Chapter 2: Briefings and Bird Poop
Sakura Haruno woke up to the smell of bird poop. She knew immediately what that meant and she wasn't happy, not at all. She opened her eyes blearily, and turned on her side to see a white dove perched upon her window with a scroll tied to one foot.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She grumbled and sat up, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
She felt warm fingers encircle her wrist, "Hmm? What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, in a low voice, rough with sleep. "Is it another one of those damn messenger birds?"
She nodded, "It's a dove…which can only mean an emergency meeting. It's got a scroll attached to its leg." She let out a low whistle followed by a series of high pitched whistles. The graceful dove came flying downwards, perching comfortably on her bare shoulder. Sakura easily slid the scroll of the bird's leg and opened it, reading it aloud.
"Report to Tsunade's office immediately for briefing on a mission in London, where you will be posing undercover." Sakura crumpled the paper and tossed it into the air in the direction of Sasuke. He swiftly made a couple of hand signs and spat out fire, successfully burning the paper in mid-air. This was done to erase any data on missions and protect the secrets of Konoha.
Sakura untangled her herself from the sheets and stood up abruptly, pulling Sasuke by the arm. "C'mon. We have to hurry; Tsunade's going to explode if we come late again. And, we have to wake up Naruto, seeing as how he's never woken up by messenger birds." She hastily talked while pulling on her ANBU uniform.
Sasuke looked on amused, "You're doing it again." He smirked.
She paused in the midst of pulling her hair back into a ponytail. "I'm doing what?" she asked, narrowing her jade eyes in confusion.
He shrugged, pulling on his pants, "You know, going into hyper mode. You do that whenever you're stressed about something. Relax, Naruto may act like one, but he's not a baby anymore." He chuckled.
Sakura stuck out her tongue, "I can't help it. I'm a natural worrier." She protested.
Sasuke snorted, "Clearly." He let out a little smile and kissed her on the top of her forehead, "Come on, let's go. Naruto's probably waiting for us."
They left Sakura's apartment, and on their way to Naruto's house, she marveled at her life, her boyfriend, her friends, it all seemed too good to be true some times. It was only when she woke up that she realized how good she really had it. It was weird to look back 4 years ago, when they were in the midst of the war and Sasuke had still been vengeful. It was like a bad nightmare that never really happened.
They approached Naruto's house and walked in, he never locked his door. He claimed that he didn't need to, because any intruder would be knocked unconscious by him. They had laughed at him. Because it's a natural reaction to laugh at every single thing he says or does.
Sakura shook her head as she viewed Naruto's cluttered apartment. Empty ramen cups and dull kunai lay around his carpet. She could have sworn that she had seen something move in the trash can.
"Naruto, wake up!" Sasuke called from the base of the stairs. He was about to step forward onto the stairs when he winced.
Sakura noticed this and frowned, "Are you okay? Did you hurt something?" Her eyes were wide with concern.
He examined his leg for a quick second, "Not really, it was probably you." He replied vaguely.
She tilted her head in confusion, "What do you mean? Did I do something when we were walking here?"
He smirked mischievously, "You mean you don't remember? One would think you would remember how rough you were last night." His dark eyes crinkled at the edges.
Sakura turned crimson, "I was a bit preoccupied." She admitted. "And I don't see how your leg would be hurting after such—er—activities."
Sasuke let out a chuckle, "You'd be surprised." He answered ambiguously.
Somebody cleared their throat behind them and they both jumped. They turned to face, Naruto who stood there with a cheesy grin, slurping ramen.
"So." He grinned broadly, "You guys were together last night."
Sasuke rolled his eyes, "None of your business, dobe." He growled.
Naruto's grin widened impossibly, "Ho! So, you guys think that you guys have some kind of privacy talking about your 'personal matters' while barging into my house. Yeah, makes real sense."
"He has a point." Sakura murmured.
"Not helping, Sakura." He hissed, his teeth clenched together.
