Chapter 7: Crane

For the last three years, Konoha was in a state of relative peace.

The Uchiha has finally calmed down to some extent. While some were still waiting for Konoha to fail them, but it was such a small population that they only needed a reassurance every now and then that the Uchiha will be back to its former glory, especially to the ones who were taking an active role in the coup's plan.

Shisui was grateful for the opportunity that Naruto had made for his clan, for him. Before, all Uchiha was required to live inside the specified land near the outskirts of Konoha's north gate, but now they could live outside the Uchiha district; like Shisui does this year with Itachi's suggestion.

Of course, there were problems like some clans' jealousy over the 'special treatment' the Uchiha have been receiving ever since the advisor Danzō died, but Shisui did not heed them. Such petty jealousy is not worth to worry about, because if one could see it clearly without bias, the Uchiha have had endured the discrimination for over fifty years, that had had only worsen ten years ago, and yet still fight with the very village that had discriminated them.

If that wasn't loyalty, Shisui didn't know what is.

Danzō viewed the Uchiha as a hazard to the village's safety, and yet it was the very exact opposite. Konoha, to a certain extent, made the Uchiha their own enemy by alienating them. Then the government decided that the Kyūbi couldn't attack without an Uchiha controlling it, and then they put the Uchiha under a heavy surveillance for over three years, and of course, some snapped and decided enough was enough.

Shisui couldn't really blame his clan for planning to overthrow the Hokage. He really couldn't.

A month ago, the Uchiha could finally let out a relieved breath because it was made official that he was going to be the next Hokage. After three years of discussing here and there, searching for political backings (he got the backing of the wife of the Daimyō, Jiraiya-san, Tsunade-san, Shikaku-san, the likes), the Sandaime decided on him after firing his own advisors, Koharu and Homura, who would perpetually disagree with the notion of an Uchiha Hokage.

Of course, he did ask Itachi first for permission to take the position. Shisui had known since the Sandaime declared it was either him or Itachi that was going to be the Godaime. But it was Itachi that had wanted peace, and kind of concluded that he wanted to be Hokage to make peace with every nation to prevent a war breaking up ever again. Itachi was the first to think that being a Hokage is a step to that plan, and Shisui couldn't help but feeling a bit guilty that Sandaime chose him over Itachi, even though the reasons Sandaime had given were sound.

And so he felt he had to ask his friend.

"It's not a big deal, I knew it's either you or me."

Shisui blinked with uncertainty at his friend. He finally let out a relieved sigh when Itachi shot him a displeased look because it was so Itachi.

"Thanks, Itachi."

They had been quietly competing for the title, a healthy rivalry like always, for the past three years and they agreed to not fight over it. It was a bit of a surprise when Itachi shrugged and actually said that he supported him. He had Naruto to check if Itachi was sincere or not―out of concern for Itachi's feelings―because for the past two years or so, Itachi had progressed in hiding his emotions quite well. When Naruto said Itachi is conflicted but happy for him, he guessed that it was all right.

Shisui smiled as he walked around the village, his eyes occasionally flickered to the Hokage mountain. He needed to get a closer look to the village he was going to lead, after all.

"Who's your jōnin instructor?"

Sasuke was about to take the ebi tempura on his plate when his father interrupted him.

"Hatake Kakashi," he answered, his chopsticks hanging in the air.

"Hmm." Fugaku stared at his youngest son, looking a bit detached as he said, "That boy, huh."

His father's reaction seemed subdued. Sasuke thought it was a bit odd for his father to make that face. His father was usually calm or had a small smile on his face. All the times he had spent to make his father proud made him adequate in distinguishing his father's facial expressions, so he knew clearly that his father was refraining himself.

"Ah, that's right." Mikoto paused from her meal and said to her husband beside her, "Kakashi-kun came with Hokage-sama today. You're at the office, right, dear?"

Fugaku briefly nodded and sipped his tea.

