Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
Chapter 6: Objects in Mirror are Closer Than they Appear
Sakura lifted her sweaty braid off the back of her neck and twisted it up into a bun, securing the cord of hair with an elastic tie from her wrist. The heat and humidity in the hills that surrounded Takikawa on all sides was smothering. Her wheat colored tunic was stuck to every side her she knew they still have a good four hour walk to go.
Glancing to the front of the slow moving covered wagon she saw Sasuke ignoring Iyori's attempts at conversation. The youngest of the four guardsmen that accompanied the party on their journey was somewhat ironically dismayed by how young her team was.
Sakura was a little unsure of this entire outing herself. They left the outpost two days ago. They were due back tomorrow to report to Raidô at 1800 hours sharp. They would spend tonight at another small village as they had done the two previous nights. It was the last stop on their mission and Sakura would be thankful when it was over.
In her opinion they shouldn't have taken it to begin with. Raidô voiced his reluctance in giving them this mission but also admitted that he did not really have a choice. Someone needed to take the mission and the assigned team was missing in action.
Both Naruto and Sasuke had seemed so pleased to take on a C-rank by themselves that Sakura kept her misgivings to herself. Plus Raidô explained how important this mission was to Konoha's relationship with Takikawa and Sakura couldn't fault his argument.
It really wasn't a difficult mission either. So far the only action were some miners glaring threateningly at the tax officials as they did their job.
Another guard fell into step next to her without a word. Kaito was a rather odd man. He was quiet and polite. He didn't seem to enjoy the company of the fellow guards and sat alone at meal times. He especially avoided the most boisterous of guards who Naruto took to quickly. On the second night Sakura finally attempted speaking to him and to her surprise found that instead of being reclusive he was just painfully shy.
She found out he was married and after asking about his family Kaito produced a picture of his wife and two young sons. Sakuracomplimented him on his family and the brown haired man blushed and stuttered out a thank you.
The pink haired genin did not attempt to speak to her walking companion as they followed the wagon, continuing on in silence. Kaito probably wouldn't appreciate her chatter and Sakura really didn't feel like trying to pull words from the introverted man.
Much later, Sakura would admit to Kakashi that she couldn't pin point what made her wary, just that something felt wrong. The oldest of the tax officials, Tanabe-san stuck his head out of the wagon and asked Kaito how far they were from their afternoon break.
It was the second time the man asked the question in an hour. If it had been Naruto asking she would have merely been annoyed at the blonde's lack of patience. But it wasn't Naruto. It was a grown man who was currently working and should have maintained some form of professionalism.
Someone else in her place might have taken his repeated question as a sign of fatigue.
"If something doesn't feel right it's usually because it isn't. Instinct is a powerful thing and in most cases it will keep you alive."
The feeling of wrongness spread and Sakura felt the her heartbeat pick up as she spread out her senses looking for a reason to her sudden anxiety. The hairs on Sakura's neck stood up as she came to a halt and her spine went rigid. The sensation of cool metal in her hand registered before she even realized she had reached for a kunai.
"Sakura?" Kaito questioned from beside her.
Sharp green eyes caught the slight rustle of bushes far ahead and with a flick of her wrist Sakura threw the kunai with more accuracy and force than she once had ever dreamed being capable of.
Her action seemed to set everything in motion.
Sakura pivoted on her foot as she sensed three projectiles headed towards her from the forest to her right, completely forgetting Kaito was standing next to her.
The shinobi that threw the weapons came at her head on, kunai in hand and Sakura reacted as she had a thousand times in her brawls with her teammates. She dodged to the side and her hands flew together as chakra and adrenaline pulsed in her.
Her mind crafted the illusion on autopilot as she ducked under a kick. She knew her genjutsu took hold in her opponent's mind when he flinched and struggled to pick up the foot he just set down. Sakura smoothly whipped around to his back and before the enemy shinobi's mind could process that he couldn't possibly have stepped into quick sand and before Sakura could think about the result of her actions she jumped to give herself a bit more height and brought a fresh kunai down on the back of his neck, quickly and efficiently severing the spinal cord.
Blood, hot and thick and horrifyingly real greeted her hand as she held onto her blade and the enemy's body crumpled like a puppet that's stings had been cut. Sakura yanked the blade back out of the man's neck, the man she had just killed very, very easily.
Gasping for breath she didn't know she had been holding the young genin stumbled back staring at all the red on her. She turned to see more blood on the ground. Its source being the man who showed her his family the night before, three kunai buried in his torso. Bile rose up her esophagus but Sakura swallowed it down. Now was not the time to lose it.
She couldn't lose it.
The clang of metal on metal and the cries of panicked horses finally broke through over the rush of blood and thudding of her heartbeat.
They were being attacked, obviously. Where was Naruto? Kaito was dead. What was she supposed to do? She just killed someone. What would her father say?
The genin could see her teammate in the distance. Sasuke drew his own fight away from the wagon full of civilians; a part of her mind that was not freaking out recognized the smart choice. If only Sakura had been so aware when she dodged out of the way of those kunai Kaito would still be alive.
How long had she been standing here?
