A/N:- I was wondering what kind of route I want the story to take. It has plagued me for a while now, and eventually this was the result. The first mission can be classified under the mystery category with a classic whodunit set-up. I'm still a little iffy about it but see if it holds your interest.
The Missing Damsel-I
Sakura felt like she was a genin all over again, back in a four-member cell, led by a jounin sensei. She made her way to the mission desk like she had been told to, not quite sure where she'd meet the rest of the team. The mission desk by itself encompassed the entire ground floor of the Hokage Tower, with countless shinobi active in and around the place. Whether it was the genin lining up for their daily D-ranks or the Jounin submitting their reports after a grueling A-rank, it was the hub for all official shinobi activity. To say that it was the busiest place in Konoha would be no exaggeration.
She was not looking forward to the task of searching for her team in this chaos.
Fortunately she didn't have to. Before long the rather noticeable figure of the orange clad blonde. Naruto Uzumaki was hailing her and waving his arms rather wildly to gain her attention. Smiling partly in amusement at his antics and partly in relief at having avoided the rather tedious task she made her way towards him. As she got closer she realized he wasn't alone and she was in fact the last one to get there.
Kakashi and Sasuke were standing side-by side, the older man with one hand in his pocket and another holding up the paperback he was so fond of. Sasuke with his trademark frown on face and crossed arms, was a picture of hostility. But Naruto more than made up for any lack of enthusiasm from the other two as he grinned at her.
"Hey Sakura-chan," he greeted her brightly.
"Good morning Naruto," she returned his greeting. Normally Sakura would have been offended at anyone using such an informal honorific so soon after their first meeting, but it didn't seem like a big deal coming from him. She greeted the Sasuke and Kakashi taking her cue from Naruto, getting a humph and grunt in return. It took some effort to avoid rolling her eyes.
"I'm not late am I?" she asked them knowing full well she wasn't. They were supposed to meet at 8 AM and her watch claimed she was a couple of minutes early.
"Not at all Sakura," Kakashi answered without taking his eyes from his book, "not at all."
"We're waiting for Shikamaru aren't we?" she guessed.
"Actually Shikamaru has been waiting for you," came the familiar voice of her one time classmate from behind her, catching her by surprise. She turned around and opened her mouth to speak but was beaten to it by the lazy genius.
"Let's get going shall we?" he grumbled, "I've spent the better part of the last twenty four hours hunched behind a desk sustaining myself on coffee and crackers and no sleep whatsoever, so whatever you have to say can wait."
"Where're we going?" Sasuke asked him, his manner projecting his annoyance at being told what to do by the Nara.
"To get some breakfast," came the reply.
Sakura had to admit she was impressed at the rate Shikamaru was inhaling onigiri after onigiri with careless abandon. The fact that they came from the cafeteria of the Hokage Tower which is notorious for churning out food as tasteless as their field rations made the feat even more impressive.
During all the time she had known him she had never expected him to be capable of such activity. So much so even Naruto had to comment on it.
"Slow down man," He said watching Shikamaru with some fascination, "you're gonna choke yourself if you don't."
Shikamaru paused and raised an eyebrow at the blonde shinobi, taking the time to gulp down his food before retorting, "Now you know how I felt when I had to watch you going on your ramen binge."
"We're wasting time here." Sasuke said impatiently, "I thought we were supposed to.."
He paused mid-sentence to catch a scroll thrown at his face courtesy Shikamaru, who then proceeded to go to work on his rolls.
"The next person to throw things at my face, loses their throwing arm" he said threateningly ,directing his glare at Shikamaru, "and what the hell is this supposed to be?"
"A marriage proposal from one of your fan-girls," Shikamaru washed down the roll with some tea before speaking again, "gee what do you think Uchiha? That's your mission."
Sakura was surprised to see Shikamaru so…. adversarial. He had always been one of those guys who preferred to take the path of least resistance. To see him actively goading Sasuke like that was completely out of character for him. She supposed it had something to do with the lack of sleep that was evident from the bags under his eyes and his general even more than usual exhausted demeanor.
Sasuke opened his mouth to fire off a retort of his own but was stopped by Kakashi who plucked the scroll from his hands and opened it to study the contents.
"You got here early to take our mission?" Sakura asked him, mystified at his enthusiasm for the new job.
"No," he refuted her, "I chose it."
"I don't understand."
"Kakashi will explain," he shrugged, returning to his usual languid self now that he had eaten his fill and sagged in his chair, nibbling at his last rice ball.
"So what're we doing?" Naruto asked the jounin trying to peek into the scroll, "rescuing a princess? Protecting a warlord? Or is it taking down a bandit camp?"
"Pack enough clothes and rations a couple of weeks worth, and weapons suited for a B-ranked mission," Kakashi ordered them ignoring Naruto, evidently done reading the mission scroll, "Meet me at the gates in fifteen."
"But.." Naruto was about to protest but something in the jounin's demeanor made him change his mind and he just shrugged before leaving. Sakura and Sasuke soon followed his example, leaving Kakashi and Shikamaru the only ones there.
"What?" Shikamaru chose to break the silence that had encompassed them.
"Nothing," Kakashi replied, "I just didn't expect to see you there."
Shikamaru glared at the older man skeptically before snorting in disbelief, "Really now? Guess what? I expected you to be a better liar Kakashi."
"Well," The jounin admitted, "in my defence I was sure you'd require more convincing at the very least."
"How'd you have convinced me?"
"I'll keep that to myself. You never know when I might need it," Kakashi waved his question away. "right, so how does this mission fit the parameters that had been set for benchmarking Team 7 missions?"
Shikamaru glared at the jounin before beginning, "Mei Arisawa is the daughter from a fairly well to do merchant family who went missing from her home in the town of Sumer, a few miles from the Kusa border," Shikamaru explained getting a nod from Kakashi in return, "the mission on the paper is simple enough. Finding and retrieving the girl."
"But..." Kakashi prompted.
"She wasn't the first one."
"What do you mean?" Kakashi leaned forward, his interest spiking, "if there were more people who had been reported missing it wouldn't have escaped our attention."
