That feeling of being unstoppable was completely over now. The whole escort mission began to be a complete bore for team seven. The only thing that was even remotely exciting was the couple of bandits who were too stupid to spot any ninja that were elusively guarding the shipment. The trees were a big strong point for konoah ninja. However the folige was slowly but surely getting replaced with rock and sand. This gave the fifty shinobi no where to hide or cover thereselves so the commander told them to fallback a little bit and give the ones guarding the shipment a little more breathing space and to also not tip any enemies that there was a ninja force running about. "These carts are moving pretty slow. Its been four days now and we are just reaching the land of wind. How long do you think this will take?" Sakura moaned as she covered her eyes from the sun that was beaming down on them. Kakashi shrugged.
"No idea. it could be another three or four days the land of wind is pretty large and suna Is sitting right in the middle of it." Sakura moaned. quite frankly she wanted to return back home as soon as she reached these rocky and barren lands. How people lived and thrived here was a completely mystery to her. she would hate to live in the desert. The squad said nothing else to each other as they continued there long trek to suna. Kakashi sighed to himself. Boring was good. Thats what told you that mission was going on rather smoothly. But young pups like these always were looking for some kind of action to excite them It came with knowing deadly techniques at such a young age. Kakashi hoped and prayed that they would remain disappointed because suna really needs this shipment if they were even gonna be some kind of help to konoah.
Hukamo Looked at the caraven through his telescope with a sinister smile. This big of a shipment was definetly a huge gain for suna if they received it. However Hukamo and his one hundred strong men were gonna make sure that suna only got jack shit. The caravan was at least a mile away from where they were at. and it would definetly have to go through them if it wanted to see suna. Orders from the Tsuchikage was to kill and pillage anything that they could get there hands on between suna and konoah. Scouts gave the captain Hukamo a couple days warning that the shipment was coming and about fifty of konoah's men was trailing it. One of the sensors that were a scout said they were all at least chunin level chakra reserves and two high jonin that were borderline kage level in chakra resereves. One of them being copy cat Kakashi. Hukamo wasn't worried however.
In the third war he fought countless Uchiha and new how too overcome there ocular powers. The iwa jonin was huge. His mucsle were threatning to rip out of his shirt! If he could get a hold of you hukamo could easily snap bones and tendons. He was very excited for the chance to snap the copy cat's neck. The Burly man flared his chakra and soon after another jonin appeared before him in a blur. "Prepare our men. Konoah will be here in about a hour or two and I want us ready. Im sure they have there own methods in spotting us so we will work dillegently. Crush the caravan and people with our jutsu and take out all of the konoah forces. "The jonin bowed and disappeared to call out his commanders orders. This was gonna be an exciting day for Hukamo. He could feel it.
" How long till we make it noow!" Sakura groaned. She was sweating profusely because of the sunlight that was beaming on all of them which was making the journey even more dreadful for team seven and everyone else that was slowly trudinging along the desert
. Kakashi shrugged as he flipped a page. "I don't know probably about a Three or four days now before we reach the borders of sunagakure. Now no more questions or ill make you life a living hell for when we get back to konoah."
"We are already living through hell." Sasuke muttered.
"What was that?" Kakashi asked slightly surprised that the Uchiha had something smart to say and his tone of voice dared him repeat what he said. Sasuke didn't reply he instead looked at Naruto who was silently walking besides them Looking over the horizon.
"You sense something?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto just shrugged. " I haven't checked in a while. But it does seem as if we are being watched." Naruto was just about to close his eyes and focus out for any chakra signature until someone yelled out to their team
. "Kakashi" A man from the hyuuga team yelled. "There is about a hundred of them a mile out. All Of them being at least low jonin."
Kakashi cursed lowly. " Stop the caravans movements we need to take them out while we still have breathing room. Who are they?"
There was a pause before the Hyuuga ninja spoke again the caravans slowing to a stop one by one. " Iwagakure."
Kakashi nodded then turned to his team who looked at him seriously. They knew that this wasn't a time to be joking or complaining; It was time to get dirty. "With it being nothing but sand here their earth jutsu will be ineffective due to the loose rock being so loose. So its very likely that they have a lot more of other elemental types with them. Its already getting close to evening so we should act as if we are resting and attack then. Naruto relay this information to the back up. If we want this to go smoothly we must act firmly and swiftly."
