Thirty-Five: Debriefing
"What's up with these crowds?" Sakura asked, noticing for the first time that they were being followed by a horde of people. "It reminds me of Sasuke's fangirls when we were kids."
"A group that you were a part of, in case you forgot," Sasuke said, one eyebrow raised.
"Shut it, Uchiha," she warned.
"Well, Sasuke's like famous here," Naruto explained. "You see, since you were gone when we had to pose as performers, we got Sasuke to sing."
"I know Naruto, I was there after your first mission."
"No," the blonde went on. "He was like, really good so they asked him to come back, and now that we're staying in the village, everyone thinks he's going to perform again."
Sakura laughed, much to Sasuke's dismay. He had hoped the pink-haired girl would be sympathetic to his plight.
"Geez, Sasuke, what did you do? Use a genjutsu?"
Naruto shook his head. "Naw, he used the Sharingan to copy this real singer guy's voice."
Sakura's eyes widened. "You used your Sharingan to copy a man's voice? Is that even allowed?"
Sasuke shrugged. "Kakashi taught me how to do it."
She turned to the white-haired jonin, who had been quiet for most of the day. "You taught him how to use the Sharingan to copy someone's singing voice?"
Kakashi shrugged.
"Isn't that like a misuse of the Sharingan?"
"Eh, it's not like anyone was around to care," Kakashi said, and Sakura's mouth fell open in shock. That seemed kind of harsh, considering Sasuke's past. "Besides, how else do you suppose I manage to win so many of Gai's ridiculous challenges?"
But the dark-haired Uchiha in question just shrugged. "Yeah. I get to make the rules about the Sharingan now."
Sakura rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you two. What else do you misuse it for?"
Kakashi grinned. "Hey Sakura, Naruto, how about a game of ping pong against Sasuke and I?"
"We're supposed to be here on business," Yamato sighed, glaring at the silver-haired man who was acting more like a teenager than the actual teenagers.
"Aw, lighten up Tenzo. It'd be fun. We can play you and Sai next."
"I'm starting to feel bad about leaving poor Sakura with you on that mission," the wood-style user grumbled. "You probably didn't do anything remotely useful."
Sasuke made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snicker. "Well, come to think of it, it does sound like Sakura did all the work. I bet you just lounged around and read that dirty book of yours all day, Kakashi."
Kakashi frowned at his former protégé. "Aren't you supposed to be on my side?" Sakura thought she heard him grumble something about Sasuke no longer being his favorite, but she couldn't be sure.
"Ah, cheer up Kakashi," Sakura said. "Maybe I did do almost all of the work, and still had to save your ass in the end, but you always showed up when it really mattered."
"Thanks?" Kakashi couldn't tell if his former student had just insulted him or complimented him. It felt like both.
Yamato laughed, always happy to see his senpai being teased by his students.
"Well I hate to break up the fun, but I'm pretty sure we're already late for our debriefing with Lord Sasaki."
"See! Having you back around has been a bad influence on us, Kaka-sensei!" Naruto said, pointing his finger at the silver-haired man accusingly like he used to do when said sensei was late for their training as genin.
"Now, now Naruto. It's not all Kakashi's fault. You're the one who said we had to stop at that awful ramen shop on the way here," Sakura laughed, defending her ANBU partner.
"It's not an awful ramen shop!" Naruto pouted. "No place that sells ramen could ever be awful! Right Sasuke?"
"Speak for yourself, loser."
"Okay," Kakashi said, holding up his hands and slipping into leader mode before the two most powerful shinobi of their generation decided to get into one of their 'friendly sparring matches.' Those matches were known to take out entire training grounds, and the silver-haired jonin was fairly sure that the Sasakis would not be too thrilled with them if they destroyed half of a city. "That's enough you two. We don't want to keep Lord Sasaki waiting any longer."
"Fine," the blonde jinchuriki grumbled, looking over at the dark-haired Uchiha, "but this isn't over Sasuke."
Sasuke grinned. "Don't get too cocky, Naruto. Everyone knows I'm stronger than you."
"Hey! What was that you—"
"Enough. Jeez. You two won't ever grow up," Kakashi sighed, grabbing Naruto by the collar and proceeding to drag him along like a disobedient child.
"Aw come on. Kakashi-sensei!" the blonde protested, but to his dismay—and the amusement of his comrades—his team leader continued to drag him until they reached the front steps of the Sasaki mansion. It didn't matter if he was going to be the Hokage someday, Kakashi would probably always think of him as the obnoxious twelve-year-old that he was at heart. And Naruto would always put up with it, because no matter how strong and powerful he had become, he would always look up to the silver-haired man.
"This must be the place," Kakashi announced, letting go of Naruto's collar and watching him drop to the ground with a loud thump.
"Yeah, that's it all right," Yamato sighed, not particularly thrilled about being back to see the Sasakis so soon.
The wood-style user had dealt with his fair share of difficult and hostile clients—especially if he counted his time in ANBU—but there was just something about the Sasaki nobles that really put him off. It wasn't that he thought Sasaki was a scoundrel or a criminal; there was just something false about him that didn't sit to well with Yamato. Maybe it was the haughty air that they had. It was certainly a sharp contrast between that and the new sense of camaraderie that the end of the Fourth Great Shinobi War had brought about.
"What's the matter? You don't sound to thrilled about being here?" Sakura said, picking up on the brunette's tone.
"How'd you guess?" Sasuke grumbled sarcastically, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.
"Jeez, are they really that bad?" Sakura asked. Sasuke, she knew, could be difficult to get along with, but if even Yamato seemed to think they were bad then she knew something was up.