"Well the people who went missing didn't go missing while they were in the land of fire." Shikamaru said, "I did some research. Whoever is behind these disappearances has only been targeting people when they're outside the Fire Nation."
"Merchants and messengers." Kakashi deduced.
"Exactly," Shikamaru said animatedly, exhaustion momentarily forgotten, "its actually really clever. The Konoha-Kusa border has always been relatively porous to allow greater convenience for trade and commerce. But lack of cooperation between the nations has allowed these people to carry on unchallenged."
"So Konoha hasn't been able to pursue this because we don't have jurisdiction in Kusa and Kusa has had no reason to pursue this as they weren't their citizens." Kakashi commented, "clever, but what does that have to do with the missing girl?"
"I think if the girl was kidnapped, she'd have been taken in that route," Shikamaru said, "it might look like speculation but this still requires looking into doesn't it?"
"Hmmm. Indeed it does." Kakashi said amiably, "Good work Shikamaru."
"You know when Naruto came to me offering my reinstatement he said he wanted me in the team so that I could watch his back," Shikamaru said.
"And now you're choosing missions for him, which are clearly more dangerous than they look on the surface," Kakashi finished his thought before he could, "not quite what you had in mind when you accepted reinstatement did you?"
"Indeed," Shikamaru agreed, "I guess I'm hoping I don't regret agreeing to do this."
"Have a little faith in me Nara-san," the jounin assured him, but probably realized he wasn't doing a very good job of it continued, "if not me than how about some in your comrades."
"Trust is a commodity which has to be earned Hatake-san," Shikamaru stood up to leave, "what I'm doing is taking a leap of faith into the unknown."
"I'll be in touch." Kakashi grabbed Shikamaru by the arm and slipped something in the pocket of his vest, "Get some sleep."
He felt the man's presence vanish from the vicinity without the need to turn around for visual confirmation. 'What a show off!' He thought to himself. Yawning widely he trudged back slowly to his apartment where his comfortable bed beckoned.
XxX
As they left the gates of the village, Sakura's mind couldn't help but flashback to all the lessons she'd learned about Konoha's history during her stint at the academy.
The dense forests surrounding Konoha served multiple purposes. The term 'hidden village' wasn't just a prop used to describe Konoha. They concealed its location from unfriendly forces. The wildlife itself acted as their primary defense. Heaven have pity on the poor soul who runs afoul of the packs of wolves or the tigers that prowled these lands. Though that would be a kinder fate to what would happen if they found themselves in the lair of the gigantic spider.
It is still believed that if one went deep enough in the woods they'd find the remnants of Iwa's forces who'd tried to invade Konoha during the Third Shinobi War.
In addition to that it also housed a variety of flora and fauna which by themselves provided for other necessities including but not limited to firewood and herbs for medicinal purposes. Part of the reason Konoha had a thriving pharmaceutical industry was because of the produce derived from these forests. The animals residing here were some of the most vicious and dangerous to be found anywhere in the elemental nations. In short these forests were as much a part of the village's identity as the shinobi themselves.
If there was one thing more interesting than the forests it would be the tale of their origin. Legend had it that the Shodai Hokage himself had grown it with his kekkei genkai, The Mokuton. If it was true it couldn't be confirmed as no one in living memory had seen it done. But then everything the man had achieved felt like a myth.
Mortals weren't supposed to manage those feats. Only Gods could.
The forests also served another practical purpose. That was as a means of transportation.
The shinobi way of transportation that is. It would take days for non-chakra adepts to traverse them on foot, if they survived the things residing in the forest that is. It wouldn't take more than a few hours for Team 7 to leave the borders of their homeland while running through the trees.
A rather practical application of a chakra control exercise best known as tree-walking. She'd been travelling through these woods for years now, and yet her awe at its majesty had only increased with time.
They were using a staggered formation for travelling. Kakashi was out front, immediately followed by Sasuke a little to his left, she was next and positioned to his right and the genin took their rear-guard.
"Look sharp." Kakashi called out, breaking out Sakura from her veering thoughts, "we are here."
They had arrived at the final checkpoint manned by Konoha. A chunin came to greet them from the shack which served as the last bastion of sorts. Kakashi broke formation to speak to him and handed the man the official mission orders approved by the seal of the Hokage and made an entry into the log, denoting their time of arrival and departure from there.
It was a system made to keep abreast of their progress while they were still within Konoha borders. Beyond this point they were on their own and out of village jurisdiction. The formalities only took five minutes, but for some reason Sasuke seemed to have gotten a little restless. It wasn't obvious from his manner but the boy definitely wasn't comfortable. A slight tightening of his frown, a little more stiffening of his posture, things which you'd usually not give a second thought to, even if you picked up on it.
However it caught Sakura's eye and she filed it away in her head. Soon they were on their way again, now officially in the Fire Country. Most believed that Konoha was under the direct control of the Daimyo.
That wasn't strictly true.
The Daimyo was Konoha's employer and the biggest benefactor, it was true enough, but he had little say in the internal matters of the village. Konoha wasn't governed by Fire Country and was fairly independent on its own.
Most would question the wisdom of having a sovereign military organization within their borders outside the State's control, but it was something that had been worked for close to a hundred years now. The village provided the State with readily available shock troops among other things and the State provided sponsorship and an active clientele for the village to sustain itself. It was a mutually beneficial partnership.
Not to say there weren't complications here and there. There were bound to be. But over the years several measures had been taken to ensure neither side ever felt the need to betray the other. The partnership had survived mainly due to the fact that they had greater problems in other nations, which housed ninja villages of their own.
"Well it's going to be the road now," Kakashi addressed them again, "this route is a relatively busy one, travelling the way we do, we should reach our destination in three days."
"Why're we taking this mission again?" Sasuke scowled heavily, "this seems like a job for the law enforcement, not shinobi. The girl will probably be dead by the time we get there if she isn't already."
"You don't know that," Naruto raised an eyebrow at Sasuke's callous tone.