Naruto nodded as he created a shadow clone to tell the fifty ninja that were trailing them of what was going on. "They could easily overtake us. We need something to have them unbalanced." Sasuke said as he looked over his equipment. "I have ten explosive tags. I will set them around the perimeter of the carts." The Uchiha said.
Kakashi nodded solemnly. " I thought I taught you to come better prepared."
Sasuke shrugged. " I also have ninja wire and five smoke bombs and ten flash grenades. I came prepared sensei. My fighting style is just very diverse."
"Good set up your explosive tags away from the carts we cant have the merchandise damaged." Kakashi ordered watching the brunnete haired boy disappear in a blur.
The Jonin then turned his attention back to Naruto and Sakura. "Sakura I want you to support us from afar. I know this isn't your preferred terrain but we must make due. Naruto since its harder for her to remain hidden out in the open desert I want a clones to watch her six. Have one of the clones to dispel if she gets into more trouble then she can chew "
Naruto nodded. he instantly created four clones to be with her so he wouldn't forget. All of them were given a order to kill on sight if the enemy even looked her way. Kakashi nodded then looked at Naruto.
" I never asked you how good you were at sensing chakra signatures. What are you capable of with it Naruto?" Naruto gave the man a faint smile. " I can easily pinpoint the chakra source. I might not be able to see the network like the hyuuga but with my mind's eye I can easily differientiate whose chakra is whose."
Kakashi smiled back at the boy. " more then I expected. I was going to have you show me who had the highest chakra output of the men. but that still wont show me who the leader is. I need you too watch them until the very moment we or them attack. Once that happens move for the one you believe is leading them and I will aid you."
Naruto crouched down into a kneeling position focusing all of his energy on the outside world. Everything in a ten mile diameter did not escape his senses because when he focused he became one with nature. 'I will help you' The fox said making Naruto nod mentally. The boy instantly found the hundred men of iwa about a mile out and began to study them. His mind eye watching every bit of detail of each man and woman. there chakra moving the same way as the body moved. All of them were preparing for battle. Some were brandishing there weapons while he watched as the others sent chakra through something akin to paper.
'Probably explosive tags' The kyuubi said. gaining a nod again from Naruto. Others seemed to be resting sitting in groups and talking among themselves. It didn't take long for Naruto to find his mark. The man was keeping to himself as both his hands were to his eyes looking at the direction Naruto and everyone else were at. He was also calling ninja over to him who obeyed without a second thought and left to do his bidding. 'They have some pretty fancy equipment if they can see us this far from there.' Naruto thought as he sighed. He found the man. now all he had to do was focus on him until the fighting began.
"Kakashi sensei I found the man whose leading them." Kakashi eyes widened for a second. He didn't expect Naruto to find him so fast. " Are you sure? It hasn't even been five minutes yet."
Naruto casually shrugged. " When im focused I am completely one with nature making me have a feel and understanding for anything that breaths. Ive practiced this technique for some time now. However I cant sense to well in a middle of a fight."
Kakashi put his hands on naruto's shoulder. " That's okay. When we get back to somewhere safe I will teach you some more focusing techniques that will better help you when your in battle. Having that ability while you fight would be a great help for you. Can you memerize his chakra signature if you see him again?"
With his eyes still closed Naruto nodded. " Good. You don't have to focus on him anymore. When all hell break loose I will be following you to him since you can recognize his chakra signature." Naruto stood up slowly opening his eyes. His golden eyes slightly glowed as he looked off into the distance but he then turned focusing behind the caravan. The other men had finally arrived already ready to draw blood. A jounin woman taller then Kakashi appeared with a shunshin. She had bright read hair and her eyes were green. She also had a huge scroll strapped behind her back.
"Ahh If it isn't Uzumaki Lizu. I hope your taking being commander seriously." Kakashi said giving the woman an eye smile The red head grunted As she placed her hands on one of the carts besides them that were carrying the goods. A sealing array appeared for a moment until it faded into nothingness again revealing to just be a wooden cart.
" As soon as I make these wagons more durable for the upcoming battle we will strike them immedietly." Kakakshi frowned slightly but you couldn't really see it through his mask. " Why not wait till midnight?"