Forcing her body to move Sakura checked on the wagon, trusting Sasuke to hold his own for a little bit longer.
"Shinobi-san?!" One of the officials cried as she appeared at the entrance pushing aside the cloth flap. Three men of varying ages all looking scared out of their wits talked at her at the same time but Sakura couldn't hear or process anything they said.
"Stay here and stay down," she managed to spit out before letting the flap back down.
Sasuke was several yards away trying to get in close to a kunoichi who utilized some sort of water techniques to keep him at a distance.
A pulse of familiar chakra grazed Sakura's awareness from the right and drew her senses to the surrounding area once again. The pink haired genin focused her attention in that direction as she ran to aid Sasuke. The pulse meant that Naruto who was on scouting duty with another guard before the attack was alive and aware of what was going on.
But not all was good. Another chakra signature was coming in fast from that direction and it wasn't her friend. Sakura pushed her legs faster as her mind processed the trajectory of the unknown signature. It was headed for Sasuke's unprotected back.
"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out in warning. Her teammate turned just in time to see the flash of a blade and a swirl of pink before the weight of two bodies slammed into him and they all tumbled to the ground.
Sakura felt the long knife go in. She heard it parting her flesh. Grabbing at the hilt she tried her best to keep it at bay while the world rolled around her. With her other hand she tried to reach for another kunai. The man who engaged her brought his other hand up to grasp the handle of the blade digging deeper in her chest. Beady black eyes locked on hers.
A dark blue sandal shot across her field of vision and collided with the enemy shinobi's face. Sakura took the opportunity to stab the man in the heart through the ribs just like her sensei taught her.
Dimly she could hear Sasuke fighting the woman, but Sakura couldn't move. The black eyed shinobi still lay atop her body partly and she didn't have the strength to move him. Numbly, she stared down at the knife sticking out of the side of her chest and watched the blood bloom across her shirt. It was oddly pretty.
She drew a pained breath. Was this the end? All that work and all that pain, just to die in her first live fight? Well this fucking sucks she thought as her vision dimmed.
"Sakura!"
Sasuke's face was close to hers but she barely made out his outline, but as consciousness left her Sakura could have sworn his eyes were red and spinning.
Sasuke's brain was working overtime. After detangling himself from the tussle between Sakura and the enemy shinobi his attention was ripped back to his previous appointment. The kunoichi that attacked him and killed the guards quickly realized Sasuke outmatched her in taijutsu and repelled his physical advances with water jutsu. She couldn't keep it up though. A couple of well-thrown shurikan that anticipated her dodge of a small fire jutsu caught her in the face and neck and she went down.
Sasuke ignored the voice in his mind that sounded a lot like Karachi and shouted at him to confirm his enemy was dead. He chose instead to return to his teammate. Kneeling down he saw just how bad of shape she was in. Sakura was bleeding out and by the way she was breathing at least her lung was damaged. Sasuke's thoughts flew in different directions. He needed to stop the bleeding. There were three dead Kiri-nin and three dead guards and a wagon full of civilians. Naruto was coming. Sakura was lying in front of him with a knife sticking out of her, a knife that probably would have ended his life if Sakura hadn't have intervened.
Carefully, Sasuke removed the dead Kiri-nin from atop his injured teammate making sure to not jostle the blade in her. He heard footsteps approach him. Sasuke could tell from the limp in the steps that it was the oldest of the tax officials, but couldn't recall the old man's name. Sakura was dying.
She saved his life.
"Shinobi-san." Sasuke didn't look up from his teammate as he tried to force his hands to stop shaking as he rummaged through the contents of the storage scroll he upended onto the ground moments before. Sakura couldn't die here he would not allow it. "Shinobi-san we need to move from this place the guard who was driving is dead."
Anger brought back Sasuke's voice. "Get back into the wagon until I say you can get out," Sasuke snapped lashing out with killing intent to make his point clear. The man nearly fell trying to scramble away from the genin.
"Sasuke!" Naruto was there. What the fuck had taken him so long? Sakura was dying! "Sakura?"
Sasuke decided he could be angry at the blond later. "You need to get her back to the outpost." The black haired boy flinched at the wet sound of the knife sliding out of his teammate's body and gripped the knife hard.
His friend was dying.
He quickly pressed the square gauze bandaged the wound and sealed it tightly with tape as Naruto blabbed incoherently at him. His hands were warm with the blood of his friend and his mind was trying to block out the memory of his body being drenched in someone else's blood. His hands shook. He needed to keep it together a little longer.
"Naruto!" the last Uchiha snarled finally looking his teammate full in the face. "You need to take Sakura and you need to go."
"But what about you?"
"She's dying. She needs help now. You will be faster with her weight. At full speed we're not even half an hour away."
The blonde nodded and together the boys managed to get Sakura's limp but still alive body situated on his back. Once she was set Naruto looked to Sasuke and opened his mouth to say something but then must have though better of it. He disappeared from sight in a blur of green, yellow and pink.
Sasuke lurched to his feet. Sakura had saved his life, possibly at the cost of her own. His friend was dying.
