Apologies for the delay; I was working pretty hard on my oneshot and finishing up Hatsukoi. But here we are with chapter five!

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or anything associated with it. All rights to Naruto belong to Masashi Kishimoto and the other proper entities.

Summary: Sakura had been by his side since he lost his family, following him around since they were seven years old, trying to ease his loneliness in whatever way she could. He didn't even know why he allowed it. He just silently allowed her to claim the seat next to him at the beginning of every term.

Rating: M

Genre: Friendship/Romance

Pairings: SasuSaku / eventual light NaruHina

Rays of Spring Sunshine

Chapter Five

Their first mission outside the village began with a bang.

Not a literal one of course, but close enough.

Sasuke was the first to react as Kakashi was torn apart. The two enemy nin wasted no time in moving on to Naruto as their next target; Sasuke leapt into the air, knocking the chain that they'd used to tear Kakashi apart into a nearby tree with a shuriken and pinning it there with a kunai. Then, grabbing the odd, barrel like weapons on their gauntlets, he kicked out on both sides, hard enough to send the kiri-nin reeling and break the chain that linked them. They recovered quickly; one sped for Naruto. The other ran at Tazuna, their client.

"Stay behind me, Tazuna-san!"

Sasuke barely had time to decide which teammate to help; in fact, he didn't even make a conscious choice. On instinct, his feet carried him toward the blob of pink that had placed herself between the client and their attacker. He glared at the approaching kiri-nin in defiance. He was coiled tightly like a spring, ready to leap into action within a split second.

Until Kakashi appeared and incapacitated both enemy nin in the blink of an eye.

Show off, Sasuke grumbled internally, sneaking a look over to the mangled remains of a log that Kakashi must have used for kawarimi. He felt Sakura exhale in relief behind him and felt a stab of irritation.

"Sorry for not helping out right away, Naruto. I got you hurt." Kakashi was saying to the blonde. "I didn't think you wouldn't be able to move."

Sasuke eyed Naruto critically. The boy was picking himself up off the ground, face a blank mask of shock. It must have been his first taste of real, life-or-death violence, Sasuke realised. He knew it was Sakura's, too. But she, at least, had followed their academy training and moved to defend the client. She probably would have been killed if the kiri-nin had reached her—a thought that Sasuke shied away from, because it hadn't happened and there was no need to dwell—but she had at least moved. Naruto had, for all his bluster, just stalled.

Tch, Sasuke thought, he's not cut out to be a shinobi.

"Anyway," Kakashi approached them, "good work, Sasuke. You too, Sakura."

Sakura was plainly relieved that the whole situation as over with. Her shoulders sagged at Kakashi's acknowledgement and she fidgeted, shifting from foot to foot and wringing her hands the way she did when Sasuke knew she was trying to hide how pleased she was. The smile on her face was wide as she looked up at their sensei, eyes alight with admiration.

Sasuke turned to Naruto, annoyed. The boy was staring at him. "Yo."

Naruto gave a start; Sasuke smirked.

"Are you hurt… scaredy-cat?"

The anger and frustration that crossed Naruto's face was worth it. The blonde snarled and started toward him. "Sasuke—!"

"Naruto!"

They all froze at Kakashi's sharpness. Sasuke half-listened to Kakashi's explanation of poison in favour of eyeing up Tazuna. The guy was fidgety, looking at the trees warily. His suspicions were proven valid when Kakashi half-turned to the old man and said, "I need to talk to you." in a soft voice.

Sasuke just rolled his eyes at Naruto as he made his little speech. He was already annoyed at Sakura's quickness to suggest abandoning the mission and turn tail to run back to the village, but Naruto's melodramatics were really unnecessary.

"Naruto," Kakashi drawled, "it's great that you took out the poisoned blood, but you're gonna bleed to death if you lose any more." Naruto froze. Kakashi's eye crinkled as he squatted down in front of him. "It's not gonna be good if you don't stop the bleeding. Seriously."

Naruto freaked out. Sakura approached with hands on her hips. "Naruto, you're such a masochist." She scolded, digging in her pack for the first aid kit. "Whoever heard of someone stabbing their own hand? Seriously?!"