Itachi, who usually was silent during a meal, spoke, "I heard from Shisui that Naruto-san is your teammate."

Sasuke abruptly stopped chewing his food. His right eyebrow's twitched at the reminder.

"Naruto?" Mikoto repeated her chopsticks in the air. Her face soon morphed into what Sasuke could describe as 'giddy'. "Oh!" She looked over her son and beamed. "Get along with her, alright?"

Sasuke could only nod awkwardly to his mother and promptly continuing his meal.

Why did his mother know that moron?

"Going back to the academy?!"

"I didn't tell you?" Kakashi tilted his head, a red book titled 'Icha-Icha Violence' in his hand.

Naruto shook her head. She briefly looked at her teammates―they looked confused as well―and with uncertainty she uttered, "No, Kakashi-sensei."

"That's weird, I could have sworn..." Kakashi rubbed his chin while staring at them. "Huh, doesn't matter. Okay, guys, the rules are..."

Really, he shouldn't have assumed that Kakashi would be lazy with the 'survival training'. Shikamaru groaned, his head down. He couldn't feel his arms, he was tied to the wooden post. Did the jōnin had to tie it so hard? He was the one who made the two idiots―who for some reason decided to bicker instead of planning on how to defeat Kakashi―worked with him; so why did the crazy silver head decide to tie him up instead?

"Right, everyone." Kakashi clapped shut his red book and placed it in his pouch. "Honestly, I can't even find the words to insult you all because... frankly, you all suck."

The three of them stared impassively at him, tired of their jōnin mentor's antics.

"But you guys worked together... so, guess what?"

The dramatic pause was driving them the three of them crazy, so Naruto demanded quite rudely, "Just say it already, Kakashi-sensei."

The crinkled, visible eye of their teacher was the only thing that indicated that he was smiling as he said, "You all pass!" As if it was an afterthought, he added, "Isn't it great?"

Naruto groaned, she didn't feel excited from all the trashing their mentor had done.

While Sasuke, who was sitting beside his teammates, was looking at the sky like he was questioning his life at this very moment.

Shikamaru was already sleeping soundly at the post; tired after running around the training field.

If he could, he would remove that lazy jōnin out of the team, preferably Naruto as well because she, honestly, was too distracting. Shikamaru was okay, he only lacked motivation, but that could be fixed with the right motivation, force, and whatnot.

Sasuke couldn't believe it, he would prefer to be an academy student again rather than to be under the jōnin's wing. He lamented as he pulled the weeds. He couldn't count how many times he did the chores, but it was more than 10 for sure.

As he observed his teammates doing exactly the same thing as he was doing, Sasuke pondered just who was going to snap at this rate.

If he had to guess, it was either him or Naruto.

D-rank missions.

Oh, how he and his team loved them. For 3 months straight they babysit toddlers, cleaning river banks, cleaning parks, tending to gardens, chasing Tora the cat, and most importantly; escorting nobles from one of the Konoha's gates to the Hokage Tower and so forth.

All are safe and alright. Almost 100% no death guaranteed and the payment was nice. If he was any less sane, Kakashi would make them take D-rank missions only as long as possible, but even if he was, that would be nigh impossible.

Sometimes, he wondered what that old man with the red hat (Naruto's nickname for the Sandaime when she was complaining) was thinking to give him a free reign to three green genin fresh from the academy while he just had quited his ANBU duties for a 'vacation'.

He was going to fail every team the Sandaime would give him to, but the first time he was given a genin team; one of the members had a particular hair color he remembered so well, he might as well not passed them if it wasn't for their teamwork (forced teamwork or not, teamwork is teamwork).

"Gosh, Kakashi-sensei. We're not babies." A pair of blue eyes so familiar confronted him a day earlier, his chest tightened at the familiarity of the gaze. "We are shinobi. Please, take us seriously."

But his lone female student didn't want safe missions. His quiet (most of the time) and calm (usually) Uchiha student was at least agreeing with her, with all the intense stares he had received from the boy for the past months.

