Greetings everyone! and here we come to another chapter of Yadokawa Naruto . . . actually I'm starting to wish that Sakura was the main character . . . so far she is far more interesting than Naruto . . . fun fact, did you know that I actually hate canon Naruto? he is annoying as all hell and really that's his only personality trait . . . that and he can take a beating but still! my naruto is a bit less annoying but still . . . I love Sakura and everything I can do with her but unfortunately I made this story about Naruto instead . . . damn I'm wishing I'd done this differently now.
in any case, hope you enjoy, see you at the bottom!
Part 11
Shikamaru casually walked down a street, the setting sun at his back on his way home from a team session. Lately Ino had gotten more into training on her own, leaving Shikamaru and Choji to lounge by themselves more often than not. Shikamaru noticed a woman heading down the street in the opposite way, she was looking straight at him with a faint smirk. The woman had sandy blond hair and wore a light grey kimono, a sword strapped to her back with the handle sticking out on her left side. The woman stopped walked, moved over to a nearby wall and leant on it, crossing her arms. With a sigh, Shikamaru took the clear invitation and, without removing his hands from his pockets, leant against the same wall.
"So you are Shikaku's brat huh?" the woman asked, although it was clear she already knew the answer.
"Yeah . . . and you are?" Shikamaru asked in reply, his head bowed but his eyes on the woman beside him. The woman put her hand on her chin as if thinking about the boy's question.
"Figure it out" She replied finally, smirking at the heavy sigh Shikamaru gave. "My apprentice" She added. Shikamaru's eyes snapped wide and his head snapped up as he watched the woman leave.
Continuing home with more purpose in his step meant Shikamaru got home faster but this didn't matter to him at the present moment. What did matter was the question he needed to ask his father who had seemed to notice his less casual attitude.
"You look troubled" Shikaku stated, the question hidden in the context.
"I met a woman . . . sandy haired, grey kimono . . . it's troublesome to ask but do you know her? She didn't wear a hitai-ate" Shikamaru said, taking his usual slouch though his eyes never left his father who was sitting at the dining room table. Shikaku sighed heavily before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a copy of the bingo book and handing it to Shikamaru. Shikamaru looked at the book, then his father before finally opening the book and looking for the picture of the woman. "This . . . can't be right" Shikamaru said when he finally found the page in question.
"That woman . . . they call her 'Konoha's Big Sister' and say that nobody ever learns her name without her knowing about it" Shikaku said calmly. "If you find anything, let me know" Shikaku continued. Shikamaru looked at his father before heading out again with the bingo book still in his hand.
"That's the most determined I've ever seen him" Came the voice of Yoshino. "Who exactly is this woman? And why the sudden interest in her?"
"It's troublesome . . . but If the kid can pull this off . . ." Shikaku said, letting the suggestion of Shikamaru's future hang there between them.
"Three disturbances to our left, four to the right" Naruto said, the lines down his face and his black eyes indicating he was using his new bloodline. "Damn it Sasuke! Stop moving so much, it's hard to focus as is" he growled out as Sasuke shifted position to try and see what Naruto was seeing.
"Are they enemies?" the Uchiha asked
"I don't know, best I can tell you is that most of them are man sized with a few that are a little smaller" Naruto said.
"Right, Meji Formation! We're about to be surrounded" Kakashi stated as he pulled out a kunai. In response to his comment, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura formed up in a triangle at Kakashi's back, their own kunai in their hands. As soon as they did this, their enemies appeared, all seven of them, in a pincer formation around Team Seven.
"You have something we want Konoha trash!" one of the new contacts said. He, like his cohorts, was wearing a shemagh so that nothing but their eyes were left exposed under the white fabric of their headwear. Covering their bodies were tunics tucked into their trousers and both garments were the same colour as the sands that team seven was currently standing on.
"I'm afraid not" Kakashi replied casually as he studied the forces arrayed against him and his team while considering the use of his Sharingan.
"That supposed to be funny? Give us the scroll and maybe we'll let the girl go . . . after we've had our fun of course" said one of the other men and, as one, all seven of the attackers pulled out strange one handed curved swords.
"What's this? Two bits of trash with swords but not drawing them? Heh, bet you don't know how to and ya just wearin' em for show!" Said another of the masked attackers.