Naruto raised his eyebrows amusedly, "Well, this is awkward! Let's get on with the mission! I'm pumped and ready to go!" he slapped his leg and pulled his two embarrassed friends along. Sasuke and Sakura were silent the entire way while Naruto kept on blathering the whole way. After a few minutes of intense awkwardness, they finally arrived at Tsunade's office, much to the relief of Sasuke and Sakura.
They saw with surprise that 8 of their friends were also there, sitting casually outside of the office. Ino Yamanaka, sat there braiding, Hinata's long blue tinged hair. Hinata was nervously twiddling with her fingers, occasionally looking back to see if Ino had done anything permanent. Neji sat there looking placid as ever next to his girlfriend Tenten who was swinging a kunai around her finger. Shikamaru and Temari also sat by side quietly talking to each other while Gaara stood from a distance glaring at Shikamaru.
Ino greeted the trio first. "Forehead, you finally made it!" she smiled smugly.
Sakura raised an eyebrow, "You're in a good mood. Something happen?"
Shikamaru stood up suddenly, "Hold it. Save the girl stuff for later, I'm starving and I want to leave as soon as possible." He demanded lazily.
Naruto nodded, "Let's go! I'm psyched for this mission!" he let out a raucous laugh and then pulled Hinata's arm, "Come on Hinata-chan!" he pulled her along into the room while her hair was still half in braids.
The rest of the ninjas followed his lead, shuffling into the average sized office. Tsunade sat there with a cup of sake. Sipping it languorously, she was going shuffling through documents and pictures. She noticed the ninjas' entrance and looked up, her lips pressed tight together in disappointment. "Late. Again." She snapped.
Ino rolled her eyes, "Don't look at us, it was Team 7." She put her hands on her hips.
Tsunade shook her head, "As I expected." She growled underneath her breath. "Anyways, I'm sure most you would like to leave, so let's get this over with. Shall we?"
The ninjas nodded silently.
"All right, your mission will be year round. However, you don't need to pack all your clothes or any toiletries because they will be provided. I do suggest that you some personal items in a small bag."
Tenten spoke, "Year –round? What's the mission that requires so much time?" she asked curiously.
"Well, as you knew wizards and ninjas have a long alliance with each other. There's a magic school in London, Hogwarts. The headmaster has asked me to provide him with bodyguards for a certain boy." She explained.
Neji snorted, "Come on. 10 ANBU for one kid?" he asked in disbelief. "How important is this kid anyways?"
Tsunade smirked, "Well this boy happens to be called the Chosen One because of a prophecy. He's being hunted down by dark wizards and Dumbledore wants you to protect him. However, this is not a mission where you can parade in your ANBU cloak and mask." She glared at Naruto.
Sakura spoke up, "Why is that Tsunade-sama?"
"Because, you will be posing as students, fifteen year old ones to be exact."
Murmuring filled the room and Naruto hollered out, "Wait! Hell no, I'm not going to school ever again! Even it's for a mission! I refuse!" he wailed out.
Ino rolled her eyes, "Oh, shut it. This actually seems like a fun mission for once."
Tsunade gestured for them to be quiet. "I realize it is quite difficult to act four or five years younger than you are. That's why Dumbledore has provided you this." She withdrew from her green jacket a bag. From inside the bag she pulled out a small container of pills. "This pill is a new invention in the wizarding world. It allows you to take a younger form of yourself and lasts for 16 hours. It's quite ingenious actually. The container magically refills itself. Be sure to take these when needed, for if any of the Hogwarts Students ever see you switch back, its game over. Your disguise is blown."
Sakura examined another of the pill containers, "Are there any side effects?"
Tsunade pursed her lips together, "When you first take it, you might feel a little disoriented but it quickly wears off. It's advisable that you take your pills every 15 hours because as the pill starts to wear off, you'll start feeling sick and vomit, this lasts for an hour, I believe. So time it correctly, so that you don't wake up feeling like you have a fever."