Kakashi wished they would understand, like Shikamaru―currently his favorite student so far―because eventually they would have to take C-rank missions and then before they knew it, A-rank and then S-rank; if they became capable shinobi in the future.

But he would prefer to delay the eventual.

After all, he might couldn't take it if something happened to them. He knew himself too well, he could live even if suddenly the world was bereft of humanity sans him, but he knew he would be utterly destroyed and would be a useless empty husk until death arrived if even one of them were dead early.

He rolled his eyes, sighing in defeat at the absurdity of his actions for the past three months. Kakashi felt his life was too dramatic at times.

Naruto growled, frustrated.

Her team was the cause. The only Uchiha on the team, Sasuke, is a quiet emotional asshole so unlike Itachi, she didn't even want to compare him to Shisui. And in addition to that, she couldn't handle the feel of his chakra when he brooded because of how nauseous it made her sometimes and the strangely nostalgic sense of it. Shikamaru-the-sloth was constantly moving like an extremely unmotivated deer; she believed that it was only Chōji who can stand him. On the other hand, their jōnin instructor, Kakashi-sensei, seemed to like to coddle them and hadn't done anything other than supervising and allow them to take D-ranked missions.

Naruto just wanted to scream because she could feel their emotions. At the core, the three were similar. She had the advantage and at the same time the disadvantage of having the ability to sense their emotions.

She preferred to sense and feel Tora's chakra all day long rather than being near them for even a minute. And Tora's chakra always made her agitated, so that's that.

Fortunately, she could close her sensing skills when she didn't want to sense anything. But it was like instinct ingrained in her to sense everything around her. Even without meaning to, she would open her senses sometimes.

Naruto sighed as she leaned over the wall behind her.

"Problems?"

Naruto honestly forgot that she was not alone. She felt that she couldn't bottle it up anymore and let out a moan of frustration.

"Please do something about Kakashi-sensei, Itachi-san. I can't take this anymore." She smothered her face with her sleeve. "I've thought that once I became a genin I would be able to test myself and all that... with cool missions, teammates and a reliable jōnin instructor. Not this," Naruto growled out, "this so-called team!"

Itachi raised his eyebrows, intrigued. He was here waiting for his daily training with Shisui. Sometimes, he would indulge his friend's... roommate, but this was new. To his knowledge, Naruto rarely complained unless she was stressed or pressed on by someone.

"Sasuke's never said anything." He furrowed his eyebrows, bewildered.

"Of course he wouldn't," Naruto grumbled under her breath and asked, "Is he incapable of saying nice things?"

"What are you talking about?" Itachi blinked, his head titled to the right in a perfect picture of bewilderment.

Naruto stared at him for a while and then slumped over. She forgot that Itachi was almost blind to Sasuke's faults. Shisui often complained about that and she actually had seen him being oblivious about it, and she forgot.

Itachi, although still confused, stated, "If you have a problem with your jōnin instructor, I'm happened to be friends with Kakashi-senpai."

Naruto looked up, hopeful. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Thank goodness." If Naruto wasn't slumped on the ground, she would be hugging Itachi to death now. "Could you tell Kakashi-sensei to treat us seriously? Honestly, I'm getting sick of doing chores and no training. And―"

"Itachi, let's go." Shisui emerged from his room.

With a quick nod from Itachi, they took off.

"Damn it, Shisui," she muttered and lied down on the floor, already used to Shisui's daily impromptu exits.

Naruto closed her eyes as she mused randomly; why did Summer in Konoha have to be this unbearable that she had to be on the floor to cool down?

"Team Seven reporting for duty."

"Oh, right." Iruka glanced at them, noticing the two new graduates and Naruto. "Let's see. Are you guys up for pulling weeds at the village's outskirts―"

"Again?" Sasuke rolled his eyes, finally verbally complaining for the first time. "I'm sick of this."

"You're not alone," Naruto muttered under her breath.