"Enough! Attack them! Leave the girl alive if you can, kill the rest, the boss wants that scroll" Said the first man who spoke and, as one, the seven bandits attacked. Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he noticed that the enemy were attacking at ninja speeds but that realisation had to wait as two of the seven enemies were suddenly upon him with their swords and he had barely any time to parry both swords.
"Break formation! Engage them at will!" Kakashi ordered and the three genin behind him split up and dashed off, taking the two enemies that had attacked each of them.
"So, one jounin to another huh? Guess it's like a good old fashion ninja battle then" Said the apparent leader of the bandits.
"So it would seem" Kakashi replied before lifting up his hitai-ate and exposing his sharingan eye. His opponent merely scoffed before attacking Kakashi at high speed, his sword meeting Kakashi's kunai in clashes that would have been faster than a civilian eye could track.
Meanwhile, Sakura looked at the two bandits in front of her and thought about the sword on her back. She had only had a couple of weeks worth of training with it and so wasn't confident of it's usefulness in a real engagement. Before she could consider it any more however, one of the bandits attacked, his sword flashing high over his head only to be met with Sakura's kunai and a fearful expression from the girl herself.
"Huh! Weak gutter trash like you deserves to bent over and ploughed like fertile soil! Day in, day out for until you dry up!" The man said, his face close to Sakura's own. Suddenly a scowl met the man and Sakura took a couple steps back before disappearing from view and reappearing with her foot in the air aimed at the guy's head.
"Leaf Hurricane!" Sakura shouted even as the man ducked but Sakura wasn't done, planting her hands on the sand and bringing her entire body around to smash her foot into the man's head despite his feeble attempts to block. The man was lifted off his feet and Sakura saw a chance, a chance that her body just reacted too and the kunai that had been in her hand went sailing towards to man in the air where it was met by a squelch, a gasp of pain and the crunch of a dead body impacting the sand.
Sasuke looked at his two challengers nonchalantly, their blades flashing in sunlight while his own absorbed the light due to it's darkened material.
"Why'd we have to get the whimp of the group, this guy looks like he'd take one light breeze and be shredded! Wish I could've gotten the girl mmmmm would've had her begging for it by the time I was done with 'er" one of the two bandits said, his grin was evident in the sound of his voice.
"You lot have no idea what you're messing with do you?" Sasuke asked in a tone that suggested he was bored with this whole affair.
"Why you!" The first man shouted before both charged at him. Sasuke merely cracked a grin before running through a series of hand signs that felt all too familiar to the Uchiha. Sasuke brought his hand up to his mouth and exhaled a breath that instantly turned into a fireball the moment it passed through his hands. The two bandits, confidant as they just were, could only stare at the ball of fire as it approached them and neither moved until it was upon them and then, their only move was to scream as their flesh burnt from their bodies while they yet lived. It was several seconds before they finally slumped to the ground as blacked corpses, completely unrecognisable from the humans they had just been.
"What?" Sasuke said as he stared wide eyed at the two smoking corpses. He had expected them to dodge, to get out of the way or something, he didn't expect them to stand there and gape at him. "Genjutsu! It has to be!" he said as he slammed his hands together and shouted "Release!" but the blackened bodies remained, still smoking in the desert sands. Sasuke's expression turned frantic as he tried to release the non-existent Genjutsu he was convinced he was in until finally he slumped to his knees and just looked at the bodies, not noticing that his eyes had one red tomoe in each eye. "What have I done?" He said quietly
Naruto gave his two combatants a smirk while he played with his kunai, flipping it again and again.
"You sure seem confidant brat, think you can take us on? You can't even see, I know a blind man when I see one and your eyes are completely black" One of the two men said and Naruto could just tell the man was smiling.
"I don't need to 'see' you to know where you are . . . I'm a ninja. Besides, need to give you guys some handicap right? You know how long the typical ninja battle goes for? Minutes . . . and that's when there are several hundred on either side" Naruto said, his smirk not vanishing. "Course, this ain't no ninja battle is it? Just a couple of bandits that can use their chakra, nothing more" Naruto stopped smirking and threw his kunai at the second man who had stayed quiet up till now. The man blocked the kunai easily but Naruto was already blowing through a quick series of hand signs before thrusting his fist forward. A blast of wind took the two bandits and part of the sand dune they were standing on and threw them backwards before letting them slam into the ground, but before they got there, Naruto was on them, his sword in hand and spinning between them. Twin trails of blood, followed his sword in the air as he lightly landed on his feet while the bandits hit the sand hard, choking on their own blood. Naruto walked away from them, intending to join up with his comrades, he could feel that Sakura had only one opponent left while Sasuke still had two. It was at this moment that Naruto felt the blast of compressed air that was generated by the superheated fireball that Sasuke had launched and a tingle ran from Naruto's head right down his spin and he shivered.