"Moron." Sasuke muttered. Kakashi was fucking with him. It'd take several hours at the rate he was bleeding to die of blood loss.

"And you shouldn't tease him like that, sensei." Sakura said to Kakashi as he began to wrap up the wound. "Naruto's stupid enough to believe you when you say those things."

"W-were you making fun of me, sensei?" Naruto stammered. "Am I really gonna be okay?"

"Hm?" Kakashi looked up from the bandage. "Oh, you'll be fine. Just keep this bandaged up for a few days." He finished up and straightened. "Let me just send a message to Konoha about these two," he eyed the kiri-nin, "and we can decide what to do from there."

Kakashi showed them his summoning jutsu, a small pug-like ninken appearing in a puff of smoke. "Everyone, this is Pakkun." He introduced the dog.

"You three must be Kakashi's new pups." The small dog sniffed at their shoes. Sasuke caught the way Sakura's eyes shined as she kneeled down to properly introduce herself to the ninken. They'd learned about them in the Academy; the Inuzuka clan were famous for their use of ninken partners, like Kiba and Akamaru. And there were other animals that could be summoned, he knew. Sasuke had vague memories of his father and… that person… summoning crows to send messages back and forth. He pushed the thought away.

"I'm Sakura." Sakura greeted the dog, voice high and bright. "This is Sasuke-kun," she pointed to him, "and this is—"

"Naruto." Pakkun interrupted her, sniffing at the hand she offered him. "I've seen him before."

"You have?" Naruto demanded. "When?!"

"Never mind that now." Kakashi interrupted. "Pakkun, I need you to take a message to the village for me." He held out the scroll he'd written just before summoning the dog. "We're only about three hours away by foot; it shouldn't take you too long." Pakkun grumbled, but took the scroll. When he was out of sight, Kakashi turned to the two tied up nin. "Alright, you two. Lights out."

He hit a few pressure points on the struggling enemies, dropping them into unconsciousness within seconds. Sakura sucked in a breath, impressed. Sasuke just looked bored. "So what are we doing now?" He demanded. "The shinobi rules state that if the client lies about the parameters of the mission that we're not obligated to continue with it."

"That's true." Kakashi nodded, making Tazuna freeze up. "But we're less than two days from the border. It'll be a while before anyone figures out that the planned assassination was a failure; we can at least get him home for now. Besides," his eye crinkled in what must have been a smile, "this mission just went from C- to B-rank. The pay's better."

Naruto cheered at the idea of more money.

Sakura chewed her lip. "But, sensei, the mission was to protect him until he finishes his bridge. What if they send stronger shinobi next time?"

Kakashi ruffled her hair, causing her to squeak and bat his hand away, trying to fix the damage. "Don't worry, Sakura. I won't let my cute little students get hurt."

Sakura's cheeks puffed out in annoyance. Sasuke glared.

The rest of the day was spent hiking in tense silence. Even Sakura was too nervous to speak, too busy eyeing the trees for potential threats to bother anyone. Naruto grumbled to himself a little, but Sasuke ignored him. Kakashi kept his position at the front; Sasuke walked at the back.

No one spoke.

They crossed into Wave country at midmorning. They crossed the river by boat under the cover of fog, and quickly made their way through the small settlement and into the surrounding woods. By now, Tazuna had spilled the beans about the truth of the threat. Sasuke was on edge. Sakura was tense but alert. Naruto had recovered his usual exuberance and was making an idiot out of himself as normal.

"There!" The blonde idiot flung a kunai into the bushes. Nothing happened. "Huh. Guess it was just a mouse."

Sasuke had been expecting something of the sort for hours now. Naruto's stupidity was legendary among their former classmates. He wondered what, exactly, he'd done in a previous life to get stuck with the dead-last loser.

"Naruto!" Sakura's voice was shrill. "Stop showing off! There's nothing there!" Sasuke ignored Tazuna's sputtering, fighting the urge to punch his teammate.

He saw Kakashi tense just as Naruto threw another kunai into a different bush. "There!"

Sakura had had enough, it seemed. She marched over to Naruto and punched him in the face. Sasuke felt a grim satisfaction, even if he hadn't been the one to deal the blow. "There's nothing there, you idiot!"