Ignoring Sasuke's crude complaint, Iruka continued on, "... or chasing Tora the cat―"

Naruto shuddered, and immediately interrupted.

"Please no. Not again." Naruto had plenty of times chasing that cat ever since she was an academy student. She didn't want to chase that abomination again when she was now a genin for months already.

Kakashi took pity of his student's plea and asked, "Is there another mission without animals in it?"

Iruka looked over the mission lists and told, "We're currently short for D-ranks."

"Mhm... then, a C-rank mission, please," Kakashi nonchalantly requested.

Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Naruto could only gape at their mentor.

Is the sky falling down? After three months of nothing but D-ranks?

The three exchanged glances and nodded. They were mutually relieved about this.

Even Shikamaru, the least active out of his teammates, was getting tired of doing nothing but paid chores that are D-rank missions.

"This will be your first mission outside the village, huh." Shisui observed the frantic looking Naruto who was excited and nervous at the same time.

"Yeah, finally!" she grinned, arms holding a bunch of scrolls that she quickly shoved into her backpack. "A C-rank mission~!" she sang.

Shisui smiled softly. "It's just a C-rank and you are already this excited."

"Hell yeah! You know, I've never been outside the village." Naruto sighed happily. "So I'm curious about what it's like out there."

"Well, Hi no Kuni's eastern borders' climate is almost the same as here, only a little bit colder because it's nearer to Mizu no Kuni." Shisui grabbed a ladle and started stirring the boiling vegetables in the sukiyaki pot as he watched Naruto stuffed her frog shaped pouch into her backpack.

"That's a boring trivia." Naruto pouted, her eyes scanning her belongings to ensure that she didn't forget something. "I don't have to know that, right?"

"It's useful." At Naruto's disinterested stare, he chuckled. "Like, for an example; you need to borrow an extra jacket or two if you're traveling there in October." Shisui was speaking from his experiences going there in late October. Konoha has never had a winter with a 1 meter-thick pile of snow in October, so it was memorable to him for the reason that it was difficult for him to adjust to the weather.

"It's June now, I'm sure even the cold Mizu no Kuni would be hot." Naruto sat down on the couch, finished with packing her things.

"Are we there yet?"

Naruto's eye twitched dangerously. For one hour, that was all Shikamaru had said under his breath. She didn't know why, but her ears were sensitive enough to pick the crap Shikamaru had been uttering for the last hour.

"Do you like something from this trip?" she finally snapped, addressing the Nara. "Like, the scenery, perhaps?" All she received was a noncommittal shrug from the boy. Naruto had to dismiss the urge to send that lazy bastard back to Konoha via Naruto's Delivery Service (which involved lots of chakra and punches) because he had, for the umpteenth time, answered her non-verbally.

Sasuke scoffed, joining the conversation after a one hour silence. "We're only here to deliver scrolls to the eastern borders. Stop talking nonsense and keep silent, idiot."

At the rate this was going, Naruto would explode. Literally and figuratively; her chakra could be explosive and she could rant for days if she wanted to.

Kakashi hummed a tune beside her, probably noticing the growing ire on Naruto's visage.

"Guys, it's a two-day trip, let's be good to each other, okay? Especially you, Sasuke-kun."

Was it just her, or did Kakashi just threatened Sasuke, of all people? Naruto's heart leaped, happy for the first time with her jōnin mentor. Did Itachi say something to Kakashi that made him scold Sasuke? Whatever it was, Naruto was grateful, because this was the first time Kakashi had intervened with Sasuke's harsh words.

"Tch." Sasuke looked away, almost looking like a petulant child.

Naruto paid him no mind, unconsciously skipping from the high energy she hadn't spent today.

The client, Terumi Shouji, was on top of his black horse. He told them that the horse was apparently named 'Shiro' for the white strips near his head.

"Good job, Team Seven!" The client smiled while holding the scrolls close to his chest. The man's joy was contagious, Naruto smiled back at the man before suddenly a barrage of shuriken came at their direction.