Naruto's strong signature and Sakura's dimming one left his senses a few seconds later. Sasuke looked around at the mess left behind. There was nothing more he could do for Sakura and that knowledge opened him to the exhaustion that weighed on him. Staggering toward the wagon Sasuke finally acknowledged the difference in his vision.
He didn't need a mirror to confirm what it meant. He heard others describe their first experiences enough to know that he had finally awakened his sharingan. If it had been under different circumstances Sasuke would have felt happy maybe. He felt nothing. But he needed to turn it off. It was drawing to much chakra and he was going to pass out if he couldn't stop it.
"Help me awaken my sharingan," Sasuke demanded. He was still breathing hard from the spar they had just finished and his teacher gave him a blank look at the command.
Dusk had crept up on them. Sakura and Naruto had already left for dinner and the library. Sasuke had asked for a spar to try out some of the new taijutsu moves he was trying to work into his family form.
Kakashi sighed and relaxed into his usual slumped posture. "I am sure you heard enough stories from your relatives when you were young. Very few and by few I mean maybe two or three in the entire history of your family awoke their sharingan outside of real combat."
Sasuke grimaced, knowing this to be true but resenting the fact that Kakashi, an outsider knew this about his clan.
Kakashi spoke again, "But even if I can't help you with awakening it I can help you with what you will need to do once you achieve awakening it for the first time." Not understanding what his teacher was getting at he raised an eyebrow in question. "Why do you think I keep mine covered all the time?"
Sasuke shrugged in response keeping his face blank. He was tired and aching from the day of training and if it would do any good he would demand his teacher for once just speak plainly.
A silver eyebrow rose in a mocking response to his shrug and Sasuke would have loved nothing more than to punch his teacher in the face. Trying to ignore his rising hunger and need to sit down Sasuke thought. Why indeed keep the eye covered? Why not just deactivate the sharingan… "You can't turn it off."
"No I can't."
"But why not? You can control it. You have used it in spars before, why is turning it off any different."
"It is a consequence of the way it was implanted and to try and change it now risks me losing the eye altogether. Maybe someday I will decide I no longer have a use for it, but for now the eye stays. Having it covered is just a way to force it closed. Closing it nearly mimics the sharingan being turned off, but there is still a small draw on my chakra."
"So you want me to learn how to turn it off before I even have awakened it?"
"Trust me you will want to know how to do it, especially if you end up awakening it in a combat situation. The sharingan is a large burden on your chakra and many Uchiha ended up passing out from chakra exhaustion in the field some even died from overuse."
Sasuke nodded, he had heard this before from his relatives.
"Right the first step is you need to become more aware of your entire chakra system. I know Sakura has started meditation. You should join her, it will help. Now sit down and lets see if you can do a simple exercise…"
Sasuke calmed his breathing and turned his senses inward. He could clearly feel the chakra being drawn at an alarming rate from his center up to his head and finally into his eyes. After practicing the mental motion for some time with his teacher it was nearly effortless to slow and thin the engorged flow to something resembling the normal cycle of chakra up to his eyes.
Black eyes opened again to the world. He breathed deeply feeling as if something had been weighing his chest down before. Wincing as he recognized chakra exhaustion Sasuke evaluated his options.
He was highly vulnerable if there were more enemies out there he had a slim chance of being able to fight them off.
He had four choices. He could continue on the path to the last stop of the mission. He could turn around and go back to the previous village, but that would be farther then continuing on so Sasuke vetoed that idea. He could and wanted to return to Takikawa. The image of Sakura stabbed pushed to the forefront of his mind. She had saved his life. The laughter, near hysterical bubbled up his throat. Who would have thought that the annoying fan girl would end up dying for…
Naruto would make it in time he decided. Sakura would not die, not for him. He wasn't worth it. Sasuke's legs began to shake under the effort of keeping his body upright. Gracelessly collapsing against the side of the wagon Sasuke struggled to regain his focus. Reaching to his hip pouch he ripped into an energy bar. He would be no good to anyone if he couldn't stand. After eating the tired genin settled into a meditative breathing pattern and through force of will turned his mind away from his two teammates.
Takikawa was even further than the village they had left that morning. Sasuke doubted in his current condition that he could make it. He could also stay exactly where he was, but if any more Kiri-nin showed up…
The thought led Sasuke to how the Kiri-nin had even found them in the first place. Sasuke was almost certain that no one had followed them since their journey began that morning. The young shinobi ran through the mission particulars he was aware of, coming to the conclusion that this attack could not be random. Their attackers were too coordinated. One shinobi for each of them and they had known that at least one of Team 7 would have been on patrol. The obvious conclusion was that the enemy had somehow gotten their route from someone.
One of the guards was still missing. The one who had been on patrol with Naruto. He could have been the inside man, or he could be lying in the woods somewhere already collecting flies.
He needed more information. Using the side of the wagon to support his journey, Sasuke moved to the back of the wagon and opened the flap. The three men stared at him, silently taking in the gore that covered his torso.
"Three of your guards are dead. One is unaccounted for but presumably dead as well. My team has eliminated three enemy shinobi. Our position is not a good one. If there are more out there we cannot adequately defend you."
"I told you these kids weren't good enough!"
"What are we going to do?"