On the way Kakashi had explained the mission to the three of them, and Sasuke hadn't been impressed.
"Don't I?" Sasuke said, "this mission document states that the girl went missing two weeks ago. There have been no demands for ransom nor any news regarding her whereabouts. Which leaves only two possibilities, either she is dead or she's been sold as a slave."
Sakura had to admit that Sasuke had a point. Not one she particularly liked and she wasn't a fan of the way he had put it, but it was a valid one. To her surprise however Naruto had a counter.
"If she hasn't been kidnapped for ransom or been the victim of a violent crime," Naruto said calmly but his eyes had attained an uncharacteristically contemplative look, not shining with their usual mirth, "then going by your theory then she might be a victim of human trafficking. Which means she is still alive."
"If that's the case then she probably has been moved to different nation and we have already lost her," Sasuke countered.
"Boys, boys." Kakashi called out interrupting their by-play, "as riveting as your debate is, I'm afraid you're getting a little ahead of yourself. We won't know what the situation is till we get there, so lets focus on that first shall we?"
"This is a waste of time," Sasuke muttered under his breath as he reverted to his natural stoic self.
That brought all conversation to a halt for the moment. When night fell, they set-up camp by the road deeper into the woods lining them. They could have checked into one of the hotels but B-ranked missions didn't cover for that.
So, camping it was.
Kakashi took the first watch as he was the senior-most member of the team. Even though the chances of being ambushed were slim to none, it was a well-established practice which had served them well. It kept them sharp and more prepared them for the time when they wouldn't have that luxury.
Sakura fidgeted uncomfortably in her sleeping bag. Try as she might sleep still evaded her. A few feet away from her she could hear Naruto's gentle snores and Sasuke's deep breaths as they slumbered peacefully. This was her first field mission in months and she couldn't suppress her anxiety. Her mind kept wandering to her last one. Things had gone bad so fast, it still left her gasping when she thought about it.
Sakura considered herself to be a good shinobi. She was talented, relatively level-headed and hard-working. If there had been a pre-requisite form to fill before being chosen as one, she was sure she would tick most if not all the boxes.
Her last mission however had brought her face to face with a reality she had been warned about but never expected to encounter. Like the frog in the well that was under the delusion that the well was all that encompassed the whole world she too had thought herself to be insulated to the dangers the world held.
She was a good shinobi, of that she had no doubt. But so were her comrades and they were now dead, not even having been afforded the courtesy of being cremated in their homeland. Her opponent outclassed her as much as a predator outclassed its prey. The prey no matter how good it was, at the end of the day was just that… a prey.
It had shaken her confidence. How was she supposed to survive against the odds that now seemed stacked against her? She wasn't afraid of dying. She didn't think so. What she was afraid of, was being confronted with the knowledge that she probably never had a chance. She was just another grunt waiting to meet her demise at the hands of a superior opponent.
Grunting in frustration she unzipped her sleeping bag and got herself out.
"Can't sleep?" Came the voice of her commander. He was facing the fire they had lighted to keep themselves warm and the wildlife away, casually leafing through his book, using the fire's glow as the source of light to aid his reading.
"No, I can't seem to." Sakura sat up, reaching for a rubber band on her hand proceeded to tie up her hair.
"Are we going to have a problem Sakura-san?" Kakashi said, without looking away from his book.
Sakura froze at the jounin's query. That question didn't bode well for her. Steeling herself she faced the him.
"I'm afraid I don't understand Hatake-san."
"Let me elaborate then," Kakashi nonchalantly turned a page. Sakura glared at the man with annoyance at his seemingly uncaring demeanor, "I couldn't help notice that you've been preoccupied ever since we've left Konoha, maybe even distracted."
Sakura clenched her jaw, but responded nevertheless, "It's nothing of concern."
"For your sake I'd hope so Sakura-san." He said eyes still glued to his book, "Now usually I wouldn't care. Your problems are your own and you're free to deal with them anyway you want, " he snapped his book shut and turned his gaze on her, "but the moment you bring them to the field you become a liability to your team and to your village."
The words were spoken casually and yet Sakura could feel herself breaking into a cold sweat of dread.
"Now, if you were a rookie genin and I your jounin sensei you'd have gotten a lot of leeway." He continued holding his gaze steady and unblinking. His profile against the fire gave him a rather intimidating visage, "unfortunately for youthat isn't the case. I am your commander and you're a soldier under my command. Whatever issues you have, you leave them back home or wherever you can I don't care. On the field I expect absolute commitment to the job. If I can't have that you're of no use to me."
Sakura sat there frozen unable to look away from Kakashi. In the flickering light of the bonfire he cut a very intimidating figure indeed.
"So, if something is bothering you I suggest you find ways to fix it. Because if you jeopardize this mission or the team…" The rest of the warning went unsaid, but Sakura had a fairly good idea.
It was Tsunade all over again. Delivered in the casual monotone of the jounin in many ways it was worse than the reaming the Hokage had given her.
"So I repeat," he said, "are we going to have a problem Sakura-san?"
"No sir," Sakura said flatly, injecting a little defiance in her voice.
"Well what do you know, it's the end of my shift." Kakashi said cheerfully, "Can you wake Naruto up?"
XxX
The town of Sumer while not particularly large was fairly prosperous. It was a popular trading ground for most silk manufacturers who brought their wares from all over the area here. So it wasn't surprising that the community wasn't the agrarian sort. No, they exported most of their food and they could afford to.
They registered their presence at the town gates which was manned by the militia. The militia was a force under the jurisdiction of the daimyo and was responsible for policing the local population and enforcing his will. They were recognizable by the blue uniforms and black batons hanging from their waist-belts.
Their process of recruiting was a fairly loose one. They were chosen from among the population by a designated samurai officer appointed by the centre. It was a system which had been established by the last daimyo. It had led to some controversy in the beginning regarding the arming and training of civilians who didn't have a military background. Mainly by the powerful samurai class.
But the growing problems with law and order required unorthodox steps like this. To get the samurai lords on-board the Daimyo gave them the responsibility to recruit the candidates and to work on its structural organization.