When they finally realized they were attacked, their client was already dead.

They were running and their team leader, Kakashi, was holding back 2 jōnin; leaving the six Kiri chūnin to chase them not far behind.

At first, they didn't want to run. However, Kakashi ordered them to split up from him and run far away as possible, and they did so because the two Kiri chūnin teams weren't the usual bandits, genin, or low-level chūnin that were expected from a C-rank mission.

One of them started throwing lava around, and that was their cue to obey.

"We can't keep running," Shikamaru said, for once his visage was serious. "We have to request for a reinforcement. Our country's borders has been breached. We can't keep silent and deal it ourselves."

Sasuke nodded to him as he dodged the tree that he would have crashed into if he hadn't. "I agree. But how? If only one of us had a summon," Sasuke looked them over, "or we actually have to split up and distract them."

Naruto's thought process was frantic, but finally, she shouted, "I have one!" She slowed down and stopped.

Sasuke and Shikamaru, surprised by that, simultaneously jumped backward in order to not leave her behind.

She bit her thumb and slammed her hand down to the ground. She had to thank that giant perverted old man for this.

Once the poof went away, it revealed a normal sized orange toad.

"Gamakichi!"

'Thank goodness it's not Gamatatsu.' Naruto patted her chest, relieved. She had a good feeling that Gamatatsu couldn't be counted on at a time like this. She hadn't trained much with the summoning jutsu; so she had assumed it would be either Gamakichi, Gamatatsu, or even a tadpole.

"Naruto?" Gamakichi stared up at Naruto and briefly scanned his surroundings. "What is it?"

Naruto narrowed her eyes and barked, "Team Seven needs reinforcement! Two Kirigakure teams are attacking! Straight to my apartment, got it?"

Gamakichi nodded and promptly poofed away to Konoha.

"Why your apartment, usuratonkachi!" Sasuke loudly scolded.

Shikamaru sighed while looking at them. He motioned for them to move, and so they jumped from tree to tree again.

"Um, because Shisui's probably there to receive the message?" Naruto scratched the back of her head as she leaped from a tree branch to another. To her knowledge, this year, Shisui was exempt from his regular duty because he was training with the Sandaime. He would be home around this time.

"Shisui... that name sounds familiar," Sasuke muttered under his breath. "Better be a reliable person or we are done for."

Not soon after he said that a shower of lava was raining down upon them.

Shisui was enjoying the daifuku and bitter green tea he had bought after his 'training' session with the Sandaime in his (read: Naruto and his) apartment when something hit his middle section like a bulldozer.

"Ack!" he almost chocked on his food, but alarmed enough not to gulp it down yet. Surprised at the unexpected attack, he said, "What the―?"

A yellow toad was staring at him.

'Is that Jiraiya-san's summon?' Shisui pondered.

"Naruto said Team Seven needs reinforcement."

Shisui's face quickly grew rigid. "Oh?" His lips twitched, arms folded in front of his chest. "The situation, please."

"Er," Gamakichi gulped, a bit scared by the threatening aura Shisui was unconsciously emitting, but nonetheless continued on, "it seems that two teams from Kiri ambushed them."

Shisui huffed as he ruffled his hair, his gaze to the side after he saw that Gamakichi was intimidated by his stare, even though he didn't let any intent. "You're dismissed."

Not wanting to be there any longer, Gamakichi disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Sasuke stared in astonishment.

There was a giant barrier around him and his teammates, protecting them from the hot shower of lava outside.

"Guys," Naruto was crouching down and there were two chains protruding from behind her back, "I can't keep this for long."

Shikamaru, who had closed his eyes, snapped his eyes open when he heard Naruto. He immediately scanned the surroundings behind the barrier with a shiver. Unable to see the situation outside because of the steam the rain of lava was producing, he ran to Naruto, who had made the barrier. After he was about a meter from Naruto, he pressed his lips together as his hands formed a rat handseal, ready to perform his clan jutsu whenever.

