Greetings everyone! I have decided to force this chapter out before going to bed so it is currently 03:10 as I write this . . . I was gonna tell you all a whole bunch of stuff that I had planned out and everything but now that my fingers are on the keyboard . . . I've clean forgotten . . . oh well, my fault for not writing it down . . . err . . . before I needed to write it down . . . I'm not making sense.
In any case, hope you enjoy, see you at the bottom!
Part 10
"Where have you been!?" came the shrill voice of a woman almost as soon as Sakura had entered the living room of her house. The woman was Haruno Taiko, Sakura's mother and the one for whom Sakura had gotten her pink hair it seems.
"I was training . . . then we had a mission and then I squeezed a little more training in" Sakura replied, trying her utmost best to keep her face blank as the image of her dead mother superimposed itself over her real mother in front of her.
"You didn't come home last night! We got worried and then you didn't come home until after sundown and. . . is that alcohol I smell?!" Taiko was almost shouting by now.
"I did come home last night mum . . . you were asleep and I left again early . . ." Sakura replied, she had been hoping that her parents would be asleep again when she got home, it was most of the reason she came home at just shy of midnight.
"What is that on your back? What are you wearing?! Where are your clothes!?" Taiko asked, her voice rising with each question until she was shouting in her shrill voice. Sakura winced in response, turning away from the woman in front of her, unable to look at her mother any longer.
"It's a sword . . . I got it for cheap and the outfit . . . it's my training outfit . . . I just forgot to change out of it is all, my clothes are where I left them" Sakura said, hoping her mother wouldn't notice the lie and question her further. "I'm a ninja now mother . . . there will be times I won't come home for days . . . weeks . . . or ever" Sakura was practically whispering by this point.
"Why are you wearing that silly headband on your forehead? You looked much better with it holding your hair up" Taiko said, her face softening. The woman was trying to reconnect with her daughter through fashion and appearance, Sakura knew this but still.
"Because that's how you are suppose to wear it . . . to properly show your loyalty to your village . . . to identify that you are a shinobi of Konoha to symbolise that you are a ninja . . . proud and true" Sakura said before turning to head upstairs and her bed, she wanted to be up in four hours for her training with Gai.
"You are not a ninja!" Taiko said sternly "You are my daughter! I had hopped you would just give up . . . that this was just a fad you'd grow out of as soon as you realised how hard it was and then we could use the fact that you had ninja training as a selling point! You are not a ninja Sakura! You never were! They've done something to you haven't they? Some ninja trick to corrupt your mind! Make you think things that aren't real! See things you shouldn't see!" Taiko ranted and Sakura paused midstep. Her mother had no idea who close to the truth she was even though Sakura was sure that her mother thought she was right, Sakura knew that her mother thought it something else than the Genjutsu Sakura had been subjected to.
"No mother . . . I grew up" Sakura said before leaving the woman alone in the living room.
"So, how's life?" Asked the sandy haired woman that Sakura had met on the day of the team selections.
"Good" Sakura replied softly, she was in a clearing with her sword out and the manual sitting nearby for her to look at and practice stances and moves.
"A curved longsword huh? Interesting style . . . normally these swords are straight" The woman said as she looked at Sakura's sword.
"You know where the sword is from?" Sakura asked, lowering her guard which had consisted of her holding her sword up above her head.
"Nope, but I've swords like it and they come from a place . . . far from here . . . it's been many years since I've seen one though . . . that guard doesn't suit you" the woman said before walking up to Sakura, walking around her and looking at her with a critical eye, her hand on her chin. Again, Sakura couldn't help but feel a tingling sensation run down the back of her head and settle in her chest while the woman examined her, Sakura wasn't sure she disliked the sensation. "Hmmmm where are you learning from?" the woman asked and Sakura directed her attention to the open book beside her.
"I've been practicing the stance written in that, hoping I will eventually be able to find something that feels natural to me . . . right now this stance feels clunky and slow" Sakura said as she rested the sword against her chest.
"Rest the sword on your shoulder so that the inside curve faces outward and hold the sword so that you hit the target with the curve" The woman stated "By the way . . . my name is Minori" she added and Sakura had to admit it was nice to have a name to go with the face. Complying, Sakura did as Minori asked and noticed it was much easier to hold this stance but she wasn't sure she could guard like this.
