First fic.. ever. Please don't flame me. I've never been flamed before but it doesn't sound very fun. Constructive criticism won't hurt my feelings.. I hope.
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Geez! How did I get stuck here? thought a pink haired girl in the middle of a bustling crowd. 14-year old Sakura was in the middle of a busy shopping center. Usually, this would make any girl, including Sakura herself, start squealing and grabbing every article of clothing in sight. Sakura's shopping partner, a brown haired girl with her hair is two buns, on the other hand, was very excited about something completely different.
Perhaps it would be wise to go back 30 minutes?
Sakura had just finished her training session with Tsunade. It had unfortunately not gone well. After having depleted her entire supply of chakra getting a half-dead gecko to wiggle, Tsunade had taught her a technique she didn't need, how to waste perfectly melded chakra. Tsunade, had given her instructions to detonate her chakra out of a closed fist repeatedly for an hour a day for the next week before AND after every training session! What a waste of time. That's why she eagerly agreed to go shopping with the first girl who asked, a.k.a. Tenten. Actually, instead of looking at clothing or jewelry or something interesting like that, Tenten had insisted at looking at different types of weapons. She had dragged Sakura to at least a bazillion different shops comparing shuriken's prices. Sakura was going to lie down and die if she had to listen to one more second of this.
"Oooh! Sakura, look at the quality of this shuriken! This quality is extremely rare since Fudaraku stopped production last year," Tenten commented happily, "Oh, but the price is off the charts. I'm sorry, I can't buy it."
"WHA-AT? Did you just come to ogle at my stuff and not buy ANYTHING?" asked the shopkeeper, who was either a boy with bad fashion sense or a girl with worse fashion sense. Sakura spent a few minutes staring and finally ascertained it was a girl... probably. Sakura sighed. This was hardly a shop at all. It was more like a stand. Apparently, three traders had shown up in Konoha and set up a cardboard box with a tray. Still, Tenten said the quality was good and she wasn't often wrong about these things.
"If you could knock off a couple ryo, I might be able to afford it," Tenten said.
"Forget it!" The shopkeeper screamed. Sakura winced, the voice was so awful. It was like listening to a chicken being strangled. Of course, her face wasn't much to look at, and that hair looked like it didn't know the meaning of conditioner.
"Well, then I'll just go elsewhere," Tenten said, turning around.
"Wait! I need that money!" The girl screeched, leaning out of the stand and grabbing at Tenten, who quickly stepped backward out of the reach of that weirdo. Meanwhile, Sakura had noticed that somebody was watching them. She had felt it for a while, but she had finally located the stalkers. Whoever it was concealed themselves well. A man wearing a trenchcoat backwards, his hands in his pockets to avoid notice, wearing an anbu mask on the back of his head and a hat concealing all but his eyes.
Clever, but not clever enough for me. Tee hee. Sakura chuckled inwardly to herself. Now, I just have to figure out if they're watching us or someone else... But how?
"Come on, Sakura. I have the shuriken I wanted," Tenten said, cheerfully. The poor black-haired shopkeeper grimaced at her. "I have another shop I want to check!"
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Darnit. I lost him. I have to figure out who that stalker was, but it's probably impossible now. I'll never find him again... Sakura and Tenten were standing in a nearly empty shop. The shopkeeper in question was arguing with two boys, or at least one of them. The one arguing looked amazingly calm even though the shopkeeper was looking quite flustered. He had flowing green hair and was wearing a net undershirt with a vest and flowy pants. The second had blond hair, rather long for a boy's. He wore blue-gray pants and shirt. He also wore a cloth around his mouth even though there shouldn't be any pollens out. Apparently, the two of them were selling a bundle of various weapons. Tenten was hovering around interestedly, advising the shopkeeper to accept their offer, only making him more flustered. Out of the corner of her eye, Sakura noticed some sort of genjutsu on the window. Someone had cast some jutsu to show a picture through the window that didn't include the casters of that particular jutsu.
Hmm... more stalkers. But this person should be easier to identify unless they're also wearing a disguise outside the window as well. Slowly, Sakura gravitated towards the door. Then, casually as she could, she opened the door and walked out. Looking in through the window was... a leaf jounin? A young man wearing goggles and a jacket. In fact, Sakura had seen this man before...
"Mr. Aoba?" The man in question quickly looked up at her.
"Oh.. uh.. Sakura. Right now I'm busy," Aoba said, glancing at the window to check on the duo of strangers.
"Mr. Aoba, you're spying on those two boys aren't you?" No response.
"They're two of the traders who came in today?" Still no response.
"So that other man was watching the shopkeeper." Aoba kept ignoring her. Sakura glared for a minute or two when she had an idea.