Sasuke, who was quick to follow, moved closer to Naruto and noticed her ragged breath.

"How long?" he asked, eyes darted around.

Naruto concentrated on her chakra reserves, calculating it. She said with minor difficulty, "Three minutes, tops."

Sasuke kneeled down beside his teammate. He unknowingly activating his Sharingan, as he witnessed the horrifying sight of trees around him melting and burning.

When the barrier was down, there was no more lava raining down upon them. But...

"Move!" Sasuke barked at her, his face twisted with urgency as his hand reached out to his teammate's direction.

... sharp, pointy rocks emerged from the grounds.

Naruto wasn't used from using the Kongō Fūsa (Adamantine Sealing Chains) for almost four minutes (because the hot rain hadn't yet stoped fro three minutes straight), and it pushed her ability of using it to her limits. She was too late to realize the sudden emerging rocks as she was momentarily distracted by the rapid depletion of her chakra reserves.

If it hadn't for Sasuke, who grabbed her and threw her away, Naruto would be severely injured by now.

Although it only took about ten minutes for Shisui to reach them (he knew all the details because Naruto couldn't stop talking about going to the eastern borders), he couldn't help but lamented that he was not fast enough to save Sasuke, who was unfortunately impaled in his right chest and arms by the sudden emerging of rocks earlier. He had to trust Naruto, the only one in Team 7 with a decent skill in iryojutsu, to take care of Sasuke's injuries.

A determined Shikamaru was holding two Kiri chūnin down, while two were immobilized from the many stab wounds Naruto had inflicted earlier with her chakra chains. The other two chūnin got scratched by Shikamaru, who was throwing paper bombs at them left and right, but they were still able to stand.

The six were still alive and fine.

Shisui knew he needed only one to extract information from, as his sharingan examined their facial expressions and body languages.

He extracted his short sword from his back and used Shunshin (Body Flicker) repeatedly to appear behind the 5 of them and sliced their necks, leaving a fatal injury for each. No one was retaliating because they obviously were middle level shinobi with generic skills, and he was too fast for them to counter. It was easy for him to pick the older, seemingly more knowledgeable of the bunch with a thin cut near his jugular to interrogate.

Unfortunately, extreme measures had to be taken; the Kiri shinobi were not supposed to be here, after all.

.

.

.

Red eyes were gleaming as they were directed at a barely conscious shinobi wearing the Kiri forehead protector.

"Tell me all you know about the Akatsuki."

.

.

.

Pained screams echoed throughout the burning forest.

"C'mon, heal quickly, dammit."

Naruto wished things were different. If they hadn't been stubborn and demand an early C-rank mission, Sasuke wouldn't be in this state, protecting her from the sudden rock spikes. If the client was more informative, the mission wouldn't be a failure. So many things she wished were different and she honestly wanted to blame someone, either herself, the client, or even Kakashi-sensei.

But blaming someone or something would do nothing, all she had to do was to focus on maintaining her healing chakra.

And of course, ignoring the sounds of pained screams that one enemy was producing in the background.

She knew she was low on chakra. Even so, when the green chakra that coated her hands diminished, disbelief swelled inside her.

Panicked but trying to be calm, Naruto squeezed her eyes shut as she hoped for her chakra to recover quickly. She opened her eyes and looked at her hands. Something urged her to put the side of her thumb near Sasuke's mouth, and she did just that and promptly forced him to bite it.

Suddenly, green, visible chakra coated Sasuke's entire body.

Naruto wasn't sure why she did what she did, but she sure as hell wouldn't question it. Or, she couldn't even contemplate it because as soon as the green chakra coated Sasuke's body, she collapsed face first on top of Sasuke's stomach.

Kakashi was hovering over his students, subtly. His eyes constantly flickered between them and the mess in front of him. Shikamaru, his favorite, was out cold on the stretcher Shisui had brought with him. Naruto was on the ground beside a peaceful, yet battered looking Sasuke. All three of them are unconscious.