"This feels easier to hold but I don't feel like I can easily defend like this" Sakura stated as she looked at Minori, waiting for the next instruction.
"Sweep your left leg forward, put all your weight on that foot as you bring your right foot forward and, as you do this, draw your left arm back, it's best to slide your hand down to the pommel, and push your right arm forward" Minori commanded as she watched Sakura. Shrugging Sakura compiled and performed the maneuver, noticing immediately that the strike was close range and somewhat quick.
"Wow . . . but . . ." Sakura began and Minori nodded before putting her hand on her chin and walking around Sakura again.
"I'll come by again some other time and help you with stances and forging yourself a fighting style with that sword . . . it would be soooo much easier if it were just a regular longsword but no . . . someone had to make a hybrid, oh well" Minori said, moving back in front of Sakura. "I originally came here to give you something . . . so that you have something other than alcohol to work as a hobby . . . boozing yourself up so often isn't the best idea you have ever had to be honest, so I shall give you another way to escape!" With this, Minori pulled out a dark green covered book about as big as her hand and looking like it was a few hundred pages long.
"Wha . . . what is that?" Sakura asked, taking the book cautiously.
"This . . . is a way to escape without needing to pass out on the bar stool . . . it's somewhat saucy so . . . enjoy" Minori said before disappearing just as suddenly as she had appeared.
"Ahh team seven" Said the Hokage as he greeted the team in the missions office "This will be your eleventh mission wouldn't it?" he asked, giving the team a kind smile. Naruto noticed the slight stiffening of Kakashi's visage even as it dropped again a mere moment after occurring.
"Yes it would appear so, Hokage-sama" Kakashi said in reply to the old man.
"Hmmm . . . I think you three are ready for a C-rank mission, what do you think" said Sarutobi as he went looking through his list of C-rank missions still available. Naruto grinned happily, Sasuke smirked triumphantly and Sakura frowned worriedly at the news that they would be getting a C-rank mission. "Let's see here . . . ahh, I need you three to deliver a scroll to Suna, it's a standard trade so you will receive a scroll in return, I'll leave the mission details with Kakashi to deal with" said Sarutobi as he handed the mission scroll that contained where to collect the scroll they needed to deliver from.
"A nice easy mission to get our feet wet eh? I could use a little adventure" Naruto said as he and team seven left the mission office.
"Well . . . there is something odd with this mission though . . . it's not normally a C-rank" Kakashi stated, following along behind the team. "I'm sure that other things have happened to reduce its grade . . . it's pretty common for these routine missions to change rankings" he said and Naruto noticed that Kakashi still had a slightly stiff posture and that he hadn't pulled his book out yet.
"This is certainly going to be interesting . . . anyone been to Suna before?" Naruto asked and both of his teammates shook their heads. "Deserts are annoying to survive in though . . . that's gonna be a problem" Sasuke and Sakura looked at their blond teammate.
"Have you been to the desert before dobe?" Asked Sasuke
"Sorta, I've done desert survival training with Nee-chan" Naruto replied "By the way, Sakura, why are you still wearing that outfit?" Naruto asked in reference to the fact that Sakura was still wearing the green bodysuit she had gotten from Gai.
"Umm . . . well, it's comfortable, breathable, retains moisture and offers full range of movement all in one sweet package" Sakura replied, staring straight ahead as she recanted what Gai had told her, adding in the comfortable part because that was a selling point in her opinion. "I'm waiting on an order I've made in a different colour but unfortunately, it's not that easy to get this outfit in the colours I want so it's gonna be a few more months . . . also . . . perhaps the biggest selling point and why I'm surprised this thing isn't more popular" Sakura began, garnering the attention of her teammates "it's practically indestructible!" she said enthusiastically "I tested it myself, I threw it over a training dummy and threw kunai and shuriken at it for an hour . . . not a single puncture" Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other before looking back at Sakura.
"Well . . . at least she isn't going on about youth" Kakashi muttered under her breath.
"Hey! I may not subscribe to that style of cover identity . . . although I don't think Lee understands it's supposed to be a cover identity . . . but it's impolite to tell a woman she doesn't look youthful! That's calling me old and ugly!" Sakura said indignantly
"Wait . . . cover identity? What?" Naruto asked
"Hmm? Oh yeah, it's clearly a cover identity like your grinning idiot persona back at the academy" Sakura replied and even Sasuke understood then.