"We should have demanded that older shinobi come with us!"
"Silence!" Sasuke hissed flooding the immediate area with killing intent and pushing a small amount of chakra into his eyes. One of his hands slammed down onto the bed of the wagon. It looked like a move to intimidate but really he need the support to keep himself upright. He could tell from the way the men recoiled that his eyes were beginning to bleed red. Sasuke made sure not to turn on the sharingan though as it would no doubt sap his strength before he got to the truth.
"Someone must have given the Kiri-nin the route we are on. We are turning around and returning to the previous village."
The oldest man frowned, brow furrowing at the suggestion that someone leaked information. "Why would we return there? We are far closer to Shibetsu. We should continue on so that we can seek shelter for the night. The Kiri-nin are dead surely we are safe now."
"And what if there are more? If we continue on to Shibetsu we risk being attacked even further away from Takikawa," the man to the left of the oldest scoffed. "We will be even further away from help if more come."
"Shouldn't we stay exactly where we are? You can send one of your teammates to get help. It would be easier to be found if we stay put." Sasuke raised an eyebrow at the older man who had seen him tend to Sakura. Had he not shared with his colleagues that Sakura had been grievously wounded? Why not? The olderman's eyes darted to the youngest official who had suggested staying put and then back to Sasuke. The senior tax official was obviously trying to communicate something.
Cold, black eyes focused on the youngest man who hadn't noticed the glance. "You want us to stay put so more of your allies can find us?"
The man blinked at him rapidly, "What?"
"Tanabe-san," finally recalling the oldest man's name, "who knew about the route we were taking?" Sasuke asked.
"The three of us and the four guards and one more my secretary who I have personally known since her birth."
"Those shinobi weren't following us. They knew we would be here, because you told them."
"Kon?" the other official asked glancing between his boss and his subordinate.
"I didn't tell anyone!" Kon the accused said, looking between everyone and shaking his head. "It wouldn't be hard to figure out where we would be! Tanabe-san I swear I didn't tell anyone."
"You came to me last month for an advance and you argued against hiring the Kohona shinobi for this trip."
Kon made a noise of dissent as his tongue tripped over words at the sight of Sasuke withdrawing a kunai. "Hiring them was a huge expense, I have been telling you for weeks that the budget can't afford it. The numbers don't add up and you said yourself that we have never had any trouble on the collection route. I asked for that advance because I needed it for my family."
The desperation in his voice broke through the haze of red Sasuke was seeing. He wanted someone to pay for the state Sakura was in, but the man seemed to be telling the truth and the things Kon said struck him. Takikawa was a prosperous city. Sakura had said so in her first description of the city to the Hokage. Why would they not be able to afford to hire shinobi? And if they never had any trouble on this route before why hire a team of shinobi this time?
The men broke into squabbling as Sasuke contemplated what he knew. Tanabe was the head of the tax office. He was the oldest and Sasuke recalled him joking about his old bones aching on the first night and saying that this was his last year before retirement. The other man who had the most unremarkable face Sasuke had ever seen, and whose name he couldn't recall would take over the head position once Tanabe retired. Kon was the youngest in the office and had a small family relying on him.
So who had the most to gain and the least to lose if this trip went to hell?
The thunk of a shurikan sinking deep into wood broke up the argument in front of the young genin.
Three pairs of eyes turned to him as Sasuke stepped into the wagon. Kon shrunk back believing that Sasuke was headed for him. But the black haired boy passed him and crouched down to be on eye level with Tanabe shaking not with exhaustion but murderous rage.
For the first time in his life Sasuke purposefully turned on his sharingan and stared down the man who was perhaps responsible for his teammate's death.
"It was you."
Tanabe began to shake his head in denial, but then grimaced instead. "You were supposed to be some stupid kids, you were all supposed to die."
The man was going to continue but Sasuke raised a kunai and silenced him with it.
Naruto paced. Two hours had passed since he stumbled back into the outpost with Sakura in his arms. After handing Sakura over to the care of the medic-nin Raidô had gotten Naruto to talk through what had happened and dispatched the jônin and other two genin to meet up with Sasuke. Raidô explained that they were the team that was supposed to take this mission but had arrived two days late. A mix up in the paperwork somewhere apparently had caused the delay. A mistake on paperwork was the reason Sakura…
Naruto shook his head. Sakura was strong. She would pull through this. Little to no noise came from the medical room and the young genin tried to convince himself that it was good sign.
The blonde was torn between wanting to see his other teammate home and staying with Sakura when the other team departed. Grumbling to himself as he glanced at the clock that Sakura hung on the kitchen wall nearly a week before he almost wished that he had gone with the rescue team. At least he would have had something to do. Raidô forbid him from entering the medical room and eventually left him alone after not being able to talk him into cleaning himself up or eating.
Naruto heard the door to the med room down the hall open and he was there before the medic could even take one step out of the room. It was the first time he truly looked at the medic-nin. The medic-nin was in his older teens with long grey-white hair that reminded the genin of Kakashi and wore rather large spectacles.
"You must be Naruto."
"You must be Kabuto. Is she…" Naruto's voice broke off and he swallowed thickly.