"Kai." Aoba instantly grabbed her and pulled her down.
"Are you insane? Those two people are using fake passports to enter Konoha! They're obviously after something!" There was a reason Aoba never became a Jounin.
"Is Tsunade informed about this?"
"Well... Um.. no. Genma didn't think it was important."
"Genma was the other man, right?"
"I'm not saying anything."
"If these people are Orochimaru's spies, then Tsunade must be informed!"
"I didn't think of that.."
"Orochimaru?" Both Sakura and Aoba nearly jumped out of their skin, "Do you know where he is?" The green haired guy was standing right behind them with that strangely calm expression of his. Aoba pulled a kunhai and pointed it at the guy.
"You better tell us what you're up to! You and your two companions," Aoba demanded.
"I don't have to say anything, royalty is permitted to remain silent in court-"
"We know that's a lie!" Aoba said, frantically.
"Hmmm. That's too bad," the boy said, frowning, "What if I didn't say anything because I didn't want to?"
"Then I'll.. I'll take you to Tsunade!"
"Not talking."
"Ikamaru, what ARE you doing to the commoners?" The blond boy walked out of the shop with a wad of bills in his hand.
"I told you already, drop the charade!" Aoba said, pointing his kunhai at the blondie instead.
"You didn't already tell him," Ikamaru said, matter-of-factly.
It was only a matter of time. Aoba snapped. After throwing the two boys into the scariest cell in the prison for "talking back to a police officer" and handing them a rant or two, he decided to bring up the case with Tsunade. Sakura followed because she really didn't want to tromp around town any more with Tenten.
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"Oh my? Two, no three, intruders who won't state either their true names or businesses?" Tsunade asked, leaning on her desk, fingers intertwined.
"That's right! All three of them are using passports of people who are already dead! Konoha ANBU report that the entire royal family of Fuduraku along with the most supporting courtiers were all executed by the rebels nearly half a year ago!" Aoba said, slamming his hands on the desk.
"Maybe, they're three of the rebel leaders trying to pass themselves off as the actual rulers and establish themselves with the consent of the rebels who already know who they are!" Shizune said, stroking her pig.
"I don't think common factory workers could think that up themselves. I've been there before and they're all rather earthy people," Tsunade said, concentrating deeply.
"Maybe three of them escaped execution," Sakura said.
"Why wouldn't they have asked for help sooner?" Aoba demanded.
"Why don't we ask them?" Tsunade smiled.
"They'll just tell us a whole bunch of lies," Aoba said. This discussion was never finished because the door slammed open and Genma strode in, wiping his muddy boots on Shizune's beloved carpet. He was carrying a bag over his shoulder of something very full and very alive. The only thing visible outside the bag were two thrashing legs. Genma was looking pretty smug. Tsunade stood up very quickly.
"What is that?" She demanded.
"That better not be a woman you're carrying like that," Shizune warned.
"Well, it's hard to tell what gender it is," KICK "But I do believe that it is a dangerous criminal."
"Put her down now," Tsunade said, resignedly. Genma dropped the bundle and out toppled the shopkeeper girl from earlier. She was kicking her legs and screaming. She shook her head very angrily causing her black hair to flop every which way.
"You Konoha people are SO MEAN!" The girl screamed, throwing her tantrum.
"She tried to kill me with one of those kunhai she was selling!" Genma said, pointing at the tantruming child on the floor. This was met by more outraged howls and many pounding of the legs and arms on the floor.
"It slipped! How many times do I have to tell you!" The girl screamed.
"This passport here says your name is Mogura," Shizune said like a kindly police officer.
"The passports are all lying! The REAL Mogura disappeared when the revolutionaries broke the castle wall!" Aoba insisted.
"I'm telling you, she tried to knife me," Genma said, matter-of-factly.
"DID NOT!"
"Shut up, Genma, can't you see it's upsetting her?"
"Shizune! That person is the ENEMY!"
"Aoba, can't you see she's distraught?"
"I'M NOT DISTRAUGHT!"
"I'm taking her to the slammer now.."
"Put her down, Genma!"
"EVERYONE, SHUT UP!" Tsunade screamed. Everyone acted accordingly.
"Tsunade will now pass judgement!" Shizune said, cheerfully.
"First, I've got to ask her some questions. Your name is Mogura, right?"
"sniff yes."
"And you left Fudaraku because of an attack to come here directly to ask for help?"
"sniff yes."
"Half a year ago?"
"I KNEW IT! SHE LIES!" Aoba cried out.
"Time out! What's going on here? What's Fudaraku?" Sakura yelled.
