Chapter 2: It's a long way to Takihishi
Careful, there's a shower scene in this one.
The yank from the shunshin made the tired genin stumble on landing, though Kakashi's strong hold on them kept them standing. Naruto had barely been awake for the whole thing, and when he found himself able to lean on something, he took the chance to fall asleep. Kakashi looked on with some consternation as Naruto slackened in his backpack, the straps acting as a harness that kept Naruto in a precarious front-lean that Kakashi held up.
With no other alternative, really, if Naruto could fall asleep after an encounter with Gai, he needed some sleep, Kakashi scooped Naruto up on to his shoulder, and nodded to the other two to follow behind. "We meet the client at 9 in the main square of Takihishi Village, so let's make some time."
As he leapt up to the treeline, Kakashi felt Naruto hands slide in his sleep to hold on to the handle on the back of his pack trustingly, like a child would to a stuffed animal. Once the other two joined him in the trees, they set off.
They stopped for breakfast at 7, which came wholly as a surprise for the genin, who'd been expecting a grueling 4 hour run to Takihishi. They settled under a wide-canopied tree, and Naruto was set down on a large root.
"Sensei, won't we be late?" Sakura ventured.
"That is entirely possible,yes," Kakashi said, handing her a neatly unwrapped ration bar. Sasuke's eyes flicked down to the bar Kakashi-sensei had tossed him, sitting in his grasp with shiny, untouched packaging. The jounin had already turned away.
He kicked Naruto awake.
"Dobe. Eat." He dropped the ration bar on Naruto's bewildered face.
"Wha-? Teme!" Naruto fumbled with the bar for a second, then stuck it all in his mouth. Sasuke went to get another one.
Kakashi simply tossed him one casually.
"Kwakwa-sensph! Wherph are we?" mumbled Naruto through the calorie-rich crumbs.
"Halfway to Takihishi Village, and I think we can slow the pace down a little bit."
Sakura looked concerned. "But sensei, we don't hav-"
"Would you like to go faster, Sakura-chan?" Kakashi asked, eye-smiling.
Sakura didn't say anything, a mulish expression on her face. Kakashi inspected her and shrugged. "Okay, we'll do 20% faster than what we did coming here, as soon as Sasuke finishes his ration bar."
Sasuke scowled, then ripped open his ration bar. Kakashi flipped open Icha Icha and leaned back against a nest of roots by the base of the tree to the sound of Sasuke wolfing down his bar and Naruto trying to beg a little off of him.
"C'mon, you're not going to eat all that, are you?"
"Leave Sasuke-kun alone, Naruto! He's trying to eat!"
"Awww, but Sakura-chan, I'm hungry~!"
Sakura glanced at Kakashi then showed Naruto the half of a ration bar that she'd saved, hiding the motion from the view of the jounin. He had his view hidden by the book, but you never knew. Naruto's eyes lit up. He mouthed "Me?" and Sakura vigorously nodded.
She took the leftovers out of the wrapper, careful not to rustle it, though it'd be more than covered by the sound of Sasuke choking on the dry bar, and was about to hand it to Naruto when-
"Sakura-chan, you can put that in your mouth now." Shit. And she would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for that darn omniscient jounin.
"Awww, but sensei, she doesn't want it!"
"Naruto, will you deprive a teammate of nutrition?" Naruto drooped.
"Kakashi-sensei, I already ate breakfast.."
Kakashi slid to read the book on his back.
"Kakashi-sens-"
"Sensei, I'm done." Kakashi flipped another page.
"That's nice, Sasuke. Change of plans. We go when Sakura-chan is finished."
Sakura looked sick at the thought of eating the rest of the bar. She looked down and took a small bite.
"What is it, Sakura-chan? Do you not like the way it tastes?" Naruto quirked a head to the side. "Wait here, I have chocolate syrup in my pack!"
Kakashi almost dropped his book on his face in astonishment at the same time that Sakura yelled, "No! No, I'll just eat it!"