The older teen smiled gently. "Your teammate will be fine."
The relief that Naruto felt was heady and he stumbled forward into the other genin who caught him. "Sorry," Naruto said quickly as he backed away and poked his head around to look past the grey haired shinobi. "Can I?"
Kabuto nodded and stepped to the side to allow Naruto in the room. Sakura lay there pale and still hooked up to an IV drip of blood and other fluids. Her top half was wrapped in fresh linen bandages. If Naruto couldn't see the minute rising and falling of her chest he would have figured she wasn't actually alive.
"She should probably stay asleep until tomorrow." Naruto vaguely registered Raidô coming into the room. "Her left lung was punctured. I have healed the surrounding tissue damage but the lung will take time and further treatment to completely repair. She also lost a massive amount of blood. I understand you needed to get her back here but next time do all you can to leave the object in the wound until it can be treated it will greatly decrease the blood loss," Kabuto said.
Naruto was barely listening as he took Sakura's warm hand in his still bloody one. "Good work. Your team was dispatched to retrieve Team 7's final member and aid in whatever is left of this mess of a mission. Get some food in you and rest," Raidô ordered.
Realizing that Sakura's savior was leaving the room Naruto quickly turned, "Thank you," he managed to get out.
Kabuto merely flashed another smile and left through the doorway.
"Naruto…" Raidô began staring awkwardly at the two teammates.
"I know I need to clean up and eat and fill out a mission report and I promise I will do it, but please," Naruto turned to look up at the senior shinobi who had been making his life a lot more difficult for the last week, "just give me a few more minutes with her. I," the blonde swallowed hard fighting to maintain a steady voice, "I almost lost her."
Raidô nodded. "Ten minutes and no more. She made it, Naruto. Because of you she made it."
The genin said nothing in response because there was nothing to say. It wasn't true at all. Sakura did not survive because of him. It was his fault she was hurt in the first place.
"Try and keep up old man!" Naruto cried as he jogged through the forest.
"Naruto this may come as a shock to you," huffed the elder, "but I'm not that old!" With a war cry the guard rushed forward and caught up with the grinning blonde.
"No you aren't Bo-san, but you are a grandfather to be!"
The veteran guard laughed and slowed his pace. "That is true but I will have you know it's just because I was so in love with my sweet Ikuko that I had kids at a young age."
Naruto rolled his eyes and slowed his pace as well. The pair had been put on patrolling the surrounding area around the wagon as it moved slowly towards the next town. Well the wagon wasn't moving fast at all it would be moderately difficult for a non-shinobi to keep up the pace required to orbit around the moving party.
Team 7 tried to explain this to Tanabe-san, but the man officially in charge of the mission demanded that one of Takikawa's guards be on patrol duty as well.
Beside him Bo-san let out a slow breath and sat down a fallen log. "Where are we in relation to the wagon?"
Naruto sent out a small chakra pulse that was echoed by one from Sakura. "They are ahead us right now. It will take about five minutes for us to catch up if we just take an easy jog."
The guard nodded at this and took a swig from his canteen. "Damn," he cursed. "I'm dry."
Naruto pulled out his own to find that he too was empty. They were bound to stop soon for their noon break, but scanning Bo-san's flushed features and sweaty brow Naruto decided he could spare the energy for the jog back to a clear creek they had passed only a mile or so back.
"Here," the blonde said offering his hand for the canteen, "There was a creek a mile back or so. I should be back before they get too far ahead of us that we need to really run to catch up."
His new friend smiled in gratitude and Naruto took off.
It wasn't even five minutes before he was back to his friend's resting place. Bo was slumped over on his side on the log. "Come on old man you can't be that tired," Naruto teased as he made his way over to the guard.
Bo didn't respond. Moving to stand in front of the log Naruto stared at his friends wide-open and most certainly dead eyes. Blood coated his neck and chin and the collar of his jacket. The blonde's mind tried to process what had happened.
Bo was dead. He had a wife and three children. Two of which were married. One was currently pregnant. He wanted to quit guard duty and open his own soba shop. He excitedly told Naruto all about his plans repeated and he already had a space rented in Takikawa for the shop.
That would never happen, because he was dead, here, in front of Naruto. Blood dripped onto leaves as Naruto staggered backwards. Two very familiar chakra signatures flared to life as Naruto tried to pull his gaze away from his fallen friend. Bo was dead. Bo who ate dinner with him just last night.
Sakura and Sasuke needed him, but his feet didn't want to move. Opening his mouth, Naruto struggled for words. "I'm…I'm sorry," he managed before finally getting one foot than the other to move as he struggled to make his way to his teammates.
Naruto barely registered the dead body of another guard and what was probably an enemy shinobi as he came upon the party. The horses were shying away from confused and unsure what do, their driver dead at the lead of the wagon.
Sasuke was crouched over two bodies lying on the road and Naruto's stomach dropped as he noticed pink hair peeking out from one side. Dizzy with anxiety Naruto ran to aid Sasuke.
Naruto's grip on Sakura's hand tightened. It was completely his fault. He shouldn't have strayed so far from the party when he went to get water. He shouldn't have frozen when he discovered Bo's body.