Naruto shuddered to himself; it seemed likely that he was the one who was going to trip up with the pill.
Tsunade continued on, "Of course, speaking English is something you'll have to be doing. Only speak Japanese when you need to keep something private. Kakashi will be accompanying you to Hogwarts and Anko will be your contact back in Konoha. With Ino's jutsu, you can access Anko's mind and telepathically talk to her. Therefore, all intelligence should be reported to Ino. Shikamaru you are the lead strategist. You decide, when you want stakeouts, when to tail somebody and so on. Sakura you are the medic specialist, when Sakura's not available, Ino will have to step forward. Sakura make sure, you have all the necessary equipment, ne?"
Sakura nodded affirmatively.
"Tenten, you are the weapon specialist. Nobody is permitted to carry any weapon but one small kunai, with the exception of Tenten. Tenten will be holding all weapons, so as to make sure you don't hack innocent people to death. Hinata and Neji, you two will be our tracking squad. If anybody goes missing, anybody looks suspicious, you will tail them. Your byakugan will come in handy for that, I assume. Naruto and Sasuke are our Offensive specialists and our Defensive specialists our Temari and Gaara. There are times when Gaara will have to periodically leave, being the Kazekage, be prepared with cover-up stories and lies."
Naruto cheered and high-fived Sasuke, "Whoo! I'm an offensive specialist!" He cheered.
Tsunade shook her head in disbelief, was this kid really about to turn 20? She cleared her throat, "These are just specialists, in addition to this, you will be split into pairs of two. Each pair will be responsible for tailing a certain wizard or providing protection for. Sasuke and Sakura, you too will be in charge of Harry Potter. Seeing as you two, work well together," Naruto sniggered, "Ahem! You two will be put in charge of the Chosen One." She handed the duo, a file. "This is all the information on Potter, including an identification photo. "Tenten and Temari, you two will be put in charge of Hermione Granger. She's quite keen and intelligent, I was informed. Be sure not to slip up around her."
Temari took the file Tsunade handed to her. "We got this." She smirked confidently to Tenten.
Tsunade continued, "Naruto and Ino, you will be in charge of Ron Weasley. He is Harry Potter's best friend. Make sure you can get information from him and be sure to defend him if needed. "
"Wait, why am I with Ino!" he protested. "Sakura and Sasuke got to be together, why can't I be with Hinata?" he whined.
Tsunade shrugged, "I don't know, I just thought your hair color was similar, so I put you guys together. It was random, honestly." She smiled mysteriously. "Continuing on, Shikamaru and Gaara, you two will be in charge of Draco Malfoy. Now, Draco Malfoy is not one of Harry's friends, he's actually Harry's archenemy. You will only be tailing him, and looking for any information that will help us get closer to the dark wizards, understood?"
Shikamaru looked awkward standing next to Gaara. He knew that Gaara semi-disliked him for going out with his sister. He was pretty sure that Tsunade had put him with Gaara on purpose. "Troublesome," he muttered.
"Hinata and Neji are the last pair. You two, will be in charge of keeping tabs on everybody else that seems like a person of interest. I know you guys have good judgment and so therefore, will be able to sniff out the suspicious people."
Hinata nodded shyly while Neji gave a curt nod, "When are we to leave?" he asked shortly.
"In three hours, I want all ten of you to report back here. I don't want any late people, is that understood, Team 7?" she whispered dangerously.
"Yes, Tsunade-sama." Naruto replied meekly.
"Good. Dismissed!" With her final word, they 10 ninjas flew out the empty windows behind her. She leaned back in satisfaction. She knew her ninjas and she knew their capabilities very well. She smirked, look out Hogwarts, Ninjas are coming to town.
A/N: ….you guys are amazing! I cannot express how happy and ecstatic I am at how many people enjoyed reading the first chapter! Please continue to support me throughout this story. There will be times when I can't update really fast, so check out my other stories when you have the time!
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