"So that's what she meant when she said explosions are the best f-feeling ever" Naruto said, a slight hitch in his voice before he shook his head clear and noticed that Sasuke's opponents were both dead and he was on his knees in front of the corpses. Naruto then decided to join Sakura who still had an opponent.
Naruto lightly landed beside Sakura who was just finished with her own opponents, the second missing his head and her blade glinting in the sunlight.
"Naruto? Finished s-so soon?" Sakura asked, a hitch in her voice.
"Yeah, you okay? You did just kill two people" Naruto asked, looking on in concern at his female teammate.
"Yeah, I'm good . . . what about you? Didn't you kill yours?" She replied, sheathing her sword and collecting her kunai from the corpse of one of the two bandits.
"I've . . . already had my first" Naruto said, closing his eyes before opening them again with a smile. "Let's go check on Sasuke . . . Kakashi is still fighting but they are moving so fast even I'm having trouble keeping up with them . . . they are barely displacing any air" Naruto said and Sakura nodded
"Lead on then, we should think on a way to help sensei if he can't beat his own opponent" Sakura said and the two leapt from their position towards Sasuke.
"Yo?" Naruto called out as he saw the Uchiha kneeling there in front of two blackened bodies, completely frozen with an expression of shocked horror.
"What have I done?" he asked quietly though Naruto was sure he didn't know they were there. Naruto sighed before walking over to the traumatized Uchiha and sat down in front of him which seemed to snap him out of his funk slightly. "Naruto? What . . . why?"
"You killed them cause you had to . . . nothing more" Naruto said as he looked at the red eyed teammate and noted the tomoe in each eye.
"Here Sasuke . . . take a drink from this" Said Sakura as she handed Sasuke a bottle that was clearly a bottle of Sake. taking it from her gently, Sasuke put it to his mouth and took a long gulp, swallowing it down and screwing his face up. Sakura took the bottle back and the two pre-teens waited patiently for Sasuke to recover. A few moments later, Sasuke had recovered, his eyes returned to their usual onyx and he no longer looked completely traumatised.
"Thank you" he said simply as he got back to his feet. "What's our situation?" he asked, looking around but avoiding the direction in which the still smoking bodies were.
"Sensei is still fighting but I can barely track it . . . only bits and pieces when they stop for an attack" Naruto said as he too stood.
"Then we go help him" Sasuke said back and started to make his way towards where he thought the fight was taking place.
"Hold it Sasuke! We need a plan!" Sakura called out causing Sasuke to stop and turn his head enough to be able to look at her out of the corner of his eye. "We are not just walking into a jounin duel without carefully considering it and having at least three different plans for getting ourselves out of there in a hurry" Sakura continued as she walked up to the Uchiha, her expression daring him to argue. Sasuke merely clicked his tongue.
"Fine but this better be good" Sasuke said and turned to face the pink haired girl who was giving him a look that told him that he would be doing what she said regardless.
"Erm guys . . . they aren't moving around anymore . . . wait . . . shit" Naruto said, swearing suddenly. "They're gone!" he clarified.
"What do you mean they are gone dobe!?" Sasuke asked.
"I mean, one minute they were displacing air just by being there . . . the next, smooth air patterns . . . nothing . . . I'm not feeling anything!" Naruto said as he scanned the horizon before sighing and deactivating his bloodline. "There's a minx about half a kilometer to our left but that's about it" he said lightly.
"Shit" Sakura swore before pulling out her bottle of Sake and taking a long pull from it "Well . . . we need to figure out where they went so let's go look at the site of the battle" she said as she corked her bottle and stashed it back in her pack.
"Who died and made you leader?" Sasuke asked, shooting a glower at the kunoichi's back. Sakura turned around and merely looked at Sasuke but the Uchiha saw that there was not a hint of emotion in the girl's eyes.
"We can't afford this kind of disunity right now Sasuke" Sakura stated calmly and Sasuke clenched his fist in response before releasing it and nodding. "Good" she said "Now if there are no further objections, let's go"
"Yes captain" Naruto and Sasuke replied at the same time
The battle site was potted with marks from where jutsu had impacted the sand, the wind already filling the holes created with new grains.