It was his fault.
Some shinobi he was. He couldn't even keep his teammates safe.
"Naruto." Raidô was back. Naruto didn't want to deal with him. The man obviously had his number. Naruto wasn't fit to be a shinobi of Konoha. "Naruto look at me." An order. Slowly blue eyes rose to meet Raidô's brown. "This was not your fault."
Anger, frustration and guilt boiled in the blonde's stomach. "It was too! You weren't there, you don't know what happened, what I did! What I didn't do! I wasn't there with them. I wasn't there to help!" Tears burned, but Naruto refused to let them fall. He would not cry now. He had not been able to shed a tear when Sakura was dying and he would not cry now, not over his own guilt. "I failed them and I failed Kakashi-sensei. I-" A coughing fit interrupted his tirade as emotion choked of his words.
"Naruto do you know what it means to be shinobi?" Raidô asked.
"Shinobi lie, cheat, steal and kill," Naruto answered remembering what Sakura had said during their test with Kakashi.
"That's true, we do do that, but what does it mean to be a shinobi?" Raidô asked again.
Naruto frowned knowing that Kakashi had asked the question that day, but the question had not been answered really.
"The truth is it means something different to everyone." Raidô crouched down so that he looked up at the boy who was the spitting image of his late Hokage. "I am a body guard and an assassin. To me being a shinobi means giving up my life for whoever I am protecting. It means ending someone's life when I am ordered to. When you accepted that hitai-ate you accepted that your life was no longer just yours. Did Sakura accept her hitai-ate?"
Naruto nodded seeing where Raidô was going. "But, she would have been fine if-"
The older shinobi interrupted his protest, "Even if you were there there is no guarantee that she would not have been hurt. Being shinobi is accepting death not just your own, but your teammates' as well." Raidô looked towards Sakura. "If Sakura had died you would not have been the first shinobi to lose a teammate. Or the first to blame themselves." Naruto instantly thought of Kakashi and shuddered. His teammate had actually died. "But you must remember that you didn't lose her. You can't live in a world of what ifs." Raidô rose to his full height. "Now that you know she will be just fine I want you to get cleaned up. Get something to eat and then start on your report."
Naruto nodded and gave Sakura's hand one last squeeze. Sakura was alive. His friend was alive. For now it was what he needed to focus on.
Raidô sat down heavily in his office chair. The simple escort mission he sent Team 7 on was now a complete nightmare. The contract holder, Tanabe Kiyomaru betrayed the route information to Kirigakure and was currently being held the Takikawa police.
Kaneko the jônin of Team 3 gave his report on the scene of the ambush after his team and Sasuke arrived back at the outpost from the cleanup and retrieval. Team 7 took out three Kiri-nin and all four Takikawa guards were killed in the ambush. Raidô expected a visit from a city official sometime tomorrow to see what could be worked out between Konoha and Takikawa regarding mission pay and the future of relations between the two cities.
The mission would be going down in the books as a failure but with the note that it had been sabotaged by the contract holder which in turn broke the contract. Konoha would be within its rights to demand the full payment previously agreed upon. But given the loss of life Takikawa suffered in the debacle and the hope for continued contracts from the city Raidô had little doubt that he would be renegotiating.
Team 3's belated arrival which was another can of worms he didn't have time to deal gave them the opportunity to take another mission in the area, but given Sakura's condition they would be sent out without their third member. Though Raidô was hesitant to send another team out with a handicap Kaneko shared in private that this would be no great loss. Apparently Kabuto was an excellent medic-nin, but despite his talent in that particular field he was an utter failure in combat.
This left Raidô with a rather bleak rest of the week.
Naruto silently turned in his own mission report earlier on in the evening before returning to his teammate's side. Raidô hoped that their earlier talk had brought some sort of comfort to the normally rambunctious blonde.
The special jônin had hoped that Sasuke's return would have brought some relief to Naruto but that hope was destroyed when Sasuke finally returned to the outpost. The last Uchiha didn't acknowledge Naruto at all. He handed Raidô his own mission report which he completed on the journey, checked on Sakura and shut himself into one of the outposts spare rooms.
As expected Naruto did not take his teammate's reaction well. He moved some bedding into the medical room and last time Raidô checked was sitting and vacantly staring at the wall, lost in his own thoughts.
Raidô needed Hatake back. He needed him back now. His little chat with Naruto was all he thought he was capable of. There was no way he could possibly fix the rifts that seemed to be forming between the teammates. Why hadn't he just gone with them on the mission? It was only three days and he recieved clearance from the head mission office to dispatch Team 7 on their own given the risk report. He kept to the book and ignored his gut. He might have been following orders but it was his word that sent Team 7 out. His word. And in following orders Raidô spectacularly failed in his duty to watch over and protect Team 7.
Hatake was going to kill him. The Sandaime might even allow it.
Raidô didn't want to contemplate what state they would all be in if Sakrua had died. The duty to inform her family would have fallen on him as the commanding shinobi at the time of death. He would never have been able to look Chiho in the eye and tell her that her daughter was dead.