"Now, now, Naruto, let's leave Sakura to eat her bar in peace. Meanwhile, why don't we...organize… your pack?"
Naruto had weighed a suspicious amount when he'd carried him, and Kakashi now realized what the culprit was.
Four packs of ramen, three canteens filled with milk, a tea kettle of all things, filled with what looked like an odyssey's worth of socks, a blanket covered with baby pugs(which he rather approved of)and what looked like 1400 yards of several different types of ninja wire, not to mention the chocolate syrup. All this on top of the normal gear that ninja packed for an escort mission made for a Naruto that would be lucky not to fall backward standing on a tree branch.
Kakashi picked up a bundle of wire. It was the nearly translucent kind that could cut a person running into it at speed into ribbons. He held 500 feet of it. "Naruto, wha-" he stopped, head snapping up.
Sakura flinched at the aura coming off their sensei, knowing she'd been caught. Sasuke, who'd been looking on the packing proceedings with interest, turned his head to look, confused.
Kakashi dropped the wire and stood. "Sasuke, help Naruto pack, properly, and explain why it is not acceptable to bring ramen on a mission. I will go explain to Sakura why it is not acceptable to spit out food."
Sakura's face flared up. She looked to Kakashi, pleading. "Ka-Kakashi sensei, it's not -"
Kakashi walked past her. Sakura followed, not meeting Sasuke's gaze.
Naruto looked up at Sasuke from where he was sitting plopped on the ground. "What's that about? Why's Kakashi sensei so upset?"
"I dunno, dobe, don't ask me." He paused and thought. "And don't ask them when they get back either."
"Geez, I know that much, teme."
Sasuke turned to the job at hand. "Hn. You suck at this."
"I don't see how you're doing any better than me!"
"Not that, dobe, packing."
"Oh, well, how'm I supposed to know what to pack?"
"Tch."
It was a rather subdued Team 7 that came through the gates of Takihishi at 8:30. Kakashi had not been forgiving in setting the pace after whatever conversation he'd had with Sakura, though the murderous aura that had surrounded him initially had dissipated after the talk. Sakura had been on the brink of tears when they'd set out from the break, but the salt water pouring down her face now was sweat.
The boys were just as sweat-soaked, Naruto sulking slightly in spite of the tense situation about the ramen Sasuke had mercilessly crushed beneath his heel. Kakashi simply registered with the gatekeepers with a fed-up expression on a face half hidden by Icha Icha.
"Yes, no, yes, this is Icha Icha, don't stare too hard or you'll wear it out, no, clearly, and please."
Four sets of travel papers slapped on to the stand, though there had been no perceptible movement.
"Thank you."
The civilian gatekeepers-this wasn't a ninja village after all-though unaware of the cause of the tension in the air around the team, were more than perceptive enough to see that the one-eyed ninja was in no mood for bureaucracy.
Takamaru rushed to write down the replies on the form of questions that they hadn't asked yet.
Kisemaru's hands shook as he stamped the papers as quickly as possible.
"T-Thank you, shinobi-san…" Silence. The eye looked down on them apathetically, the only thing visible in a masked face silhouetted against the sun. "Y-Y-You can be on your way now!"
"Ah." The weight in the atmosphere shifted off of them as the ninja turned.
The team moved on, the pink haired one shooting the duo an almost apologetic look as she passed.
"Holy-what was that?!"Kisemaru slapped a hand around Takamaru's mouth.
"Shh, they can still hear you!" They sat in tense silence until the ninja team had passed from sight.
Takamaru fell limply back into his chair as Kisemaru released him. "Holy shit," he repeated to himself. "Crazy ninja." He looked to Kisemaru. "Did you see who they were?"
"I dunno, Konoha, I know that." Takamaru gave him a look. "Don't ask me! Geez man, I didn't want my neck wrung for paying too much attention to their personal information. Just got them stamped and gone."
Takamaru quirked his mouth to the side. "I think the old one was famous." Kisemaru grunted noncommittally, wiping his face with his hands. Takamaru poked him in the side.