"Anyone find it odd that we were so close to this battle and none of us saw or heard a thing that was going on? I mean I caught flashes of movement when they displaced air but it was only a little" Naruto mused as he and his team looked around at the battle site
"I think that's usual for high level ninja battles" Sakura replied as she knelt to inspect a couple drops of blood on the sand.
"Yeah but . . . they weren't ninja . . . well trained bandits that could use their chakra . . . but still nowhere near ninja" Naruto replied before noticing a glint of something metallic sticking out of the sand. Naruto knelt to inspect it and discovered it was a kunai. "Konoha standard issue kunai . . . no blood stains on it" Naruto called out to his team and Sakura narrowed her eyes.
"What's that supposed to mean? So what if that kunai didn't have blood on it?" Sasuke asked, clearly having not noticed the two pieces of evidence they had been presented with.
"It means that the blood on the ground by Sakura is sensei's . . . most likely" Naruto replied as he stood up and scanned the horizon. "Sun will be going down soon . . . we need to know exactly where we are going to get sensei back before we are forced to take shelter and we need a way to figure out how to get there" He said, scanning the horizon and finding what looked like a rocky outcropping in the distance.
"What happens if we don't?" Asked Sakura, standing up herself. Naruto pointed to one of the holes that was now half full.
"The desert erases all trace of there ever being a battle here" he replied and the three teammates shared looks.
"Wide band perimeter . . . they had to come out somewhere . . . Naruto what's the range on your sense?" Sakura called out.
"Hard to say, it doesn't work like that but I can sufficiently sense the entire battlefield we were just on so . . . let's start with that as a medium" Naruto replied, activating his bloodline while Sakura nodded.
"You stay here and keep track of us. Sasuke, we are going in a radius of three ninja leaps from this site, try and memorise the direction, if you get lost Naruto can sense you" Sakura said before bounding in a random direction and was out of sight. Sasuke scoffed and looked around.
"I really don't see why we are letting her take charge, I'm the Uchiha and she is just a civilian" Sasuke said
"A civilian who came up with a battle strategy that defeated Kakashi . . . you forget that she has an exact memory and thus, has memorised every strategy we have ever learnt in the academy and can piece them together at will" Naruto said calmly "Now do as ordered" he added and Sasuke glared at the blond before following Sakura's example and bounding off in a different direction.
"Anything?" Naruto asked, he had seen Sakura kneel to inspect something but he didn't know what.
"I found what looked like some tracks . . . they led in a westerly direction" Sakura said as she looked at the sun, it was getting lower in the sky and the temperature was already dropping now that the shadows covered the area they had been fighting in. "We don't have the time to follow those tracks in daylight so we are just gonna have to do this at night . . . though I'm not sure how, we have no way of telling direction other than that outcropping and the sun, even I'll get lost out here without some way to orient myself" Sakura continued as she searched around for something better to use.
"I have a compass . . . well . . . it's sorta like a compass, works the same way but it's designed to have it's point of orientation set manually rather than just automatically be pointing north" Naruto said as he pulled a circular metal device out of a seal.
"What good's that gonna do if it's not pointing north?" Sasuke asked, sarcasm lacing his voice.
"We can set it to face the direction we came from or the direction we are going" Sakura said, realisation in her eyes. "can we set it to magnetic north?" she asked.
"Yeah but personally, right now that feature isn't of much use to us" Naruto replied "We should set this spot as the compass point so we can find our way back here and then find a place to rest for the night and do this in daylight" He added.
"If only to wrap our heads around the day we've had" Sakura said quietly "Right, Naruto, set that compass to lead us back here and then we are going to that outcropping over there for shelter . . . it might be the only landmark as far as the eye can see but that just means we will see the enemy coming as well" she said and the three ninja nodded to one another before bounding off in the direction of the outcropping.
Sakura's eyes snapped open and she realised she was sweating. Her nightmare had been about the Genjutsu she had been under but was all the more intense with the addition of those two men she had killed.
"Nightmare?" Came the quiet voice of Naruto who was currently on watch. Sakura had organised them into three watches with Naruto in the middle and her at the end since Sasuke had used some chakra and needed rest while Naruto was known to be able to bounce back from anything with just a quick nap.
"Yeah" Sakura said softly as she joined Naruto. They were on top of the outcropping and positioned in such a fashion that they had full vision of the surrounding landscape while they themselves were hard to spot. It was almost like this place was put here to be a resting stop for ninja. "You know, considering how close we are to Suna . . . I think this outcropping was put here by them in case any of their shinobi got caught out after dark or needed to recover after an ambush" She said idly as she looked up at the stars.