Lizu rolled her eyes. " Because they wont give us a chance to wait till midnight. If they attack first we will surely loose so the best bet is to get them while their dicks in there hands."
Kakashi sighed. " Youre right it would be bad if they striked first. how long will the wagons hold out."
The Uzumaki woman smiled. "As long as I have chakra. Now in exactly thirty minutes- if they give us that time that is; get ready because the fighting will start as soon as I prepare the wagons and making sure that the merchants are safely secure." Kakashi nodded. Turning around looking for his team of genins. Sasuke was just finishing up in setting up his traps. The Uchiha boy then stood by his sensei for further instruction. Sakura however wasn't easy to spot. It took the jonin a good five minutes to find the girl who was on top of one the sand dunes that were a good ways from the wagons. It wasn't the best spot for sniping but he was confident that the girl would do just fine.
Hukamo frowned deeply when he saw that all of the wagons stopped their movements. It was close to nightfall so he knew that the horses that were pushing the wagons needed rest but however he knew it was way to soon for them to stop. 'It could be those pesky little hyuugas who could spot anything from miles on end that foiled our element of surprise.'
Hukamo flared his chakra and seconds later another jonin appeared in front of him. " Prepare our forces. They have caught on to us. Our element of surprise is ruined but with our numbers we can easily over run them. " The jounin saluted disappearing as Hukamo began to do handseals.
'I guess ill go ahead and get things started. Tsuchikage-sama chose me to fight in the desert for a reason." The huge burly man sank through sand disappearing completely . Soon after, the one hundred men that was behind him shunshined or charged forth some even disappearing underground like their leader.
The fight had just begun and iwa was the first to strike. 'Naruto! They are moving! While you were talking to that one eyed cyclops I was still focusing on those men.' They will be here in ten minutes.' Naruto eyes widened for a second before he shot his hands up performing hand signs creating about a hundred of his clones. all of them followed his mental command and faded away until they were completely invisble. half then ran forward to cut some of the iwagakure ninja off that were running head on to the wagons. the other fifty clones stood around the carts and wagons defensively.
Naruto turned to his sensei for any orders and saw that the man raised his head band revealing his sharingan. Kakashi was able to see a slight bit of chakra in the distance and estimated the time it would take for iwa to reach them. "Sasuke! when I flare my chakra set those explosive tags off. We have company that's coming in ten minutes." Kakashi dashed to Lizu notifying her and her men what was going on but they were already ready. Half of the group ran off with the team of hyuuga leading them. While the Inzunka team stayed on defense. They knew that this was going to be a battle to the death. But if Suna didn't get there shipment then this war was going to be over sooner then it even started. so with that at the back of their minds they focused on surving. Also to kill quickly and efficiently as possible since they were outnumbered.
Lizu stood by the wagons and carts ensuring the safety of the merchandise and civilians that were also taking care of said merchandise. she called out to Kakashi getting his attention. "Kakashi your gonna have to be the heavy hitter for us since I have my hands tied with these seals. Im watching over multiple barriers and also making sure iwa doesn't sink us with their earth jutsu"
Right when kaksahi was going to reply all hell broke loose. He looked down to see a hand latched firmly onto his ankles. the huge hand easily wrapped around his ankle attempting to pull him down quickly. But without even using handsigns Kakashi palmed the sanded ground shooting out a wave of lightning chakra to whoever had a hold on him. to the jounins disappointment the hand crumpled up into dirt making it easy for Kakashi to break free. However he couldn't be idle for long because they were all surrounded. at least forty of the iwagakure shinobi stood surrounding them. Kakashi confirmed that it was iwa because of their red and tanned vest that they carried. they looked at the twenty eight konoah ninja hungrily. Naruto's clones charged, but before they could get to close they were wrecked by earth spikes that shot through the ground. The blonde instantly noticed that it was iwagakure's leader
" ack!" Three iwa ninja fell simultaneously due to arrows peircing their necks. the arrows came in with a swift and deadly force. This caused the iwa shinobi to react flipping through handsigns. "Doton: Shizumu chikyū" (Sinking earth) the ground quaked and shook but however nothing else happened causing the iwagakure shinobi to rear back slightly in confusion. There syncronization jutsu had no effect. They all felt that their chakra was syphooned in some kind of way.