"Hey, we've been gatekeepers for a long time, right?"
"Hell yeah, I've been trying to get another job, it's not really helpful when the extent of our special skills is basically sitting for extended periods of time without getting buttcramp."
"But like, a looong time."
"Yeah, so what?"
"Have you ever seen him before?"
Kisemaru thought."No, and I'm sure as hell glad I haven't."
"Then how did he know all the questions?"
They both paused for a moment. Kisemaru frowned.
"He probably came around mostly at night or something, hell, maybe the papers are the same everywhere, how would we know, we never get out of here. Just shut the hell up already, I feel like he's going to come back and kill us."
"But-"
"-shut."
"Onii-chan~."
"What the hell, go away, you're gross."
There was a fountain in the middle of the town square, a beautiful piece with sculpted fish on a marble wave pouring water from their mouths into the basin of the fountain.
Sasuke thought it looked disgusting.
Naruto simply dove into the stream of water vomited by a particularly bulbous-eyed fish, shedding his pack as he went.
A sideways glance to Sakura revealed that she looked as if she wanted to do the same. The water did look good, unpleasant statuary aside. Especially in this heat, with the sweat plastering his forehead protector to his temples.
Kakashi didn't look up from the book, though he did move aside to avoid the water Naruto was splashing. "You all have 10 minutes." A glance up to the sun. "5 minutes, be completely dried and dressed by 9."
As amusing it would be to greet their client in the middle of a group shower, Sasuke was not predisposed towards providing anyone much entertainment. "Hai."
He slid out of his pack and shirt in a matter of a moment and out of his shoes in the next. He paused at his pants.
"S-sasuke kun!" Sakura turned bright red.
Perhaps not. He kept the pants on and joined Naruto.
"Sakura-chan, you'd best go in too." The -chan was back, Sasuke noted, though their sensei's tone was still cool.
"H-hai, sensei! Sorry, sensei!" Sakura jumped into the fountain.
"Maa, take your pack off, at least." Sakura flushed darker, and flung the half-drenched bag on land, soon followed by her now dark red overshirt.
Sasuke found his feet pulled out from under him, and sat down hard in the shallow water. Naruto grinned at him, flashing a V.
Growling, Sasuke grabbed a fistful of the orange jumpsuit Naruto had not taken off, and dragged him down with him. With a yell, Naruto fell flailing onto Sasuke, pinning him into the water.
Kakashi turned away from the sounds of Sasuke drowning. But by the sage wasn't Sakura a basketcase. He knew she had some potential in her somewhere, but he simply did not have the nature or, dare he say it, the will to forge her into something better.
Perhaps if just once, she'd shown greater commitment to improving her skills as a shinobi than to becoming a certain dark-eyed teen's romantic interest.
We can't help what we were born to be, Kakashi mused, more resigned about the situation than angry now. She'll get along fine as a high-chuunin. The three of them were playing now, Sakura expression bright again.
Kakashi leaned down to pick up Sasuke's sweat-sodden clothing. Rinsing them briefly in the jet of water from a catfish stuck writhing in agony forever, he dried them with a quick Suiton jutsu. After a thought, he dried Sakura's drenched bag as well.
The genin were clambering out of the fountain, Naruto more clumsily than the other two due to the water-sodden jumpsuit. He yelled as droplets of water rose from his clothing to dance around Kakashi-sensei's body in ribbons before sinking to the ground. The same was happening to Sasuke and Sakura.
"Sensei? What is this?" Sakura asked.
"I'm controlling where I take the water for the source of a Suiton jutsu." There was no sign of the client. Time for a little lesson. "Elemental jutsu take two forms, the first-"
"When you convert your personal chakra into that element!" Sakura piped.
He nodded.
"-and the second is when you use your chakra to control an instance of the element, like a puddle. This second one takes much less chakra in proportion to the amount of the element used in the jutsu. It's the difference in energy between a kage bunshin and a elemental bunshin."
Naruto's expression brightened at the mention of his signature technique, though it turned into a pout as Kakashi went on.