In a single stroke of genius he had not only placated the nobles and delegated the responsibility to the same people who had opposed it in the first place but also provided another means of employment to his people.
"Sir," one of the sentinels at the gate addressed Kakashi, "the Commander would like a word with you before you go about your business here,"he said, eyeing them somewhat distrustfully.
"Well then," Kakashi smiled at him gesturing with his arm, "please lead the way."
The militia cantonment wasn't a part of the actual town, but located at the outskirts of it. The cantonment itself was a camping-ground of sorts mainly consisting of tents as accommodation for the troops along with a few brick structures to serve as offices. The way they were made it was obvious the builder had focused more on functionality than aesthetics. It was a sentiment Kakashi approved of.
His team trailed behind him, drinking in their surroundings. It was rather interesting to observe their actions in an unfamiliar environment. Sakura's eyes kept darting all over the place, trying to gather in as much as she could, just like she had been trained. Sasuke was doing the same, except he was being a lot more subtle about it, and trusting his other senses a lot more, a product of his ANBU days. It was Naruto's reaction which was the most interesting though. He had placed his hands behind his head and seemed completely relaxed, hints of a grin playing on his lips. He seemed more like a tourist out for a day of sightseeing than a shinobi on an official mission.
He even tried to engage their guide in a conversation, but after realizing that the guard wasn't interested in one he reverted back to just taking in his surroundings. His actions led Kakashi to believe that either the guy was an idiot or potentially the greatest infiltrator he had ever seen. But then again the guy had been trained by Jiraiya, who had made his name as a lecher and an author of adult literature.
The sannin's outside persona had been so dominant that it was the only thing people noticed about him and not the legendary shinobi he was underneath. And from the looks of it Naruto might have learnt his lessons well. Already he could see that the members of militia surrounding them had written him off and were more focused on him and Sasuke.
It was the orange-clad, whisker-faced, loud blonde who was the personification of a ninja here in every sense of the word.
Who'd have guessed?
They were led to one of the few permanent structures in the cantonment. It was a sixteen by twelve feet building painted red and green. A graveled pathway led to the steps leading to the front door. An unoccupied stone bench sat outside.
Kakashi instructed his subordinates to wait while he followed the man who led him through the door and bowed in salutation to his superior. He was dismissed with the wave of a hand and the man retreated the way he came.
"Welcome to Sumer Hatake-san," the man said, getting up to offer Kakashi his arm, who took it and gave it a firm shake, "I'm Hibiki Kinomoto the Officer-in-charge here. How may we be of service?"
Translation I know who you are, but what the hell are you doing here?
"Actually I'm here to offer mine," Kakashi said genially handing the man his mission orders.
As the man perused the document, it gave Kakashi the chance to study the man. He was in his mid-thirties, with salt and pepper hair parted to the right. He wasn't particularly tall or imposing by any means, but he was obviously well-built and definitely no stranger to combat. The Daisho hanging from his waist spoke of his samurai pedigree.
"Why is someone like the 'Kakashi of the Sharingan' deployed to investigate a case of a missing girl?" the man remarked, "Its something which falls under our jurisdiction the last time I checked and I fail to see what you can achieve that we haven't."
Kakashi had been afraid of this. Ninja weren't popular with the Daimyo's forces at the best of times. Their skills and effectiveness did a good job of making others feel emasculated. The fact they weren't limited by the rules the samurai swore to uphold didn't help matters. To the shinobi the only rule that really mattered was never to be caught breaking one. In short everything the shinobi stood for was almost taken as a personal affront by the samurai class, who lived and died by the rules of bushido. That was just one of the issues though.
Kakashi however wasn't here to play up old feuds. He was here to do a job and he would do whatever it needed to get it done.
"We're here at the request of the family as I'm sure you gleaned from that document," he said placatingly, "I'm not here in any way to trample on your authority or jurisdiction Hibiki-san. Our only concern is to get the girl back or at the very least figure out what fate befell her."
Kakashi returned the man's hawk-like gaze benignly.
"How long will we be hosting you?" The man asked not removing his gaze from Kakashi's face.
"Let's give it a week," Kakashi answered, "We hope to reach a conclusion by then."
"Very well," the man nodded thoughtfully, "a week it is. I'll send a man to guide you around the city."
"That'll be acceptable," he said graciously, not bothered by the man's blatant attempt to saddle them with a watchman, "but as long as I'm here you wouldn't mind sharing the results of your investigations would you?"
The man responded by pressing a bell on his table. Its sharp ring brought a uniformed secretary running into the room who promptly bowed and stood at attention.
"Get me that file of the missing girl, Mei Arisawa," he said addressing his subordinate. The man retreated back without saying a word.
"What're your personal thoughts regarding the case?" Kakashi asked the man once they were alone again.
The man sighed heavily, dropping his veneer of professionalism, "Officially we're still continuing the investigation, but I'll admit we've hit a dead-end. At this point I personally believe that the girl is dead."
"Any particular reason for that?"
"I don't have proof but this is what I think happened," The Commander said, "the girl was kidnapped for ransom, but something went wrong and the kidnappers accidentally killed her before they could even make their demands. So they lost their bargaining chip before they could ever put it to play."
"That's not inconceivable, I suppose," Kakashi admitted, "if that's the case what happened to her body?"
"Buried, burnt, chopped off and fed to pigs," the samurai rattled off with the air of a man who didn't particularly care how morbid he sounded, "at this point does it even matter?"
The conversation halted as the secretary arrived bearing the red square folder and handed it to his superior.
"I'm afraid you can't take an official document out of the cantonment premises," the man said somewhat apologetically as he handed Kakashi the file, "nor can I allow you to make copies."
"That's okay," Kakashi assured the man as he accepted the file, he then proceeded to remove his headband concealing his eye, "I've got it covered."
The man showed remarkable restraint as Kakashi perused through the file using his sharingan and effectively memorizing every detail of their investigation. Most people thought that the doujutsu was an effective tool for stealing jutsus, but Kakashi had found that it had a lot of other practical applications as well. A few seconds later he was done memorizing the contents of the file.