"Well, in any case . . . start packing, the trip to Suna should only a couple of days to Suna . . . I could get there today but you guys are still genin so pack for a week's worth of travel" Kakashi ordered "meet you at the gates at o' seven sharp" kakashi said before disappearing in a puff of white smoke.
"I don't know about you guys but I definitely could use some Teriyaki before we go on a long mission to Suna" Naruto said with a brief sigh.
"Oi Naruto, you've done desert training before . . . what do we need?" Asked Sakura, one hand on her hip.
"Ah right, you need cold weather gear . . . like cloaks and smokeless heaters . . . the shinobi supply has heating tags, we need those and we are gonna need water, pick up some extra water skins and salt tablets . . . or salted foods, something to replenish lost salt" naruto counted off.
"Oi dobe . . . what do we need cold weather gear for? Are you sure you aren't still an idiot? We are going to the desert" Sasuke said arrogantly, like he was gloating over this piece of knowledge. Naruto for his part merely sighed at Sasuke's response.
"I thought so too until I spent a night in the desert . . . trust me, the ONLY source of heat in the desert is the sun, out of that sunshine and it gets cold, really cold, like below zero cold. Deserts are deserts because they have no rainfall . . . or liquid water . . . the largest desert I can think of is in the land of snow and it's made of Ice . . . it doesn't rain there so desert" Naruto explained to Sasuke whose eye was twitching at being labeled as wrong.
"Fine . . . I'll pack a cloak" Sasuke relented before walking away, his hands in his pockets.
"So wanna get dinner?" Naruto asked Sakura with a grin
"Depends . . . does that shop you always go to serve alcohol?" Sakura asked
"Yeah . . . it mainly serves ninja so they serve alcohol . . . why do YOU drink?" Naruto replied as he cast a wary glance in Sakura's direction.
"I . . . just do" Sakura replied cryptically, her head down.
"Right . . . do you know The Rule?" Naruto asked, his own mood a little down.
"No . . . what rule are you talking about?" She asked back
"Long story short, invoke the rule and people stop asking . . . acknowledge but don't talk about it, change the subject, make it funny, make it nice but whatever you do . . . don't talk about it" Naruto explained as he started walking down the street, Sakura following.
"What's with the sword?" Sasuke asked Sakura almost word for word what he asked Naruto when he revealed one such item at team selection.
"I felt I needed a weapon other than standard tools and even ANBU use swords so . . ." Sakura replied. Sakura was wearing her sword on her back in a special harness that let her draw her sword over her shoulder and attack in the same movement. Sasuke's only reply was a grunt but Sakura noticed that he was still eyeing up her weapon.
"Hey guys . . . erm, where are your standard issue field kits?" Naruto asked as he joined in at the gate they were to meet at.
"Standard issue field kits?" Sakura asked, looking back at the blond shinobi. Naruto for his part, patted a belt that he was wearing and immediately, Sakura saw the seals.
"Konoha standard issue field kits, contain rations up to two weeks as well as some other supplies such as medical supplies and emergency contingency attire . . . try saying that ten times fast" Naruto replied, resting a hand on his sword as his older sister was want to do. "Before you ask, that consists of hot weather gear, cold weather gear and wet weather gear just in case you need them" he continued, cutting Sakura off from asking the question he just answered.
"So how long until sensei gets here?" Asked Sasuke, looking around to see if he can spot the errant jonin.
"Depends, what time did he tell us to meet?" Asked Naruto, a hand on his chin. Sakura noticed Naruto's thinking posture and was instantly reminded of Minori for some reason but she chose to ignore that detail for now, it would come up later.
"Fifteen minutes ago" Sakura stated, watching as the village started coming to life in the morning rays that shone down upon the village.
"Ahh, right, we have two hours and forty five minutes" Naruto stated, smacking his open hand with his closed fist.
"How did you get that? What does sensei's tardiness run on time?" Asked Sasuke, attempting sarcasm.
"Yep, he is exactly three hours late to everything . . . fairly certain he will be three hours late to his own funeral" Naruto replied as he sat down cross legged and pulled out a packet of oats. "Might as well have some breakfast since we are gonna be waiting for our illustrious sensei" he said before digging into the simple meal. "Man plain oats are bland" he said before continuing to eat.
