her hands and run green medical chakra over the wounds. "I can listen though."
Sasuke couldn't help but stare at her as she smiled while treating his injuries. They were only minor. He'd ignored worse. But while his learned defensiveness called for him to push her away, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he looked away and let her work, hoping she didn't notice his occasional glances.
Far on the other side of the campsite in the making, Naruto stood shirtless going through taijutsu kata, working up a sweat. "Man, why does Bushy Brows keep training weights in a storage scroll?" he asked no one.
"H-Hi, Naruto!" Hinata managed to say, wide-eyed and not at all looking him in the face. She found herself very much distracted by other things. Other rippling, flexing things. Somehow it actually helped with her nerves. The parts of herself that would usually be second guessing her every action had found themselves occupied studying every contour of the blond's shining abs. She had seen him naked. She had watched him have sex. And yet seeing him right there in front of her with her ordinary eyes felt so much more real. So much more intimate. Of course it did. This time he knew she was looking.
"Hey, Hinata. How's it going?"
"Um, fine!" she answered, her eyes tracking the flexing of his arms as they moved. "I... Was... Wondering how you've been. Since the academy."
"Oh!" Naruto nodded, his movements slowing to pay her more attention. He offered her a smile of appreciation for asking that got her weak in the knees. "You know, training, going on missions. Probably the same sort of stuff you've been doing, ya know?"
The blushing girl suddenly remembered a recent indication of what Team Ten's training was like. The sight of a completely unashamed Ino happily jogging past completely in the nude. Then Anko who had been slightly less naked and yet was far more scandalous. "W-w-well... Not... Not quite the same?" she squeaked, pushing her fingertips together. Whatever Team Ten got up to during their training, if that was what they'd let people see she wondered what they got up to in private. And whether she'd get in trouble if she tried to peek.
"Yeah, I guess it's gotta be different in some ways. With all of us having different skills and all," Naruto nodded along, not understanding her true meaning but that was more than okay. "Oh, I found out I have a cousin!" he told her eagerly. "Her name's Karin. She's starting the academy soon. I wish I could've been there to see her off on her first day but... Mission, ya know?" he shrugged helplessly.
"I'm so happy for you!" the Hyuga said with genuine warmth. "I know it's been... You know... With..." She found herself stumbling again, realising the minefield she had almost thrown herself into by bringing up the tragedy of the Uzumaki. "It's... It's great that you found her," she chose the more safe topic. "It's a special moment going to the academy for the first time but I'm sure she doesn't begrudge you for not being there. And I bet Lady Kushina will look after her."
"Right," he was happy to agree even if there was still regret in his expression. "She's pretty great like that."
"And... How are things with Ino? And Sakura?"
Suddenly, Naruto's expression seemed to close. She worried she had said something wrong. Were things not okay? "Uhm, with Sakura and Ino? Things are good. Really good." It seemed like there were things he was holding back, things he didn't want to say to her for some reason. "Hey Hinata? I was wondering, after the academy... I realised we don't really know each other that well, ya know? So I'd like to take you somewhere. Somewhere we could talk and... And get to know each other properly, ya know?"
After the academy? After... Oh. She realised with widening eyes. He was talking about team assignments. When he found out she... So he was asking her on–! "Yes!" she blurted out, much louder than she intended. "I mean, yes, I'd like that!" she accepted with a vibrant smile.
To her excitement, he seemed as happy about her acceptance as she was. "Great! I mean, yeah, we'll have to figure out the details when we get home, ya know? But, I'm looking forward to it!"