"Thank you," Kakashi smiled at the samurai.
"Don't mention it."
XxX
"It's definitely a busy place," Kakashi remarked as they traversed the streets of the town.
"All in preparation for the Annual Merchant Festival sir," their guide a newly minted recruit who went by the name of Akio explained, "It begins in ten days from now. Bad enough the Arisawa family to have lost their daughter but to do it so close to the festival?"
"Did you know the girl?" Kakashi questioned.
"Not personally, no," Akio shook his head, "But she was extremely popular in the community and her disappearance seems to have affected them all."
"So is this the house?" Kakashi asked their guide.
"Yes it is," The man replied, "Arisawa-san may not be home. He's probably working."
"I see, Naruto, Sasuke!" Kakashi said abruptly, "Go and mingle with the locals see what you can find out. Start with the place where she was last seen. Sakura, you and I will go and speak to the family."
"Sweet!" Naruto smirked while the others just nodded.
"Wait!" Their guide exclaimed.
"Yes?" Kakashi turned his attention to the man who was now glaring at them suspiciously.
"Why don't all of you go and see the family first?" He suggested, "I'm sure the locals can wait."
"That's a good suggestion," Kakashi nodded, making a show of as if he was seriously considering it, "but unfortunately we're at something of deadline you see and using my way we can cover more ground."
He had shared the contents of the file with the team and they should know how to proceed from here without him having to hold their hand.
At the moment however he was enjoying watching the man's face turn interesting colors. He was obviously struggling to come up with a relevant excuse to stop them from splitting up and failing miserably. The man finally seemed to come to a decision.
"I guess I'll help the boys and make sure they don't get lost," he said.
"Very well," Kakashi sighed outwardly as if he was disappointed by the man's decision. 'How naïve' he thought to himself.
Kakashi and Sakura made their way to the house which belonged to their client. It was a white single-story apartment, with a little garden divided into rows of various flowers surrounding a green lawn in concentric rings. It was a garden Inoichi would have been proud of. A middle-aged woman was working on one of the rows diligently.
"Arisawa-san?" Kakashi approached the woman who looked up from her work to look at him wearing a rather puzzled expression on her face, "I'm Kakashi Hatake, Jounin affiliated with Konohagakure and this is Sakura Haruno. I believe you've been expecting us."
"Oh yes," the woman hastily got up, her face flushed from working in the sun, "I'm sorry my husband is out working and you caught me at a bad time."
"That's quite alright Arisawa-san." Kakashi assured her.
"Please come in," the woman said leading them into the house.
Kakashi and Sakura were offered seats in the living room while she disappeared into the kitchen, reappearing a few minutes later with a tray laden with snacks and tea.
"I can't express how grateful I am that you came," she said once she had offered the refreshments to them, "she's been missing for so long now that we were beginning to give up hope. My husband has been completely shattered ever since and only today did he find the resolve to go back to work," The woman sniffled, her eyes tearing up as she talked about her daughter.
"That's a lovely garden you have out there," Sakura joined the conversation. Kakashi had to admire the way she was distracting the distraught woman.
"Why thank you dear," the woman smiled through her unshed tears, "It is the only thing which is holding me together."
"What's your daughter like?" Kakashi tried to get back on track now that he was sure that the woman wasn't about to fall to pieces, "how did she interact with others, her friends, her elders?"
"She was loved by everyone around here," she said, "it was hard not to. So beautiful and full of life. We'd just made arrangements for her engagement too."
This latest bit of information gave Kakashi a pause.
"How did she take it?" Kakashi asked, "I mean when you told her that you were arranging her marriage," He added on seeing the look of confusion on her face.
"She was… happy about it I suppose," came the somewhat uncertain answer.
"Is there anything else you'd like to tell us Arisawa-san," Kakashi was never one to not capitalize on a slip when he saw one.
"Every girl gets jitters when they are about to be married shinobi-san," she said, "I remember the day my parents broke the news of my betrothal to me, I couldn't sleep for days. She was a little anxious, yes. But that wasn't anything out of the ordinary."
"I see," he muttered, his mind working overtime working on the implications, "who was she getting married to?"
"Saito Hasawada," she said, "he's the son of a close family friend a couple of years older than Mei-chan. His father and my husband have been business partners for twenty years."
"What can you tell me about the day she disappeared?"
"There's not much to say really," she replied mournfully, "I sent her out that day to run some errands in the morning and that was the last I saw of her."
"When did you realize she had gone missing?"
"I sent my husband to go look for her when it was evening."
"Was it usual for her to remain out for extended periods of time?"
"She was a rather popular one, my daughter and we've always allowed her a little more independence," She sighed, "so no, it wasn't unusual. She would be dragged by her friends to join them for some game or another. You know how it is with youngsters. I wonder if that hadn't been her undoing?"
They sat silently for a while as Kakashi processed everything he had been told. The woman without anything to keep her mind occupied was now staring miserably at the floor probably already lost in her sorrow and regret.
"I would like to see her bedroom if that's not a problem," he said, startling the woman out of her reverie.
"Yes of course," she recovered rather admirably as she hastily got up, "this way please."
The bedroom was on placed on the southern wing of the house. The walls were painted yellow. It had three windows which ensured the room was airy and filled with natural light. A single bed lay in one corner of the room attached to the wall. A few picture frames graced themselves on the mantelpiece. Some of them were of her with girls her age, probably her friends, a few were of hers alone and a couple with her parents.
In short it was the room of a typical adolescent girl.
Except for the various canvas paintings littered around the room. Most of them were unfinished from the looks of it. Kakashi wasn't an expert on art by any means. But he had been to the capital in an official capacity and the paintings he was seeing here could easily rival the ones hanging in the royal house.
"She loved….loves to paint. It is one of the disciplines she excels at in her school," the mother's voice broke as she spoke, "she's such a talented girl."
"Indeed," Kakashi muttered, out of the corner of his eyes he could see Sakura studying some of the unfinished ones with interest. Kakashi approached her and looked over her shoulder to see what she was looking at.