"There is a Suna symbol in the cave below us . . . I took a look a little earlier, nothing we need down there so we shouldn't steal from our allies" Naruto replied, his bloodline active.
"How long can you keep that active for?" Sakura asked, noticing the dark lines on his face.
"It's not actually draining my chakra very fast . . . I replenish faster than I lose but the question still stands . . . I get a massive headache if I have it active for two long . . . most I can do is a couple of hours before the pain is too much to keep it on" Naruto explained "I need to train it more, reconfigure my brain to be able to handle this . . . of course I'm going to try and not rely on it . . . I don't want to lose my grip on sanity" Naruto continued.
"Lose your grip on sanity?" Sakura asked, looking at Naruto with concern.
"I can feel every movement in the air for three hundred and sixty degrees around us and above us . . . even the Hyuga would have trouble trying to deal with the copious quantity of information . . . even a slight breeze is far more information than you would expect" Naruto said as he deactivated his bloodline with a sigh before rubbing his eyes. "Plus, since I go completely blind while using it, I forget to blink occasionally" he added
"Do you think we're gonna find Sensei?" asked Sakura who had brought her knees up to her chest and was hugging them, her hair framing her head.
"I should be asking you that captain" Naruto replied "Rule one of leadership, don't let the people following you realise you got nothing" Naruto said as he looked at the girl, her pink hair almost shining in the starlight. "Rule two of leadership, don't let your followers see weakness or doubt . . . If you doubt the mission you are leading, they will too" Naruto continued and sat back, resting his bodyweight on his hands behind him.
"You really are just like Minori" Sakura said, a wistful expression on her face
"Well, she IS my sister . . . that's to be expected . . . sometimes I'm astounded how much like each other we are . . . Yadokawa rituals are certainly something aren't they" Naruto said enjoying the cold air after such a hot day.
"Go get some sleep, I'll take the watch from you now" Sakura said and Naruto grinned at her. "And thank you Naruto . . . I'll remember what you said" she added which only widened Naruto's grin.
"Remind me to give you a book when we get back to Konoha . . . it was written by some foreign general as an instruction manual for other commanders and strategists" Naruto said as he stood and moved over to where the sleeping bags were. Sakura merely nodded, not caring if he saw it or not.
"They probably traveled through the night . . . we shouldn't have stopped" Came the voice of Sasuke as the three genin bounded from dune top to dune top.
"We didn't want to catch up with them, the enemy in question is good enough to incapacitate our sensei, do you really think we can do any better?" Sakura replied "This way, we will find out where they took our sensei, mark it on the compass and make our way back to konoha to get reinforcements" she continued.
"I still think this was a foolish idea, and that is a foolish idea as well. I'm sure we can take whatever the enemy can throw at us and Kakashi is weak, he fell for the dobe's little eraser trap remember" Sasuke said and this time Sakura stopped causing the two boys to stop with her. "What?" Sasuke asked as Sakura turned to face him. He was met by the same blank, emotionless stare from the previous day only this time he felt a cold chill hit him like an anvil as the weight of her stare paralysed the Uchiha.
"We are shinobi of Konoha, we have protocol, we have structure" Sakura said as she moved closer to the Uchiha who still couldn't move. Even Naruto appeared uneasy as he watched what was going on. "This is not the playground of the academy, this is not the village training fields where the council panders to your every whim" Sakura continued, coming within mere inches of Sasuke's face. "This is the field now Sasuke, we are engaged in a military operation with hostile combatants where one mistake from you, one arrogant underestimation, one foolish dismissal, will lead to all of our deaths . . . just like those two burnt bodies" Sasuke was visibly shaking by this point and sweat ran down his face. "Mess up and we all die . . . do you understand?" she asked.
"Y-yes" Sasuke croaked out and Sakura turned her back, cutting off the chilling feeling entirely. Sasuke began enacting breathing exercises to get his churning insides under control when Sakura began speaking again.
"I shouldn't have had to do that Sasuke, You are supposed to be more intelligent than that . . . there can be no room for doubt, no room for hesitation, we must act and if we get it wrong, we will die" She said and only Naruto noticed the tear rolling down the girl's cheek. "Let's continue on, I don't want this to be a continued problem" she said before taking off and leaving Naruto and Sasuke to catch up.