"Oiiiii! Naruto-kun!" came the overly enthusiastic voice of Yuriko who came lightly jogging down the street with her three samurai retainers not for behind her.
"Uhh, who is that?" Sakura asked, indicating towards the pig-tailed girl.
"Yuriko . . . she's technically freeloading in my house but Nee-chan's guests are my guests" Naruto said with a heavy sigh "And she apparently has the hots for me" Sasuke scoffed at this piece of information
"Better you than me" he said simply before getting a sharp look from Sakura. "Don't look at me like that! You and Ino were following me around everywhere! I even caught one of those fangirls going through my trash!" Sasuke said vehemently.
"Oooh who's this? Is she your girlfriend?" Yuriko asked, giving Sakura a long hard examination, even walking around her several times to take in every detail. "You could do better than someone wearing . . . that" she said, pointing to the bodysuit that Sakura was wearing.
"Sakura isn't my girlfriend . . . and even if she was, I wouldn't want her to die so much that I'd risk saying that in public" Naruto replied and Sakura was immediately reminded of the night before when she had run into Hinata and had been given a cold glare for so much as daring to go out with Naruto. Thankfully, as soon as Naruto said that she had invoked The Rule Hinata had calmed down immediately and apologised for being inconsiderate.
"What? You have multiple girls falling over you or something?" Sasuke asked and was met with the deadpan stares of Sakura, Yuriko and Naruto. "Right . . . Hinata" he said with a sigh.
"Why are you standing here though? Isn't this the gate out of Konoha?" Yuriko asked as she cast a glance in the direction of the gate in question.
"Yup, going on a mission, probably be gone for two months I'd say . . . heading to the land of Tea, gotta find a crime ring . . . organised banditry is no joke" Naruto said in a perfectly serious tone of voice that almost had Sakura convinced despite only getting the briefing yesterday.
"We are going to Suna on a routine delivery mission" Sakura corrected for her blond teammate and instantly noticed the look that the boy gave her. It was a look to say she really shouldn't have done that.
"Suna huh? I hear it's hot there . . . and that the dust and sand is bad for your skin . . . dries it out and cracks it" Yuriko said quietly. Sakura and Sasuke noticed the look that Naruto gave the girl over his shoulder but chose not to say anything. "Well, I have errands to run! See you when you get back in four days Naruto-kun!" the girl chirped before heading off. One last suspicious look from one of the Samurai was given before the four left sight.
"So . . . why the suspicion?" Sasuke asked, eyeing the direction the girl had left in.
"She's not from Konoha . . . Land of Rice Paddies . . . word on the street is something is going down over there and it isn't in our favour, already had price rises in rice despite the harvest being good" Naruto said and suddenly the other two knew why Naruto was cautious about what he told the girl.
"So what were you gonna say when you came back ahead of time?" Sakura asked, turning to look at her teammate
"Chunin from Suna had also gotten the mission but from a different source and they had already been on the case . . . we got there just in time to mop up and report success" Naruto said without hesitation
"You don't trust your sister's guests?" Sasuke asked, turning to look at the blond as well, his hand on his hip.
"I'm a ninja . . . it's important to always treat the unknown with suspicion and that girl is an unknown" Naruto replied and the three shared looks, they'd keep an eye on her if she appeared again.
"Kaka-sensei" Came the voice of Sakura as she trudged alongside their ever aloof teacher.
"What is it Sakura?" Kakashi asked, his nose firmly implanted in the orange book he was continuously re-reading.
"Have you ever read 'Tales of Silk'?" Sakura asked, remembering the copy she had in her room.
"I have all twelve in the series and a pre-order for the next edition" Kakashi said nonchalantly "And yes, I have read them all" he added
"Why do you continue to read . . . that?" Sakura asked, looking at the orange book with distaste "It's pure smut! No fantasy, no story!" Sakura said, her voice raising a little.
"Well maybe I just like that kind of story eh?" Kakashi said, the smirk was evident in his voice before he dropped his voice until only Sakura could hear him. "Everyone knows this book is just pure smut . . . it was Jiraiya's first in the series and not his best . . . it works for me" he said, directing his attention over to his female student who nodded.
"I thought as much" she said quietly and that was the end of that conversation.