"Anything interesting?" he said startling her. The girl really needed to work on her awareness. He was partly responsible he supposed. Ever since their last conversation she had been even more wary and uncomfortable around him than before.
"No." She said almost instantly, "I mean I don't think so."
"Speak your mind chunin," He prodded invoking her rank to remind her of the pecking order, "what is it?"
Sakura bit her lip uncertainly as if not sure if she wanted to speak her mind for the fear of appearing stupid, "the brush marks on this painting," she said pointing to the ones she was talking about, "the ones here. Appear rather agitated don't they? Almost angry."
Kakashi could see what she meant. Her other paintings were mainly landscapes which had a grace and dignity about them, but the one Sakura was examining was almost abstract in its appearance. That wasn't to say it wasn't beautiful. It was almost as if the artist was trying to paint her feelings on the canvas. It was mesmerizing in a very strange way.
"Think it means anything?" he asked her.
"I'm not sure."
"Before her disappearance was there any significant change in behavior of your daughter, something… anything unusual about her that might have caught your eye?" Kakashi questioned the matron of the house.
"Like I said, we had told her about her betrothal and she was a little anxious about it," She said, "But other than that... there was nothing."
"Did she know her fiancé?"
"Not really," came the reply, "the boy was raised in the capital where he completed his studies. He has been in Sumer for barely a few months. Believe me Kakashi-san happiness of our daughter has always been our main concern and we wouldn't do anything to jeopardize that."
Kakashi nodded to convey his agreement outwardly, but his mind was already running in the opposite direction. He knew from personal experience that parents had little idea about what their kids were up to and if the Arisawas were anything like his own they probably were just as clueless.
"When can we expect your husband to be home?"
"Why don't you drop by sometime around the evening?" she said, "I'm sure he'd like to speak to you as well."
XxX
To say Sasuke was annoyed would have been an understatement. He had had the misfortune to be saddled with probably the most annoying guy he had ever met and that really was saying something. At this point he would take his fangirls over him for company.
Not to say Naruto was a fangirl of course. But in his own way he was even more infuriating than they had ever been. Probably that was the reason it hadn't taken Kakashi long to leave the idiotic blonde with him. As if he needed another reason to hate the man.
The only saving grace if it could be called that was he had separated himself from Sasuke barely five minutes later as he joined a bunch of some of the dirtiest street rats he had ever seen in their game of ball. He had tried to make him join, but one glare from him made him back-off. The blonde just shrugged and with a shout to attract the children's attention had joined in.
Despite himself he couldn't help but be amazed at how easily he had been accepted by them. He might as well have been one of them. It was even more amazing considering that his playmates were several years younger than him. On second thought with his level of maturity it wasn't surprising that he fit in with kids half his age.
But he had a job to do and he worked better alone anyway. Tracking missing people was something of a specialty of his. Something he took pride in. Granted the person in question wasn't one of his usual pursuits. The people he pursued were trained killers who knew how to keep themselves hidden. Finding a civilian shouldn't be that hard.
Provided she was alive of course, something he seriously doubted.
He didn't care either way. He used to be ANBU for crying out loud. A goddamn elite and now he was reduced to running B-ranked missions with a washed-out genin and an ex-fangirl of his who by the looks of it was one bad mission away from a complete breakdown.
Credit where it was due, she did a decent job of hiding it, but he could pick up the signs. He became familiar with them during his time as an ANBU which had an attrition rate of eighty percent. Most candidates dropped out in the first six months. Sasuke had endured and proved himself to be the best of his generation.
His record spoke for itself.
The silver lining in this dark and gloomy cloud was that sooner or later one or, if he was lucky enough both of them were bound to get themselves killed or screw up badly enough to warrant the team's disbanding at which point he could go back to doing what he was before.
But till that day came he still had a job to do.
Now where was a teenaged civilian girl most likely to spend her time? He was told by Kakashi to start where she was seen last, which happened to be the local grocery store. But he doubted he would make any more progress than the local law enforcement.
No, he will pursue a different avenue.
For the first time since he had entered this town he paid attention to his guide. He wasn't fooled anymore than Kakashi had been. He was obviously keeping an eye on them, going by the age-old adage, something which escaped Sasuke at the moment, the bottom line of which was never trusting a shinobi.
The man was obviously not pleased by his assigned task. To be fair they hadn't made his job easier by any means. He was supposed to keep an eye on all of them and now he was left with only him. He could have chosen to stick with the orange-clad idiot of course but he had obviously judged him (quite rightly so in his opinion) to be the one who needed to be kept under watch.
Well it was time the guide made himself useful.
"The missing girl," Sasuke said, "you wouldn't know how she spent her time would you?"
"No, I wouldn't," the man frowned, "but girls from affluent families like hers attend the local finishing school, so I'm guessing so did she."
It wasn't a lot but it was a start and if he had to start shooting arrows in the dark, this was as good a place as any.
Sasuke was familiar with the concept of finishing school. Konoha had a couple. It was where civilian girls from wealthy families were taught the skills which would serve them for the rest of their lives including but not limited to cuisine, flower arrangement, tea ceremony etc. In short all the skills required to manage the homely affairs of the affluent men they'd end up marrying.
The school wasn't far from the market. It was a solid marble structure supported by big pillars supporting the ceiling twenty feet off the ground. In addition it had a sprawling lawn and a pool at its centre. The gates of the school were guarded by two uniformed sentinels, who allowed him in after the guide explained his presence.
He was granted an audience with the headmistress almost immediately once he revealed his purpose to the receptionist. The guide was told to wait outside while he was led to the office of the Headmistress. The office was a room with a high ceiling. A scroll with the kanji of autumn was hanging from one of the walls. There was no furniture to speak of in the room. Only tatami mats on the floor surrounding a small table. A woman sat on one end of the table brewing a pot of tea who Sasuke deduced to be the person he was here to see.
The headmistress was a woman probably in her sixties, dressed in a royal blue kimono. Her hair had been tied in a severe bun. Her stern face might have been attractive at one time, but age had left its inevitable mark on it.
