so i dont know what happened with the other version of this chapter. it did not look like that when i hit save and posted it. but this version is fixed. sorry to everyone!
Their first couple of missions weren't anything either of the new genin found impressive. It had mostly been recovering lost pets for wealthy people from surrounding villages, a simple task for the genin to continue practicing their skills and teamwork, but by the third pet recovery mission Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto wanted to pull their hair out. Naruto, true to himself, was the only one to voice his complaint directly to Kakashi.
"Sensei," he boasted, "if I have to catch another cat for a rich fat lady, I'll go crazy!"
Kakashi glanced up from his book only for a second before looking back down. "These are important missions for genin. You three passed my teamwork exam, but there are still a lot of bumps you need to work out."
"Yes...but Kakashi-sensei," Sakura spoke up, "isn't there another type of mission we could do? That doesn't involve finding escaped cats?"
Kakashi looked up again and looked between Sakura and Naruto. Then he turned his gaze to Sasuke. "Do you feel the same, Sasuke?"
Sasuke stood nearby with his arms folded. "...They are getting repetitive..."
Kakashi thought it over for a moment. "Alright then...when we meet with the Hokage, you all can voice your concerns then and see if he gives you something other than pet wrangling." In truth, Kakashi wasn't sure if the Hokage would grant such a thing, there might not be anything else at the moment, and even if there were, he might not deem it suitable for team 7. But he supposed there was no harm in asking. Best to quell this aggravation as early as possible.
When the team gathered in front of the Hokage for their next mission, Naruto spoke up without waiting for the Hokage to finish speaking. Kakashi inwardly sighed and wondered if he was going to get yelled at later. Their former teacher Iruka scolded the young ninja, but the Hokage waved him off.
"Well...there is another D-rank that recently came in. A young lady from a neighboring village requests helps in the matters of the heart."
"What," Naruto whined and pulled a face.
"Naruto!" Sakura elbowed him in his side. "What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"
"Further details of this mission are only to be given out when it is officially accepted."
"It's not pet wrangling," Kakashi pointed out.
"Playing matchmaker doesn't seem like a mission for a ninja," Sasuke mumbled under his breath.
Sakura grabbed both Naruto and Sasuke and pulled them closer to herself and Kakashi.
"I think we should accept it," she said.
"But Sakura-chan-"
"I'm not finished," she continued. "I know it might not be typical of what you think of a mission, but I think this could be a good chance for us to practice our information gathering skills. Especially you, Naruto."
"Hey!"
Sasuke stayed silent but nodded along.
Naruto grumbled, but he couldn't disagree...plus there didn't seem to be anything else at the moment. He folded his arms. "Fine! But I bet I can gather information better than the both of you!"
Sakura rolled her eyes, and Kakashi accepted the mission for them. The Hokage told them that the young woman who hired them would be downstairs in a waiting room so that she can give them the rest of the details. Downstairs the four ninjas found a young lady, maybe one or two years older than the genin themselves standing with an attendant.
She was a very lovely young lady, taller than all three genin with a slim frame. She had olive tone skin and long dark brown hair with thick bangs covering her forehead. She wore a lovely light purple kimono with a golden flower pattern decorated on it. She had serious, dark brown eyes that looked over team 7, considering them. After a moment, she started to sob. The four ninjas looked between themselves.
"E-Excuse me," she said, wiping at her eyes. "I don't mean to break down in front of you. I've simply been under a lot of stress lately."
"Don't push yourself too hard," the attendant said, "I can explain if it's too much for you."
"Is this about the matter of the heart," Sakura asked.
The young lady nodded. "Forgive me, where are my manners. My name is Mikiko, and this is Mai. We are from a nearby village. I've requested help to catch my cheating fiance!"
A look of shock crossed the genin's faces.
"You're already getting married!?" Naruto asked.
"We're not getting married yet," Mikiko said, a blush covering her cheeks. "But he is my fiance."
"Excuse me, Mikiko-san," Sakura spoke up, "How do you know your fiance is cheating?"
Mikiko started to cry again, and Mai spoke up.
"That's where you all will come in. Throughout our village, there has been a lot of gossip about Mikiko-sama's fiance. She does her best to ignore it, she simply thought it was other jealous ladies since her fiance is young Koharu, he's a very popular young man," Mai explained. "But over time they've become something Mikiko-sama cannot ignore. It's starting to cause strain in their relationship. We've tried to investigate ourselves, but Koharu knows all of our people very well and could, if he wanted to, hide his activities from us.
We think having people from outside of our village gather information for us will be our best bet to silence all of the detractors and help Mikiko-sama regain confidence."
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kakashi thought all of that sounded convoluted, but Sakura moved forward the took Mikiko's hands.
"Don't worry, Mikiko-san; we'll gladly handle this for you."
Mikiko sniffled. "Oh, thank you all so much! It means a lot to me!"
"Alright, team," Kakashi spoke up. "Let's gather our supplies. We head out in a couple of hours. We'll meet near the front gates."
With that, everyone went home to gather up their things. Though Sasuke didn't voice it, he did think that this mission would be useful to him in the long run. He scored the highest marks during his academy days, but he hadn't actually had much chance to test his reconnaissance skills. He would take this mission seriously, even if he didn't care about romance.
Sakura would also be taking the mission various seriously, but unlike Sasuke, she did care about lady Mikiko and her romance troubles. Not being able to trust someone you love and care about must feel terrible. One can only hear something over and over so many times before they start to believe it. If Mikiko wanted to hire them, she must feel very lost and stressed out. She hoped that the rumors were simply rumors and didn't have any truth to them; she didn't want to deliver bad news to Mikiko and break her heart.
Naruto, in contrast, didn't think this mission would be very serious. At least not the romance part of it. But did want to prove Sakura wrong; he knew that people found him loud and annoying, but that didn't make him terrible at gathering information. He wasn't the screw-up people thought he was in the academy. He was a full-fledge ninja, and he would get everyone to acknowledge him as such.
When the three genin were ready, they gathered at the front gate along with Kakashi, Mai, and Mikiko.
"Alright, team seven," Kakashi said. "Our mission starts now. Let's go!"