"Oh, Sakura. You're still here? I guess Mogura here can explain," Tsunade said. Mogura shook her head. Tsunade continued:
"Well then. I will. Fudaraku was founded before I was born by a man who wished to be like the model of a philospher-king. Unfortunately, things got out of hand. Fudaraku was made a factory with a castle right in the middle of a cloud of smog and waste. Fudaraku is Konoha's chief provider of weapons. It was our main supplier during the most recent ninja war. For that reason, Konoha is very interested in the upholding of Fudaraku. Unfortunately, almost directly after Orochimaru's failed attempt on the destruction of Konoha, it had a revolt. The castle in the middle was completely overrun and in that invasion the only people who survived were the king, queen, their first of their three daughters, and only the weakest courtiers. The king and queen were executed in the same month, and the oldest princess is presumably dead."
"I didn't die," the pain-in-the-toe girl sitting on the floor said, stubbornly, "And neither did Ikamaru or Surgeon."
"Do you mean Rintaro Ishioku? He's presently in prison with Ikamaru Surume," Tsunade said, glancing at Aoba.
"For disturbing the peace." Aoba said, importantly.
"So, back to the previous subject. Where have you been for half a year?" The black haired girl scuffed her foot on the floor for a while.
"Here and there."
"That's a lie." Genma said, "No ninja would fall for that."
"Weeeeeeeell... I've been quite a couple places."
"Why?"
"Looking.."
"For what?"
"A person.."
"Who?"
"Just.."
"Just?"
"Nobody in particular."
"Aha! She was looking for Orochimaru!"
"WHAT? No I wasn't! I was.. um.. Ikamaru was. HE MADE ME!" Mogura collapsed into tears at Shizune's feet.
"Oh! Tsk tsk. Poor thing. Genma you made her cry!"
"She was looking for Orochimaru," Genma said defensively, pointing at the sobbing mass of girl.
"That's true. We were," the green-haired boy said, waltzing in followed by his comrade.
"You are Ikamaru Surume and your comrade is Rintaro Ish-"
"They know their own names, stupid," Mogura shouted.
"That is true. I am Ikamaru and this is Rintaro, but we prefer calling him Surgeon," the green-haired boy said politely as his comrade nodded.
"That's his job y'see," Mogura said.
"Weren't you just crying a second ago?"
Ikamaru cleared his throat. "It's true that we were looking for Orochimaru, but that was only because he was the strongest of the Legendary Three. We never did manage to find him, though."
"I told you we should have went straight to Tsunade," Surgeon commented.
"I still think we should head straight out to Jiraiya," Mogura said, contemptuosly, "This person looks weak."
"Tsunade-sama is not weak! She's the Hokage," Shizune said, boisterously.
"I don't approve of this conversation. If you're going to argue over who is the strongest ninja out of the Legendary Three, you can do it elsewhere," Tsunade said, a little annoyed by Mogura's comment.
"Yeah, but we can't seem to find either Jiraiya or Orochimaru, so you're going to have to do," Ikamaru said, placing the money he got selling weapons on the table, "We need the strongest ninja in Konoha to forcibly retake Fudaraku."
"You must be kidding. Even if we did reestablish you, the rabble would just turn you over again. It would be best if you just gave up," Shizune said.
"That's not what I believe. There are maybe ten men at the head of the revolt, most of which were courtiers. Not only that, but Fudaraku is planning to continue production soon. At that time, the people will realize that they didn't get out of work by overturning us, so they might as well have us in charge," Ikamaru explained.
"I'm afraid that Konoha is still rebuilding itself. We can't offer help beyond maybe a handful of genin-in-training at most." Tsunade said, looking at her charts, "But I could direct you to where Jiraiya is.. or was a month ago. It's hard to keep tabs on him. We'll send the ninja most suited for locating him."
"I'll go. I'll be able to help with the few healing techniques that I have, and I might be able to round up a couple people," Sakura offered.
"You look weak too," Mogura said, even more contemptuosly.
"Now Mogura, don't be rude. This maiden has graciously offered to assist us in our many misadventures, despite any dangers that our journey might entail," Surgeon said.
"That's true. Alright, miss, we'll be at the gates in one hour. Please, try and find as many as possible, despite any weaknesses they might have," Ikamaru said.
"Alright Sakura, but be careful and don't forget to practice every day on your journey and come back here in 30 minutes for mission debriefing," Tsunade said.
"Roger," Sakura said, walking out the door. Now who would be most suited for this mission...
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Author's Krad: So.. Now that you've read it, tell me what you think. Alright, I know Mogura and Ikamaru and Surgeon all came across as very lame characters. (I hope they're not Sus or Stus.) Please don't be too mean too them. They are all my beloved family.
Did I do something wrong with Aoba and Genma? Did Sakura act too OOC? I need the answers to all these questions and more, so review! review! review!