"You okay Sakura?" Naruto asked quietly when he had caught up to the girl who had been blazing ahead.
"I'm fine Naruto, focus on the mission" she replied and Naruto knew that she was lying, she had been more affected by killing those two men than she let on but Naruto dropped it and just kept close behind her.
"Contacts! Three man sized!" Naruto called out, he had just activated his bloodline not long ago and had only just now felt them. In response, Sakura came to a stop with Sasuke and Naruto on either side of her. Two of the contacts appeared in front of the group immediately and the three genin drew their kunai.
"State your purpose here konoha!" called out one of the men, both were wearing Suna hitai-ate and standard Suna chunin uniforms.
"Genin team seven, we are tracking bandits that have captured one of our teammates" Sakura replied, her kunai still in her hand. Sasuke sent a questioning look at his pink haired companion but otherwise stayed in a guard position.
"Is that so . . . you must be the team bringing us our scroll . . . in that case, hand it over" The shinobi said, sticking his hand out. He either didn't believe Sakura or didn't care and that answered Sasuke's unasked question.
"I can't do that . . . what assurance do I have you are really Suna ninja . . . wouldn't be hard to kill a couple guards and steal their uniforms" Sakura replied.
"Behind us" Naruto uttered quietly and Sakura turned to face the new contact.
"What's going on here?" asked the man. It was clear he was on the older end of things as he wore the old style Suna uniform that was abandoned after the second shinobi war.
"These are the team that supposedly has the scroll we were expecting . . . they refuse to hand it over" answered the first shinobi.
"And why is that young girl? Why do you refuse to complete your mission?" the supposed leader asked Sakura.
"One of our teammates has been taken captive, we will get them back first before the trail runs cold" she replied. Sakura was well aware that there was no chance she would best a veteran shinobi who probably fought in both shinobi wars but she still lowered her center of mass in preparation for rapid movement anyway.
"Hand us over the scroll and return to konoha, we will get your teammate back" The man said, sticking his hand out as the first shinobi had done.
"We don't leave men behind" Sakura replied "It's more important that completing missions" something crossed the face of the veteran quickly before disappearing into the friendly smile he had been wearing up till that point.
"Ahh yes, because Konoha has an abundance of missions, they can afford to drop a few here and there" The old man stated in a friendly and understanding tone of voice.
"No, because we don't like losing shinobi, we'd rather save the life of a teammate than get a C-rank's worth of pay . . . what's a little bit of ryo compared to a shinobi that's already costed more than our one mission in training materials he has consumed over the course of his academy tenure?" Sakura shot back and suddenly the old shinobi's face dropped as if he hadn't thought of that.
"Your teammate has the scroll doesn't he" he stated, giving Sakura a deadpan look before letting out a sigh. "You know where they were heading? We will follow you" he said as he looked at his two teammates and back down to the girl in front of him who hadn't moved. "We are allies after all" Sakura looked back at Naruto, silently questioning if he can keep track of them. Naruto nodded his affirmation.
"Fine, we could use the help anyway, we were going to find the location before heading back to Konoha for reinforcement" Sakura replied, tucking her kunai into her pouch.
"And what would you need reinforcements for? They are just bandits aren't they?" asked the veteran.
"Yes . . . but they are apparently being lead by someone who moved at jounin level speeds and they could all use chakra to some degree . . . they might have even had some ninjutsu up their sleeves" Sakura replied and the veteran nodded.
"Lead on then" he said indicating the direction they had been traveling before. "My name is Matsumoto and these are my compatriots Hosei and Endo" Matsumoto said as he pointed at himself and his two companions.
"Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto" Sakura said purposefully leaving off clan names since they were all somewhat important.
"No nearby fuel so no fire . . . not that it would have been a good idea anyway. Hope you kids are okay with that" Said Matsumoto as the Suna and Konoha teams settled in for another night in the desert. "Also, I hope you know where you are going . . . it's easy to get lost in the desert after all"
"Don't worry about heat, we have that covered and as for knowing where to go . . . well, the tracks were going westerly . . . anything you know of that can be used in that direction as a base?" Sakura replied as Naruto pulled out a piece of paper, taped some chakra into it and set it down on the ground in the middle of the group. The seal lit up faintly and instant warmth was spread to those near it.