"But since you didn't create it out of your own chakra, you have less control over it. The better chakra control or elemental affinity you have, the more precisely you can use the second type of elemental jutsu."
Naruto scuffed a foot. "So basically I suck 'cause I don't have chakra control."
Kakashi ran a hand through wiry locks. "I wouldn't say that, though better chakra control would let you do a lot more with the chakra you have."
"Hn." A grunt from the now fully-dressed Sasuke drew attention to the road adjoining the square. They could hear the client coming.
When the client turned the corner, Sakura cut off an excited squeal. Kakashi could see why.
The entourage of the client didn't just fill the square, it engulfed it. Ranks of green and ivory, the colors of the Hinogawa family spread like an opening fan from the mouth of the road, surrounding the boat-sized carriage that dominated the scene. Mules pulling wagons covered in the same colors trailed behind.
The entourage pulled up slowly to the fountain, and an elderly man with the same expression on his face as Kimuhara-san had in the mission room rode up from the midst of the ranks to stop directly in front of them. Kakashi absently wondered if all the Hinogawa attendants were taught that expression.
"Attend." The old man said boredly.
The genin looked confusedly to Kakashi, who only raised an eyebrow at the old man. The old man's dark eyes narrowed. "I see the manners of shinobi have not gotten any better in recent times."
"Shinobi do not bow to outside authorities, my lord."
"That is not what I have observed." The old man yanked at the reins of the horse, backing it up. "Enough money and you people will do anything."
"Commissioning shinobi to bow to you seems to me a bit of a waste, but will be a welcome break from D-ranks for our genin."
The old man ignored Naruto's sniggering. "I opposed hiring shinobi for this trip. It is only at the insistence of Lady Hinogawa that you are present. Keep that in mind before you speak out of turn." He turned the horse around completely. "You will be the personal guard of Lady Hinogawa for the duration of the trip. Do make an attempt not to disturb the actual goings-on of the company."
Kakashi shrugged and followed the man towards the main coach. The genin trailed behind, looking a little lost in the brilliant livery of the guards lining the way.
Except for Naruto, who grinned his fox grin and proceeded to enthusiastically stomp on the toes of the expressionless guards as he went.
"Ne, she's going to be pretty, right?"
"Think daimyo's wife, Naruto. Noblewomen aren't always pretty." Sakura said.
"Now, kids, no commenting on her looks. We're not hired for aesthetic judgments."
The old man seemed to be working rather hard to ignore all the comments from the shinobi. But was that the curl of a smirk Kakashi saw at the corner of that wrinkled mouth? He knocked at the door.
"Lady Hinogawa, the shinobi have arrived."
A feminine voice answered."Report for duty."
"Hatake Kakashi, captain of Team 7, reporting for duty with three subordinates, Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, and Uzumaki Naruto."
"Believe it!" yelled Naruto.
There was a pause, as if the client was trying to decide whether that had actually been said.
"Open the door."
The door slid open slowly.
Heavily painted eyes locked on Kakashi immediately. He met the gaze steadily in spite of the sudden urge he had to cover Naruto and Sasuke's eyes.
Not fat and old. Definitely not fat and old.
Note: Hi, Withered Pages here.
Thank you so much to the people who followed and favorited, you made me smile. And double the word count on this chapter. I didn't know how to thank the reviewers. I had to triple read all of them, I just couldn't believe I had any. Thank you.
Questions, suggestions and any disagreements you may have with characterization and/or grammar are all welcome in either review or PM form. Especially any points you find disgruntling about characterization, I need and want some input on that.
Little late into the story, but heads up now, no one ends up together.
I personally ship all the permutations of the characters listed, but no definitive romance. Jealousy, yes. Catching multiple weapons in the chest for each other, yes. Flirting, only if you take the aforementioned to count as such. Which I, in my dark perverted fangirl heart, do.
Oh how fanfiction has ruined me.
End of chapter challenge: I have a clear favorite character. Can you tell who it is?
~Withered Pages~