Sasuke was no expert, but the woman's graceful movements and confidence was enough to tell him that he was in the presence of a master of the tea ceremony.
Removing his sandals at the door, he got to his knees and slid the door close behind him. Washing his hands and rinsing his mouth as the ceremony demanded he finally took his position in front of her sitting in seiza.
The woman's face softened and her gaze turned into one of approval at his observance of etiquette.
"I see you're familiar with the ways of the tea ceremony," she said approvingly.
"My mother was a practitioner of the Chabako Temae," he said bowing in appreciation of the compliment, "She once hosted the Daimyo himself."
His use of the past tense in reference to his mother wasn't missed by the old matron, but she refrained from pursuing it, much to Sasuke's relief.
"So," she poured him a cup of the hot beverage, "how can I help you shinobi-san?"
"I'm here regarding one of your students," He accepted the offered cup with both hands, "the missing one in fact, Mei Arisawa."
"Yes of course," The woman said, "as a teacher we aren't supposed to have favorites, but I have no hesitation in saying that Mei Arisawa was the brightest girl to have walked through those gates. It was an honor and privilege to have taught her."
Sasuke had a feeling that the matron was usually a lot more miserly in her praise.
"So you have never had any problems with her?" Sasuke asked.
"None whatsoever," came the emphatic reply, "You must understand shinobi-san, a lot of these girls we teach are talented. But few have the mental fortitude and discipline to go the whole way. Mei wasn't only talented but focused and disciplined as well."
A prodigy then. That opened a whole other box of troubles unfortunately.
"Did this cause any jealousy among her peers?"
"I'm afraid I really can't answer that," the woman smiled, "I'm certain a few were. But she was such a humble girl so it couldn't have been easy to hate her. But from what I had observed of her interactions with her peers, she seemed to get along well enough with most of them."
Great she wasn't just a prodigy she was also a saint. Just what he needed.
Thanking the matron he decided to interview the instructors. Unfortunately they didn't have anything new to add. All of them were unanimous in their praise for the missing girl and could see no reason for why such a fate should befall her. In their own way they had assumed the worst.
So now Sasuke was now sitting in an outdoor eatery waiting for Kakashi and hoping he would have something concrete. Not that he cared about the girl's fate, but the sooner this was resolved the sooner he could get out of here.
Fortunately he didn't have to wait long.
Unfortunately he was joined by the one person he wanted to see the least. Uzumaki Naruto occupied the seat facing him, grinning goofily as if he was having the time of his life. Oh how he wished he could wipe that stupid smile off his face.
"I'm guessing by that frown, you didn't have much luck with your inquiries," he reached for his plate of dango and was promptly swatted away by him.
"Well at least I've been making inquiries," he remarked, "which is more than I can say about you."
"Hey don't go around dissing my work process," Naruto scowled rubbing his arm where Sasuke had struck him, "I'll have you know that I maybe onto something here."
"Okay I'll bite, what did you find out?" Sasuke said skeptically, trying to weed out information from him without revealing any of what he'd learnt so far.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" he smirked at him knowingly. It seemed he wasn't quite as stupid as he looked.
"Other than indulging your juvenile interests, I don't see what else you could've achieved," Sasuke said nonchalantly.
Naruto stared at him and for once there wasn't a smile on his face. But it didn't seem as if he was affected by his insult. It was more akin to him sizing him up, as if trying to make a decision about him. Sasuke met his gaze impassively but he couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by it.
Finally Naruto's face broke into its usual grin.
"Fine you win," He raised his arms in mock resignation, "I'll show you mine then you can show me yours. Deal?"
Innuendo aside Sasuke didn't have problems with this arrangement. If he wasn't satisfied he could always hold back on what he had learnt.
"Fine."
Naruto leaned towards him, his eyes shining with excitement and theatrically dropping his voice to levels barely above a whisper as if he was sharing a deep secret.
"The gate is the only way in and out of the city."
Sasuke's finger twitched towards his kunai. A nicked jugular. He will bleed out in minutes and he probably won't even feel it. But that was interfering with his desire of making him suffer.
His murderous intentions must have been evident on his face because Naruto's face had visibly paled.
"Hey guys,"Naruto was saved from death by decapitation, due to the timely arrival of their commander and their pink-haired teammate, "glad to see you've found a productive way to spend your time."
"Dobe here figured out that the only way to enter and leave the city is by the front gate," Sasuke said, getting a whine of indignation from Naruto.
"Hmmm…. I see," Kakashi dragged a chair and took a seat beside Sasuke, leaving Sakura to share space with Naruto, "You're sure about this?"
"My sources are very reliable."
"As reliable as a bunch of eight year olds can get," Sasuke said drily.
"For your information," Naruto said in a self-important tone, "They were ten."
"Of course. That makes it better."
"Boys, boys," Kakashi admonished them, "keep it in your pants, at least until you can get some privacy."
Sakura snorted as she tried to contain her laughter, gaining the attention of the three men in the process.
"Sorry," She apologized, uncomfortable at being the center of attention, "but I'm with Sasuke here, how reliable can a bunch of kids be? No offence."
"Some taken," Naruto waved off her apologies, "You don't know them like I do."
"You've known them for a couple of hours." Sakura deadpanned.
"If Naruto says he trusts his source," Kakashi interrupted, "I'll take his word for it." Sasuke looked like he wanted to protest but Kakashi quelled him with a pointed look, "Moving on, what have you got for me Sasuke?"
Sasuke took a calming breath and then recapitulated his encounter with the matron and the other instructors, who gave him a patient hearing without any interruptions.
"That's all you've got?" Naruto questioned once he was done, "that she was a docile prodigy who apparently walked on clouds."
"I guess it isn't better than the gem you provided.."
"Boys, boys what did we talk about PDA just now."
Sasuke wasn't sure why this was happening. He was usually so good at ignoring annoying people and had a better control of his emotions, but the blonde genin had pushed his buttons the way only Kakashi was capable of. To make matters worse, Kakashi had to come between them to keep things from escalating.