"There is one place . . . it was a fall back point in the second war in case Konoha managed to take Suna. we would have been able to fall back to this fully stocked base and be able to launch hit and run raids from there and since it was in the middle of the desert, it would be almost impossible for anyone other than Suna shinobi to find it" Matsumoto said "We surrendered before we needed it though and promptly forgot about it" he added, looking in the direction that the base was in.
"Is your hair really pink? Do they let you dye your hair like that?" Asked Endo, the one shinobi who had yet to say anything.
"My hair is really pink and yes they would . . . but I don't need hair dyes because my hair is actually pink" Sakura replied and got a disapproving look from Endo anyway.
"You wouldn't happen to be related to Haruno Kizashi by any chance would you?" Matsumoto asked and Sakura looked at him, trying to see what was going on behind his kindly facade.
"My mother said he might have been a relative of hers . . . why?" Sakura asked cautiously.
"Met him once or twice . . . good head on his shoulder and a good leader too . . . you look like him a little . . . if you were to shorten your hair . . . and wear glasses" Matsumoto shrugged and Sakura narrowed her eyes, she filed that piece of information away for later knowing it would be important eventually. Naruto threw a ration pack to Sakura and sasuke each before pulling out one for himself.
"Why did you pack so many ration packs anyway dobe?" Sasuke asked as he hit the seal on the bottom of the pack.
"Because I knew you guys didn't know about the standard issue field kits and because I'm good at sealing, I can carry the squad's food supplies without any additional weight" Naruto replied as he ripped the cover off his packet and began eating.
"You Konoha kids sure do have a lot of new toys" Said Hosei who was eyeing their meals and the seal in the middle of the group that was providing warmth. Naruto shrugged in response.
"We have the number one seal master in the entire elemental nations . . . they've apparently been busy" Sakura said, making sure not to mention the gender of the person in question.
"I can see that . . . what's next? You make tea with a seal too?" Hosei asked and both Sasuke and Sakura looked at Naruto.
"What? It's quick and convenient!" he said in defense "Plus it's pretty easy to just put a heating seal on a tea pot and call it a day . . . water is boiled in only a few seconds . . . beats having to light the stove for tea" Naruto continued and the three Suna-nin looked at him with mouths open.
"Hmm, what I'd give to be able to just heat my tea when I need it, these tired old bones are getting too weary for that get up and go you young folk like so much" Matsumoto said with a grin.
"You sound like the Hokage . . . I'm wondering when he will figure out that he can just use shadow clones to do the paperwork he hates so much" Naruto said between mouthfuls. "Current betting pool is that Nee-chan is gonna tell him . . . my money's on him never knowing" Naruto continued.
"Nee-chan? Your sister close to the Hokage's office?" Asked Matsumoto and Sakura noticed the look on his face.
"Hmm? Oh Nee-chan otherwise known as Konoha's big sister. Anyone who talks about her calls her 'Nee-chan' because nobody knows her name even in Konoha" Naruto said and both Sakura and Sasuke got the message he had just given them. Matsumoto had a faint grimace that Sakura picked up on but schooled his features again, hoping to not clue the kids in.
"Well, we had best set up watches and get some rest" Matsumoto said and his two ninja subordinates got up, dusted themselves off and found a nice spot to sleep.
"Sasuke, Naruto, me" Sakura said quietly as she cleared away the rubbish of her meal and pulled out the sleeping bag she had used the night previous. The other two genin nodded and Sasuke got up to find a decent vantage to keep watch from with Matsumoto eyeing him up. Sakura would have gone first this time, it would have made more sense to cycle her with Sasuke now that neither of them had exerted themselves too hard but with these Suna ninja acting weird, Sakura wanted to have Sasuke up front in case anything happened. He was still their most powerful shinobi in terms of Ninjutsu at present and his jutsu were over the top and prone to waking Naruto and Sakura up quickly. "We will continue in the morning" she said and got another round of nods as she settled down to try and sleep.
Well, here we are . . . if you are wondering why the ending feels a little rush, it's because I noticed that i'd gone 15 pages in (aprox 6500 words) and this particular arc was still nowhere near done . . . there is more to come obviously (or I could just be lazy and do a cop out with the beginning of the next chapter telling you how they accomplished the mission and yaddy yadda). so, Minori is messing with Shikamaru now? I really should have included her meddling with almost everything as part of the blurb . . . I wonder what else Minori is meddling with without our knowledge? hehehe
in any case, tell me what you liked, disliked, what you thought could use improvement and what you'd like to see more of. Take care.