"Push them back!" Kakashi yelled. He ran through handseals ending on tiger. A fireball the size of a two story house came bulldozing in the path of the iwa shinobi but someone among their ranks countered with an earth wall that crumbled away on impact due to the wall being made of sand. It was going to take someone with a high level of control in their chakra to compress the sand hard enough to make useful earth jutsu. However the tsuchikages didn't send just earth user out to suna. they had other options as well. Bolts of lightning and wind blades crashed into the carts. But the carts took little to no damage only being shaken by the force of jutsus As this was going on konoah and iwa shinobi were already clashing. Jutsu was flying everywhere and bodies were falling fast on both sides and konoah was dwindling since their numbers were far shorter then Iwa's.
Naruto was whipping pass people left and right suprising them with a sword in his mouth drawing blood causing them to freeze in the very spot that they were standing in. They didn't even have a chance to scream since Sasuke was right behind him ending the ones parylized with a swift cut to the jugular. the duo were making short work of them. when one disabled someones movements the other finished the job ruthelessly. Naruto's heart was pounding with dread he killed at least six people by now and it looked like the fighting wasn't even close to being done. but he steeled himself and kept moving as he dashed for the man that seemed to be leading this task force.
That man was huge. instead of using weapons like swords or kunai the man snapped necks easily and broke bones without a second thought. The blonde noticed the man was enhasing his defense with earth chakra so the stabs and thrown kunia that was aimed for him bounced off harmlessy. Naruto grimaced as he began to form a rasegan in one of his hands as he and sasuke charged forth. Kakashi was at the back taking care of the bulk of iwa's forces so he couldn't quite get to Naruto and Sasuke in time. But Naruto was hoping he didn't need the man's help. As the two gained ground on the huge man they began to feel how much chakra he was throwing around.
The huge man turned to them giving them a victorious grin as he shot his hands through the sand. "Die Konoah brats!" spears of hardened sand that was now as hard as rock shot at them like a speeding bullet. The two boys cursed as they replaced themselves. Naruto replaced himself with a kunia as sasuke replaced himself with an iwa shinobi who was skewered by the rocky spears. Sasuke breathed heavily. He didn't mean to replace himself with another person but it was his only option because something as small as a kunia took more focus and chakra control to pinpoint on. And he was also very lucky that it worked For two reasons. One of them being it took a very good amount of chakra to replace yourself with somebody and the second reason was that the person that he was replacing himself with could of canceled the technique if they were aware.
The two boys were on opposite ends of the man and they both used this advantage to take his focus off one of them by charging him. the rasengan was still in narutos hand as he flipped through one handed seals causing the man to faulter in his step. It was genjutsu to disorient the man of his surroundings. The world spun in his head as he dropped to one knee. But he flawlessly pulsed his chakra as he slapped his hands on the ground causing an earth wall to fly up on both sides. The two of them however did not slow in their run. Naruto bulldozed right through the earth wall with his rasengan slightly surprising the man as Naruto was a couple feet closer. Sasuke blurred on top of the wall flipping through hand signs as he shot a wave of fire down on the two causing Hukamo eyes to widen in surprise.
"You have balls kid to harm your comrade to get to me! But it wont work!" The huge man pointed his fist at the fire jutsu and pointed his other fist at Naruto who was mere seconds In hitting him. Faster then lightning a rocky hand the size of a house shot through his hand like a bullet careening through Sasuke's fire jutsu and clashing through his earth wall and pulverizing it. Sasuke jumped away before it reached him. However the huge fist that was sent at Naruto was frozen. Causing the man to rear back in surprise. well he tried to move but just couldn't. Naruto's rasengan tore through the huge rocky fist and shot his rasengan into the man's gut causing him to blow Hukamo to the other side of the battle hitting stray ninja on the way as he crashed into one of the wagons. He groaned painfully as he shakenly stood up. His knees involuntarily shaking as blood poured from his stomach exchessivly. He knew he wasn't going to make it.