He was left breathless as he waited for them to wake up. He was reminded of his former team who he shouldn't even think of in this situation, because every time he did so, he was left trembling uncontrollably for a few seconds because he would calmed himself down by remembering the positive memories.

After he observed the state of the forest, Kakashi bowed his head.

Kiri, as usual, is ruthless and unpredictable. Nothing has changed since ten years ago.

"Kakashi."

What did he do to deserve two students who won't call him 'sensei'? Kakashi himself admitted that he was an asshole before Obito's death, but he knew he was a polite one. He was not like Sasuke or even his―currently― favorite student, Shikamaru. But even the young Nara would call him by his given name.

Although the reason he liked Shikamaru was because he was too lazy to talk―Kakashi liked the silence sometimes― but if he were honest with himself, his favorite will be Naruto who was his glue to care for the team for she resembled Rin quite a bit, and even Obito to some extent.

"Hmm?" His back was on the shōji door behind him, effectively blocking anyone from exiting or entering the room. Sasuke was tapping his foot, while he leaned to the wall beside him. He looked like he had just got back from the restroom. "Ah, sorry." Kakashi slid forward, letting Sasuke went inside.

"How are they?" Sasuke's dark gray eyes landed on both of his teammates' still forms.

It was murmured, but Kakashi had a really good hearing so even without concentrating, he had picked that up. "They're fine," he told.

Sasuke looked at Naruto a bit longer than Shikamaru, he put his hands inside his pants' pockets. "What a moron," he mumbled under his breath.

Kakashi hid his crinkled eye behind his red book and said, "She is, right?" Looking at the Uchiha, he was reminded of Obito. He had heard from Shisui―who was told by Shikamaru― that the boy was protecting Naruto by throwing Naruto, with all his might, to a safe spot uncovered with lava. That was just too Obito that he chuckled while flipping the page of the book he currently was reading.

Sasuke turned his back on his jōnin mentor, cheeks red. He was embarrassed that he was heard. He was just insulting Naruto for healing him to the point that she fainted. He didn't need for that jōnin to comment on what he was saying.

There were new footsteps outside and someone Sasuke wasn't expecting sliding the paper door. Though it explained why they were here at a random ryokan who knows where and not dead.

"You're not supposed to be up yet, Sasuke." The newcomer frowned at him.

"Shisui-san," Sasuke briefly inclined his head to his fellow clan member, "thank you for coming."

Kakashi took note of the rare display of respect from Sasuke and quietly sighed in dismay, concerned with the boy's behavior. At first he thought the boy was incapable of being respectful. But now that he knew Sasuke could be polite when he wanted to, he needed to arrange some training for his team to be polite if needed (Naruto sometimes called their D-rank clients with nicknames in front of their faces, even if he knew it was unacceptable, he ignored it before because... just because).

"Don't mention it." Shisui's gaze wandered to the pained-looking Naruto. "Chakra Exhaustion?" he inquired his fellow jōnin.

Kakashi took one look at Naruto and nodded. "Apparently."

"Typical." Shisui pursed his lips and plopped down on the corner of the room. "Once they wake up, we're going back," Shisui informed Sasuke, who was examining his backpack.

Sasuke nodded, and said with his back turned, "Understood."

They were in a six mat tatami room. With five people in such a room, it would surely be a long night for them.

Author's Note: I tried. But apparently, I can't write action scenes... oh well. It's not like I'm a real author... right? *nervous chuckles*

Btw, I hope you all enjoy this. If not, well, tell me, alright?

See you!

-Tonegawa Rie

P.S. Crane symbolizes 'longevity' and 'eternal-youth' in Japan, so I thought it would fit with the Healing Bite ability.

Edit: November 3rd, 2018. I don't know how it happened, but this chapter went from 3k+ words to 5k+ words.