"What does all this mean?" Sakura mused aloud.
"Assuming that the law enforcers did their job competently," Kakashi said, "its probably safe to assume that the girl is no longer in the town."
"That's a big assumption to make." Sasuke muttered.
"So where does that leave us?" Sakura said ignoring Sasuke's quip.
"Everything that comes inside the town is given a thorough inspection by the guards," Naruto said, "but nothing which leaves the town is given so much as a second glance… just putting it out there."
"And you got this from your… reliable sources of course?" Sasuke mocked.
"Actually, I talked to some of the guards who were taking a break from their shift."
"And they just told you this," Sakura looked at Naruto skeptically.
"You'll be surprised with what people are willing to tell you if you ask the right questions, just the right way," Naruto shrugged, "Moreover it isn't as if its national security or anything, I'm sure by the end of the day we'd have seen it for ourselves."
Sasuke had to admit that was rather eloquently put. There was obviously more to the genin than appearances otherwise suggested.
"Speaking of guards," Sakura said rather thoughtfully, "Where's Akio?"
Sakura and Kakashi turned their gazes to Naruto, who had now turned his to Sasuke. He could see the realization dawning in their eyes as within a few short seconds he was on the receiving end two and a half sets of judgmental stares.
"Oops," he said dryly.
XxX
Kakashi didn't enjoy being put under a spotlight. Especially not when said spotlight was on him for all the wrong reason and even more so, when it was because of an oversight on the part of one of his subordinates. He hadn't been put in a position like this since his early days as an ANBU Captain when one of his orders had been misinterpreted and had led his squad to surround a pond expecting to ambush a Kiri missing-nin only for it to turn out to be the home to a species of geese which had been thought to be extinct long ago.
Zoologists had renamed the species after him in recognition of the discovery.
He wished the Hokage had been as impressed.
He really missed those days.
Hibiki Kinomoto considered himself to be a relatively reasonable man. But he really should've seen this coming. Shinobi weren't to be trusted, but he'd done his best to accommodate them. His only hope had been that they would allow themselves to be monitored. It was his way of offering truce. He wouldn't make things difficult for them as long as he could keep an eye on them.
But it hadn't taken them long to get rid of their 'escort'. He was in the middle of giving Akio a dressing down for losing them when the reason for his current headache made his presence known and immediately he had a new target to direct his ire at.
Except this wasn't one of his subordinates. This was a jounin. An elite shinobi. This man was a step, maybe two away from the rank of a kage, the equivalent of a general, in the ninja hierarchy. He couldn't tear him a new one, as much as he wanted to.
He dismissed the cowering boy and turned his glare towards the man.
"You're putting me in a very hard position Hatake-san," he said breaking the silence.
"Is that so?" Came the rather nonchalant reply.
The man was obviously trying to get a rise out of him, but over the years he had gained a rather thick skin and could allow most things to roll off his back.
"I'm a straightforward man Hatake-san," he said, "I'd rather not play games if it can be helped."
"Well I'll give you that," the shinobi nodded, "you weren't exactly being subtle setting that tail on us. But you really have to stop being suspicious of us Commander. We're on the same side here."
"If you want me to stop being suspicious of you," He retorted, "then you've got to stop acting suspicious."
They seemed to reach an impasse as Hibiki was in no mood to concede his stand on the issue and he didn't think the jounin was either.
"Look Commander," The jounin sighed , "I understand your position, I really do but we're here to do a job and I'd prefer to do it without constantly having to look over my shoulder."
"No, that's the thing you don't," Hibiki said vehemently, "you ninja walk in wherever you feel like doing whatever you want, and we're the ones left to clean up the mess."
"Trust me Hibiki-san," Kakashi replied coolly, "we're here on orders and our only concern is the safe retrieval of the girl and we haven't made a mess yet."
Hibiki took a deep calming breath, he came close to losing his temper which wouldn't do him any good.
"The only reason I've cooperated as much as I've is for the sake of that girl and her poor parents," he muttered heavily, "I'm hoping you'll succeed where my men have failed, but your actions aren't convincing me of your sincerity."
"You've to understand Hibiki-san," Kakashi said, "our way of working is different than yours, we don't confine ourselves to the norms and rules that bind you."
"And you wonder why I don't trust you." He retorted.
"Regardless," Kakashi said, "right now maybe we're the last hope you've of finding the girl. If you bear with us we will be out of your hair before you know it."
Hibiki considered what this. As much as it galled him to admit it, the shinobi was probably right. The sooner they were done with this, the sooner they would cease to be his problem.
"Fine," Hibiki leant forward on his table, "but I need something from you too. I can't just let you have a free run in my town."
"What do you require of me?" The jounin sighed warily.
"I need you to keep me updated on your investigation."
Kakashi paused, seemingly considering the offer, "Okay," he finally said, "but I need your word, that you will keep whatever I reveal to you confidential."
"How do I know you will keep your word?"
"How about this then?" Kakashi said, "As an act of faith I'll tell you something we have inferred from our limited time here."
"I'm listening."
Kakashi's next words left Hibiki's jaw hanging in surprise.
"You can't be serious," he said on finally finding his voice.
Character Profile
Kakashi Hatake
Affiliation: Konoha
Registration ID: 0216
Rank: Jounin
Team : Team 7
Bio: The son of Sakumo Hatake and student of the Yondaime, Kakashi has a pedigree as good as any in Konoha. Hailed as a genius and prodigy his rise through the ranks can only be described as meteoric. Becoming a Jounin before his teens during the Third Shinobi War where he also gained notoriety as the Copy-cat ninja famous for stealing over a thousand jutsus during the war with his sharingan. It was soon followed by a very successful stint in the ANBU. Casual and laid-back when off-duty he is a perfectionist when it comes to his missions. Haunted and plagued by the death of his teammates and sensei, he is known to go above and beyond to protect those under his charge.
A/N:- The tea ceremony scene is probably not accurate, so I apologize if I've offended any sensibilities. But on the bright side we're finally into the start of the story-arc so there's that. So do tell what you think.
Until next time.