The huge man put his beady eyes on Naruto with a slight concern as he killed more iwa shinobi who thought they had the drop on him. 'That boy is not normal. He literally stopped my Hulking fist in its tracks. That's when he first noticed the boys eyes and shivered. "That's no ordinary do-jutsu boy!" He yelled. But Naruto wasn't even looking in his way the blonde was like a force of nature as he tore through Hukamo's comrades. The Uchiha was just as vicious as well. Hukamo growled. 'These two brats are a huge threat to my masters...they will not live on!'
"This will be my final jutsu" he muttered. Hukamo was molding his chakra for one final attack. This was going to take everyone in the vicinity out. But just when he was going to do handsigns his whole body froze. All he could do was look on in confusion as the blonde haired boy that was some ways before him turned to him looking at him as if he was discipling a child. Hukamo couldn't even be angry. He was widely outclassed. His body wasn't his anymore. He closed his eyes giving himself up to fate. The man didn't have to wait long. It was sasuke who drove his kunai to the mans neck killing him instantly. Sasuke then disappeared with a blur taking out more iwa shinobi that was giving his comrades some trouble. It was a close call for Konoah there was ten of them left including sasuke ,Naruto, Kakashi, sakura and Lizu. The other five were three chunin and two jonin who all decided to give kakahi back up and support facing the seventeen iwa shinobi.
The Iwa shinobi stood all in a diamond formation. Wind, Lightning, and fire attacks attacked the caravan's ruthelessyly. But Lizu's barriers were holding on still. Her great reserves were running thin however and she hoped and prayed the cyclops had a plan in taking these guys out quickly. Sasuke and Naruto blurred in front of their sensei waiting for his commands. The man looked at them and smiled. Just one look at them and he could see that they've grown leaps and bounds dealing with this fight. And in Kakashi's opinion that man was small fry to the things that they would face later on. "Looks like its too late to use those explosives huh Sasuke?"
Sasuke visibly perked up at hearing about his explosives. He instantly set them off causing a huge chain of explosions to go off behind the iwa ninja. Some turned in surprise thinking that the attack was coming from behind him. Giving the Uchiha ample enough time to shunshin to some of them and skewer them. two too his left were able catch onto the Uchiha assassin and launched rocks at his position. He ducked and weaved the onslaught of rock as he gained major ground on them. Three others came behind him but was taken cared of with a rain of arrows slicing them into submission. Kakashi appearing behind them finishing them off so they wouldn't cause any more trouble. As all of this was going on sasuke ducked under the other attackers jabs that were encased with rock. He ran through hand signs in a instant causing the two in front of them to instantly stop their attacks and realease their jutsu.
"Tanjun'na baindingu (simple binding) is a success" this jutsu was a simple paralysis jutsu that stopped the movements of the target only someone with a greater chakra output then him could break his hold. The Uchiha didn't waste anytime in disposing of them. The young man panted heavily. He wasn't use to long and drawn out fights like this. But his blood was pumping and his heart was racing for more. He flipped over a would be attacker and through kunai at the man's back causing the grown man to whimper in pain who reached for the wound but failed miserably. Sasuke saw Naruto rushing in slicing the man at his throat causing blood to fly all over the blonde. what happened next surprised Sasuke. The blond headed ninja froze at the sight of blood that was on him; and to sasuke dismay four ninja capatilazied on it. all attacking the boy at once. The bad thing wasn't that Naruto froze. well in the heat of battle that was pretty bad but what was really bad was that nobody could help him in time. Sakura dropped one with a arrow to the temple but the others continued their assault. Just when the attacks reached, sasuke was even more surprised to see a chakra cloak erupt from Naruto that resembled a fox. Its tail whipped about like a viper attacking the would be attackers and killed them with its crushing force and acidic chakra. As soon as they were down the cloak disappeared causing Naruto to blink back in reality. Sasuke sighed in relief and turned back to the battle.
"Naruto" the Uchiha called. "whats up?" Naruto replied.
"we've won this one. lets hurry and finish the remaining ones up so we can help the other groups."
"no need. My invisible clones were a great help to our people. Iwa didn't see it coming until it was to late. they're on the way back now. " The blonde sheathed his sword as he watched Kakashi and his group of men finish off the remaining Iwa forces.
"How many survived?" Lizu asked appearing behind the two. She looked completely exhausted.