"What do you think of the desert Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, having fallen back to Kakashi's position.
"It's too hot and too cold . . . the land of fire is juuuuust right" Kakashi replied shrugging slightly. "They weren't always our ally though . . . we did fight against them in the second shinobi war"
"Why did we ally with them then? I mean we still hate Iwa's guts even thirteen years after the war ended" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked up from his book and directed his gaze to a random horizon
"Don't know . . . didn't care about politics back then but I do know that technically it was Suna who started the third war . . . not that they were to blame, just that they started it" Kakashi replied as he looked at each of his three students, even Sasuke seemed to be interested.
"What happened? Did they invade someone allied to Iwa?" Sakura asked in her light 'I'm acquiring information about something' voice that she had used whenever she had asked teachers questions.
"No not quite" Kakashi said before sighing "This really should have been covered in the Academy" he said almost to himself "Like Genjutsu" he added and noticed the slight stiffening of Sakura before her posture relaxed again. "Suna's sandaime Kazekage disappeared one night and even to this day we don't know what happened . . . Suna loved their Kazekage and went on a mad and desperate search to find him . . ." Kakashi said, looking around at the varying degrees of rapt attention "In their desperate search, Suna teams went into the neighbouring countries and kept clashing with any shinobi they met . . . at some point Iwa decided enough was enough and declared war and then after that, it was just a matter of alliances dragging nations in one by one until the entirety of the elemental nations were in the war" Kakashi looked around at his genin again and noticed that they had all soaked that in like it was new information.
"The academy told us that Iwa declared war on our ally Suna and then started burning down minor villages as well . . . this drew us in as we were allied to several of the villages that Iwa tried to burn down" Naruto said with a thoughtful expression. "I understand the propaganda if it was closer to the time of the war . . . but we should have been in the 'bygones be bygones' phase by then and details of the war shouldn't have been omitted . . . still, one of the teachers was a traitor so maybe more thought similarly?" Naruto took his hand off his chin and put it on his sword instead. Naruto noticed the hairs on the back of Sakura's neck stand up and she stopped and looked behind her, this drew the attention of the other two even though Naruto was sure Kakashi already knew.
"How long until we reach Suna?" Asked Sasuke as he too eyed the direction Sakura had looked in.
"Midday tomorrow is my guess" kakashi replied before trudging on again.
"Someone is watching us" Naruto thought as he followed his sensei and memories of the conversation with Yuriko that morning ran through his head as well as the memory of her abrupt departure as soon as he mentioned where he was going "How did she know he was going to be four days!" Naruto thought as he was suddenly reminded of her comment
"Something wrong Naruto?" kakashi asked, not even turning back.
"Sensei . . . exactly how routine is this mission?" Naruto asked and Kakashi's own words about how this mission isn't normally a C-rank came back.
"That's an interesting question Naruto" Kakashi said but then stayed quiet. Naruto had his answer.
Well, here we are at the conclusion of another chapter . . . I'm not certain I like this chapter but yeah . . . also . . . slight cliff hanger . . . lots of foreshadow . . . gee I wonder what's gonna happen next kudos if you guessed it.
speaking of kudos for guess work, this brings me to a point I wanted to make a chapter or two ago . . . when we got the first clue. I like a little subtlety and I have been putting in clues for people to look at and collect, if I have done this right, you could possibly guess major plot points even now but I have been leaving clues to the major plot points (some of them anyway).
So, assuming I have done this right, pay attention to the story and see if you can figure out what's going to happen before it does . . . please note that if it's not expressly stated anywhere, it's still in the air.
things that have been stated as facts so far;
* Minori has been noted as being more powerful than a squad of ANBU
* Minori is a potential candidate for Hokage, suggesting she is on the level of a Kage in terms of power.
*Kakashi and Minori are in some form of relationship (seemingly friends with benefits)
*Naruto is not actually in a relationship with Hinata
these are four things I just thought would be wise to bring to everyone's attention since I have gotten a fair few reviews stating things from empirical evidence (what people have observed) and thus lost a few readers because of that.
as for Minori being too powerful . . . so was Minato when he was her age and more importantly . . . so is Obito who is currently a similar age if not the same age as Minori.
thank you for reading to this point in this extremely lengthy authors note.
please tell me what you liked, disliked, what you thought could use improvement and what you'd like to see more of. take care