"I swear I saw something!"

What happened next was very quick: One second, Sakura was yelling at Naruto for scaring a rabbit—the next, Kakashi shoved Tazuna to the ground and shouted "Get down!"

Sasuke dropped. He heard Naruto and Sakura grunt as she tackled him to the ground. Something whirred over their heads, fluttering the hairs on the back of Sasuke's neck. When he looked up, there was a large sword embedded in a nearby tree—the thing that had flown over them. Even more striking, though, was the man who stood on it, balanced on the hilt.

Kakashi straightened as the three genin and Tazuna climbed to their feet. "Well, well. If it isn't the nukenin Momichi Zabuza, formerly of Kirigakure." He said conversationally. Sasuke didn't miss the way his body tensed for a fight, even as he addressed the other man cordially.

But Naruto, the supreme, dead-last moron that he was, did.

Kakashi held out a hand to stop Naruto's foolhardy charge. "All of you, stay back." He said, tone quiet and serious. It was nothing like the casual tones they were used to hearing from him. "This guy's way above your level."

Sakura knees knocked together throughout the whole exchange. In all honesty, she was too afraid to take anything in; Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate to reveal a red eye that sent a jolt of recognition through her. He offered Sasuke a vague promise of protection and the next thing she knew, she was being flung to the ground and Kakashi was trapped. Then Naruto was running at the enemy nin like an idiot and getting himself hurt.

She stuck close to Tazuna while the boys worked together to free Kakashi-sensei, and then the mist descended again and she couldn't see anything. Sasuke was nearby and Naruto was in the water, and Sensei and Zabuza were fighted with clones and misdirection until a hunter-nin from Kirigakure took Zabuza out.

She didn't relax even as Naruto was throwing his hissy fit.

"In this world," Kakashi said to him, "there are people who are younger than you and stronger than me. That's just the way it is."

And then he promptly collapsed.

Sasuke's mind was churning with questions by the time they reached Tazuna's home. Between he and Naruto, they'd dragged the unconscious Kakashi the rest of the way, and laid him out on the futon Tazuna's daughter dragged out for him. He could hear Sakura quietly fretting behind him when they stepped out of the room to let him rest before settling around the table in the kitchen.

"What's wrong with him?" She asked in a small voice.

Sasuke closed his eyes and, despite his best efforts, remembered a conversation his mother had had with him once when he was five; that person had just returned from training, and Sasuke's mother had prevented him from bothering him after he went upstairs to sleep.

"He used a lot of chakra today, practicing with the sharingan. Let him rest for now, okay Sasuke-chan?"

He sighed. "It's most likely chakra exhaustion." He said to the tabletop.

"Oh." Sakura accepted that answer.

"What's that mean?" Naruto demanded, looking between them. Sasuke didn't bother answering.

Sakura, though, did. "It means he used too much chakra and his body is recovering. He'll probably be out of it for a while."

"How long?"

"We don't know, Naruto." Sakura sighed. "It's different for everyone."

Sasuke ignored them. He wanted to know how Kakashi of all people could have acquired the sharingan. He wasn't a member of the Uchiha clan; Sasuke would know.

"Did you see that red eye of his though?" Naruto's grating voice broke through Sasuke's thoughts. "That thing looks wicked cool!"

Sasuke twitched. He was just about to open his mouth to tell Naruto to shut the fuck up about his family's kekkei-genkai when Sakura said softly, "I've seen someone else with eyes like that before."

That single, solitary sentence arrested his attention like nothing Sakura had ever said. His head snapped up to stare at her; for once, he couldn't school the surprise that washed over his features. It only seemed to grow when he realised she was looking at him. "Who?" He demanded roughly. Sakura had been far too young to have much to do with his clan members when they were killed. Had she seen a police officer making an arrest or something? It was the only explanation that he could feasibly come up with. However, it wasn't the answer she gave.

She tilted her head and blinked at him. "You, Sasuke-kun."

I'm kinda skipping over bits and pieces that are similar to canon. Mostly because I don't want to rehash things that already happened. We're here for the fan part of the fanfiction after all!