"I don't know. From what I could tell no one was hurt because my clones really did surprise those guys... I guess there leader saw through what was going on here or it would have gone a lot more smoother." Lizu snorted.
"You think?" she asked sarcastically. she turned to the finished battle with a heavy and painful sigh.
"Give me a minute while I seal the fallen away for their families. You two did great by the way." The Uzumaki woman walked off not waiting to hear their reply. Sasuke looked at Naruto who was watching the Uzumaki woman do her work. He was concerned for his cousin because despite replying to him. The blonde looked comeplety down.
" First time killing someone is always hard." The Uchiha said. He put his hand on naruto's shoulder carefully trying to move him away from the scene.
But Naruto shook it off. "Before all of this I didn't care much for konoah and its people. but these...I wont turn away from my comrades. When we were fighting that guy… they took care that we weren't attacked from our blindspots from other enemies."
Sasuke didn't speak for a moment letting the silence to carry the conversation. "I want to be so strong so that nobody would have to look after me. No blind spots. War has started between four major countries. Soon after that more countries will fall in line and pick sides. I know with war there will always be casualties. But the next time I fight no one will have to die for me."
Sasuke frowned. "These people died for the greater good and no matter how strong you get you will always have some kind of weakness or some kind of blind spot. There is a weakness to every jutsu." Sasuke thought of his brother and frowned.
"What matters is what are you going to do with the chance that you get to live for a while longer. what your comrades sacrifice shouldn't be squandered."
Naruto sighed again . "Thank you Sasuke. I never knew youd be the type to be so sentimental."
Sasuke scoffed. "A lot of things changed. our families are back. I never knew how much darkness I had until they came back." Sakura just appeared besides them looking at the two.
'I guess they were talking about Naruto's first kills. He did freeze up for a second. It could've costed him.' The young girl decide not to say anything to him he needed time to himself to repair the mental damage he has caused for himself. Although you could never fully recover from killing someone. The good ones couldn't at least.
"You three did great today." Kakashi said coming from behind them. "For your first ninja battle as a Konoah unit you did amazing. There are a few things that could be fixed but I believe in due time they'll will fix themseleves. Until then I want you three to gather our fallen comrades and prepare them for Lizu."
As they got ready to deal with their fallen comrades the ones that ran to head off the other iwa shinobi arrived and too Lizu's pleasant surprise no one was hurt. So they were a good thirty strong now. They all had stories about Naruto how he alone took care of the iwa forces. They all seemed happy on not having to fight so they really praised the blonde ninja for his help and hoped next time that they fight that he would be around. When Lizu men came back it took them about an hour to prepare the bodies and be back on their way to Sunagakure. It took them three more days to finally reach Suna. They were all pleased that the trip was uneventful. Even team seven who saw enough killing for the time being.
They all slowly but surely came up to suna's front gate which was a wall that housed hundreds of people guarding the wall. It was obvious that the revival jutsu that was done months ago revived everyone here as well. The men guarding the wall didn't even give them a second glance because as soon as they were visible a Jounin appeared at the front gate greeting the head merchant that led the large caravans. As they were talking Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura eyed the landscape of the village curiously
"This is way much more different then Konoah." Sakura mumbled. Kakashi chuckled as he flipped through another page of his book.
"Yes each village or country you travel too will have huge differences from one another. Maybe they will let us walk through the village a bit to give you a feel of the place." The three genin nodded as they all looked up at the huge wall that was being guarded by the hundreds of suna shinobi.
"I wonder how strong they are." Sasuke said activating his Sharingan to gauge how much their chakra output was. "They all have high level reserves! I only see a couple of chunin level chakra levels." Sasuke murmmered his body shaking in awe slightly.
Kakashi nodded though no one seen him. "Yes Suna use to be the weakest of the great four due to their dwindling numbers. But since the revival jutsu I can bet that their military power is just as strong as ours if not a little bit weaker due too konoah having its variety of different types of power and ninja techniques at its disposal."
Sasuke nodded. He was going to reply but saw that the caravan line was moving up. Wanting to get this mission over with he silently followed hoping to get word on what their next move would be. Thirty minutes later team seven made it to the entrance of the gate greeted by a Sunagakure Jounin. "Your mission is almost over Konoah shinobi. Once we get everyone in you may rest here for a day then head back to your village. Some of our own men will take you to one of our hotels." Kakashi nodded seeing that three suna shinobi appear leaving a swirl of sand before them.