Chiho. He had been thinking of her more and more. Living in close proximity with her daughter would do that he supposed as he poured himself a drink. Sakura was nothing like her mother though, not in looks and not in temperament.
Raidô swirled the amber liquid in his glass. This was not the appropriate time to entertain these thoughts. No time was.
A knock at the door broke the silence that had settled over the outpost since Team 3 returned with Sasuke. Raidô stood and moved to answer the knock. Kaneko, the other jônin was coming down the hallway and he nodded to Raidô as he stopped a few feet away from the door.
The Yondaime's ex-bodyguard sensed three people outside the door. Sliding the door open slowly Raidô took in the three men, one elder and two armed guards at his side.
"My apologies for calling on you so late shinobi-san, but I am here as a representative of the city council."
Raidô nodded. He had been expecting them to come, just not quite this soon. "Your guards can wait outside. You will not come to harm while you are here, I swear on the honor of my village." Both guards shifted forward slightly at this but the councilman waved them off.
"Very well. I hope you have something stronger than water to offer me. We find ourselves in quite a mess," the man said with a sigh. Quite a mess indeed Raidô thought.
He led the coucilman into the office giving a quick glance to his desk, making sure there were no papers of sensitive nature left out. Sasuke was currently hold up in the room that would be used for these kinds of meetings. Gesturing the man towards a chair Raidô grabbed another glass.
"I wish to do away with any formalities and speak freely. I am Ochida Ryô, head of the Takikawa city council."
Raidô easily stifled the surprise that he felt at this announcement. He had not been expecting the head of the council. "I am Namiaishi Raidô, special jônin and current overseer of this outpost." He handed Ochida his drink before finding his own seat.
The man nodded and sighed rubbing his face and taking a sip. "Not bad whiskey," he commented. Ochida fell silent after that. Raidô took the moment to observe the man across from him. It was surprising that the head of the council chose to meet with him in person. It was a sign of respect to Konoha and Raidô had hope that it meant Takikawa was not terminating its relationship with Konoha.
"Ochida-san first let me give my condolences-"
A wrinkled hand stemmed Raidô's rehearsed speech. "I said I wished to do away with the formalities. Yes we lost four of our own, but it was because of the actions of one of our own. Should your people have been able to stop it?" He let the question hang and Raidô crushed the urge to snap to Team 7's defense. "Perhaps but it doesn't change the fact that the situation was caused by a man who I have known for longer than I would like to admit. We will not seek any kind of compensation for the loss of life from your village and I highly doubt we would have received any if we had tried to get it."
The councilman was right on all counts so far. Raidô wondered if the other shoe was about to drop.
"And we will continue to do business with your village."
That was surprising.
"I heard that one of yours was grievously injured. A young girl." The Raidô stiffened slightly at the mention of Sakura. "Will she pull through?"
"Yes she will make a full recovery," the special jônin answered with deliberate calm.
Ochida nodded. "Good. As far a payment is concerned, given the losses that we suffered, though they were guards the council has decided that we simply cannot pay the full amount previously agreed upon." The councilman watched Raidô for any kind of reaction to this, but his scrutiny was in vain. "Since we will continue to hire Konoha shinobi we hope you are willing to renegotiate the fee.
Raidô nodded. "We are more than willing. The continued patronage of your city is important to us." Raidô reached for pen and paper and wrote down a fraction of the original mission fee on it, handing it to the elder when he was done. "I believe you will find this more than fair."
Ochida took the paper and another sip from the tumbler he still held, nodding as he saw what was written.
"However, as you said your man is ultimately responsible and one of our shinobi nearly died because of his actions."
The councilman's eyes narrowed for a moment at his words, but then he grimaced as understanding came to him. "You want Tanabe." It wasn't a question.
"I don't think it is too much to ask."
"It is quite more than you think!" Ochida snapped and for the first time Raidô saw a hint of temper in the older man across from him. "I know you will execute him. He is-" Ochida cut his tirade off, pursing his wrinkled lips and clenching his jaw. "He was a good man," he finished, swallowing down the anger he was clearly experiencing.
"What we do with him is not your concern." Raidô stated blankly. There was no sympathy in him for a traitor. Tanabe and the councilman had obviously been friends. It was probably why Ochida came to deal with this issue in person instead of sending a representative. The bodyguard wished he could point out that Tanabe's fate would no doubt be the same if he stayed in Takikawa's custody. There was no way the city council could do anything but execute a man who had caused the deaths of four other citizens.
Ochida let his eyes slip shut as various emotions flit across his face. With a thud he forcefully placed the glass on the desk between them and stood, showing more energy than before but somehow looking older at the same time. "He will be transported here by midday tomorrow along with your payment."
And with that the councilman left.
But the day was not over for Namiashi Raidô.
Naruto's blonde head poked into the office not even five minutes later. "Uhh sir? Sakura is awake and I can't find Kabuto." Raidô wished he was anywhere but here. "Check the barbecue place down the road. I think he and his teammates went to get food. I will keep an eye on her when you're gone." He added as Naruto looked unsure about leaving. After a pointed look the genin still hesitated. "Don't make me order you Naruto."