" I take it that Suna will escort the merchants back to konoah." Kakashi asked. The suna Jounin nodded pointing to the three men that Kakashi and his team were to follow. Lizu had a different protocal to follow then Kakashi. Her unit was pratically a war unit. Her forces were so low she had no choice but to book it back to konoah and report to the fourth hokage. No doubt as soon as she got their she would be set back out on missions to ensure the safety of konoah's borders and its allies. They silently followed them through the streets of sunagakure the place was filled with people. They all seemed to have a half mask on their face to protect themseleves from the blowing sand and the dangerous heat waves that would come during the day. There were still some that didn't wear protective half face mask. But that wasn't the weirdest thing for the genin. What was weird was the amount of people around but it being awfully silent. Even the ninja that were guiding them through the city didn't speak to them.
"Exuse me." Naruto called getting the attention of the three suna ninja. "Why is it so silent here?" He asked. Sakura and Sasuke wondered the same thing. Kakashi however just looked on nonchalanty at his student before he turned back to his book using his senses to follow the group.
"We are a people of action. We don't need words to communicate. Suna's people are known for our body language" That was all that the man that was leading his team and the group said as he continued to guide them. Naruto looked at the back of the mans head a bit bewildered. How he answered wasn't as if he despised the boy like the people of his village. No they would of gave the boy a good verbal lashing for asking them of anything. This man was very irritated by the question. Naruto just chose to keep his mouth shut for now he would leave the talking when he got to the room. Suna was a big village so it took them about a good thirty minutes before they actually reached the hotel that they were going to stay in for the night. Team seven didn't say much they all were physically and mentally tired so they all took turns to wash up and call it a night.
There was four beds in the room In normal hotel this many beds would be out of the question but for shinobi hotels the place was naturally built for squads. There was a moment of silence when everyone was in bed. Kakashi had a little night light for his personal reading. 'I guess ill read the next chapter then get some rest... I want them ready for the long run that we will have going back to konoah. Ill call it their final training regimen since the hikage has sonething special for them when they return '
"This is our first time all sleeping together guys." Sakura chirped. Her pink hair flipped when she turned to look at Sasuke who was nonchalantly looking at the ceiling.
"Do you wanna share beds with me Sasuke?" she asked her tone of voice was light and sultry. Sasuke coughed sharply obviously choking on a bit of spit. He had no clue what to say to her. Naruto and his damn sensei were quiet. They must of enjoyed how sasuke was reacting to the question and wanted to see what he would say in return.
"Are you okay Sasuke-kun" She asked as she appeared by Sasuke's bedside in a instant her face was so close to sasuke's that Naruto swore that they were going to kiss.
"Sakura can you please... give me some space." The young hurano backed up into her bed her eyes not leaving Sasuke.
'That's okay. when everybodies asleep Ill sneek in sasuke's bed and cuddle with him.' The room was silent after that. It was a comfortable silence. everyone was in their own corners. one by one Sasuke then Naruto fell asleep.
"Sakuraa." Kakashi chided. the young girl didn't move.
"I know your not sleep. You will have another chance at winning Sasuke's love another day but right now we are not in Konoah and we are still on duty...Get some rest because we have a long run ahead of us tomorrow." The pink haired girl gave a heavy sigh as she flipped back and forth to get comfortable.
" Okay Kakashi sensei." When Sakura finally fell asleep Kakashi snapped his book shut and turned off his lights. He looked at them and smiled. 'My cute lil genin. You all will be some fine shinobi when you gain some more experience and grow up... with my last breath I will be sure to see that happen.' Kakashi was smiling as he slept that night. He never did think of having kids of his own but training and watching those three grow gave the veteranl Jonin a strong fatherly feeling. He wanted to teach them everything he knew. Protect them from any kind of danger that came their way. But he wasn't a fool. He wouldn't be able to protect them from everything especially when they ranked up and started going on their own personal paths. He knew however that he was part of something big. He took part in training the most skilled ninjas in the elemental nations.