The Yondaime's son sent him a dark look but left quickly. Obviously thinking that the sooner he finished his newly appointed task the sooner he could return to Sakura's side.
Raidô made his way to the med room wondering if he would ever sleep tonight. Sakura's pink head turned as he entered. The scarred shinobi saw her struggle to try and sit up right and quickly chided her. "You won't be able to sit up till tomorrow Sakura, so don't try."
The girl grimaced with pain and frustration. Raidô took a seat in the chair by her bed, stepping over the bedding Naruto brought in.
Sakura swallowed thickly before speaking, "Naruto filled me in on what happened after…" Her quiet voice trailed off as she blinked furiously and let out a shaky breath and tried to suck in too much air.
"Easy Sakura. Take short breaths. You are safe. Naruto and Sasuke are safe."
The genin managed a tiny nod as she fought to compose herself. Raidô gave her a moment before asking the question he truly didn't want to. "As you can't write out your report I will need you to tell me what happened. " Anxiety flickered across her young face and Raidô tried not to think about Chiho. "I know you want to do anything but this right now but the details will be fresher in your mind-"
"I know," Sakura responded cutting him off. "I know. I just." She swallowed again. She was struggling.
"Sakura…" Raidô pushed back his mounting frustration at his own inability to deal with this. There was a reason why he was still only a special jônin. Full jônin didn't just need to achieve a certain ability level. They needed to be able to lead. To be responsible for a team and handle them not only as shinobi but as people. It was not something that came naturally for him. But this was Chiho's daughter lying injured before him. Chiho's daughter, who took two enemy shinobi down in the field, saving one of her teammates. Chiho's daughter, who killed for the first time in her life. Chiho's daughter, who under different circumstances could have been his.
Raidô looked away from the girl. The wish he kept locked somewhere deep within him bubbled to the surface. It still stung to even acknowledge what could have been. But he had told Naruto that very day that a person cannot live in a world of what ifs. He made a choice long ago to put his duty before what he wanted. But right now he had another choice before him. Turning back to Sakura Raidô allowed his face to soften. He would be damned if he made the wrong choice again.
"Sakura," he began gently, "why don't I tell you what I know and you fill the details from your perspective alright."
Gratitude shown in her cerulean eyes and Raidô relaxed a bit. He was on the right track at least.
A/N: I'm sorry, I never intended to take this long of a break from this fic. I have had probably the most tumultuous year of my life between my surgery back in March, moving between countries, family getting married and passing on as well. I am homeless (between jobs and living arrangements not a dire situation by any means) at the moment so I can't promise an update very soon but this story is not going to be abandoned any time soon. Thank you for your reviews and your patience.
I don't feel this chapter is as good as the rest. It feels rushed to me but I need to get past this point because my muse is elsewhere right now. I will probably heavily edit this chapter in the future but right now I just want to move forward.
I know not everyone will like where I am going with Raidô but I want to say he is not going to suddenly be a father figure to Sakura. I also fear he may come off too much like Kakashi but they are very different at least in my mind. I hope to make that more apparent in coming chapters.
Reviewer Responses:
Okami Endless: Thank you so much for your review. I hope that this chapter lived up to your anticipation!
Illucida: More on the emotional fall out later I just couldn't make it fit in this chapter still too much to do. But the repercussions of this mission will go far beyond just the next chapter.
depressedchildre: I have no idea what it is called either, but I will keep a sharper look out for it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Naruto's sexy jutsu is not a favorite of mine so I never even thought of using it. I am not sure if it will ever make an appearance in my story. This is my bias and I know it isn't true to the character but I just… I can't write it. I hope these two things won't stop you from continuing to read.
Metastasis: Thanks for pointing that out to me I will be sure to correct it from here on.
InARealPickle: No it wasn't pay back and but they aren't on the best of terms. There will be more on their relationship later.
Ashfire28: Wow thank you for taking the time and effort to leave that review. I have to be honest I haven't read far enough of the manga to get Kakashi's full back story. I'm more working from what I have read and augmenting that with Wikipedia. Cheating I know but canon no longer interests me. Yeah Naruto isn't being fair or adult about his grudge against Kakashi, but Naruto is a child and feels abandoned by someone who in another life could have been an uncle figure to him. I do believe Kakashi was in the periphery of Naruto's childhood, but never truly involved himself and he feels guilt about that just like he feels guilt about everything else. He was in a dark place and Gai was instrumental at getting him out of it. While I may never flashback to those times Gai and Kakashi's friendship will be a feature in coming chapters. I have gone into the fact that Kakashi rarely displays his true emotions to anyone even his team, but I hope that I have shown that Kakashi has become attached to his new team and they have once again given him purpose which brings stability into his life. Kakashi is most attached to Naruto at this point. But I will be getting into his feelings on the other two in coming chapters. As far as Kakashi's training goes it's honestly a point I had not thought about till you brought it up. Kakashi was just such a lone wolf in the manga. I will definitely look into it. Right now Kakashi has gotten himself nearly back to his ANBU level, but you are right he may need some help improving himself past that point. Thank you for your review!
coral light: Team 7 doesn't exist without Kakashi in my opinion. Thanks so much for your review!