"Hehe, yeah, they're pretty bad," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head. "At least, the parents and the oldest kid are. The younger ones didn't seem to be too terrible."
"They all seem bad to me," Sai said with a smile.
"Well, I'm sure we'll find out," Kakashi said, trying to hurry his team along. "Come on we wouldn't want to be late."
That statement earned him skeptical glances from each member of his team, but they all followed him inside without another word.
The mansion was even larger and prettier than Sakura had imagined it to be from the outside. The Sasakis sure didn't worry about holding back when it came to decorating. Just thinking about how much each piece of cloth must have cost them made Sakura's head hurt.
If they've got so much money, they should be focusing on their country a little more, she thought bitterly, thinking of the many recruits who had joined the rebellion solely for the extra cash that was sent to their families each month.
Kakashi seemed to follow her train of thought, because he sent her what she thought was a reassuring glance before the six Konoha ninja were led into a lavish conference room to await Lord Sasaki and his advisers.
Fortunately for the members of Team Seven, their own tardiness meant they didn't have to wait long before Sasaki arrived, men in tow. On his right stood a man that looked to be around Sakura's age—maybe a bit older like Sai. She could tell right away that this had to be the eldest son they had been referring to earlier, because he was the spitting image of his father, with his thick dark hair settling around his face in an almost identical style.
On Sasaki's right was a man that Sakura didn't recognize, but she could tell from the way he carried himself that he was probably a military man. He had jet-black hair that was slicked back away from his face and tied in a small ponytail at the nape of his neck. His eyes were almost as dark as his hair. She almost had to do a double take at first, because he did not look unlike an Uchiha.
The man's gaze swept over her and Kakashi—sizing them up, she knew, like they were doing to him—before settling on Yamato. He nodded slightly in greeting, and Yamato returned the gesture, showing Sakura the respect he had for the man.
"You must be Kakashi Hatake and his partner," Sasaki said, sitting down without so much as a greeting.
"That's right," Kakashi said, nodding slightly and beckoning for Sakura to come stand beside him. "Sakura Haruno. She's the one who infiltrated the enemy camp and brought back the information you desired."
Sasaki sized them up, apparently expecting a bit more out of Konoha's finest, but he didn't voice his opinions out loud. He eyed Kakashi more warily, but his son didn't even try to hide the fact that he was checking Sakura out. The pink-haired medic resisted the urge to roll her eyes, instead focusing on staring straight ahead.
Honestly, even Sai has more class that this!
Sakura stifled a groan. Now was not the time for Inner Sakura to make a snarky comeback. Luckily, Sasaki seemed to be satisfied with what he saw, and continued to speak.
"I trust your journey back went without a hitch?"
There was a hidden meaning in his words, Sakura was sure of it. He wanted to make sure they hadn't left any evidence linking back to him. She wasn't sure why he was bothered though; it wasn't like anyone else in the Land of Silver had the manpower or the motivation to put together an operation like this and hire outside ninja for help.
Without a hitch.
Images came unbidden to the kunoichi's mind, and suddenly she was flashing back to a battlefield she wanted to forget, turning her weapon against a boy she had come to consider a friend.
No. Their return journey back had not gone without a hitch.
Realizing her eyes had traveled to the floor, she looked up to meet Kakashi's steady gaze. Just let me handle it, he was saying, and she was more than happy to comply.
"Yes," the Copy Ninja said. "Everything went smoothly."
Sasuke frowned. He had always been better than his counterparts at looking underneath the underneath, and his brain was telling him that Sakura was probably thinking about her mission. She'd gotten better at masking her emotions, but he could still read her.
Kakashi had told him the first night they'd gotten back about what had happened, and how Sakura had been forced to choose between killing a man she considered a friend and letting him die. Personally, Sasuke knew that it probably hadn't been as hard of a choice as his former sensei seemed to think it was, but he also knew that Sakura just inherently cared about people more than he did, so sometimes it was hard for him to understand how she was feeling.
The meeting dragged on and he found himself beginning to tune out the sound of Sasaki's voice as he asked Kakashi and Sakura question after question about their mission. He wondered what he was even still doing there. Kakashi had told them everything that first night after Sakura had gone to sleep, so there was really no point in him being there at all.
"Pst! Hey!"
Sasuke whipped his head around, glaring at the blonde who was trying to get his attention. Sure he was bored, but that didn't mean he was going to talk to Naruto in the middle of a mission debriefing.
"Cut it out, loser."
Naruto, surprisingly, didn't say anything. He just glared straight ahead at where Teiji Sasaki was sitting.
"I don't like the way that bastard is looking at Sakura," the jinchuriki hissed to his best friend.
"Hn. Is that all?" Sasuke asked, but he had noticed the looks and they bothered him too—but he certainly wasn't going to tell Naruto that.
"Oi! Sasuke—" the blonde started but he was shushed by Yamato's quiet hiss.
"Quiet down, Naruto!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes, but he kept his intense stare fixed on the eldest Sasaki boy throughout the remainder of the briefing.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Sasaki stopped questioning them, and Sakura couldn't help but let out the exhausted sigh that she had been holding in. She was used to only having to deal with clients for medical purposes. The technicalities were usually left to Kakashi or Yamato, depending on who was heading up their team.
"Fine. That is all then. I would like to discuss our options with the team leader, but the rest of you may be dismissed," Sasaki said, turning to face Yamato. "Are you still the leader of this mission, or has that title been passed along to Hatake?"
The brown-haired shinobi looked at his silver-haired counterpart who shrugged.
"It doesn't really matter," Kakashi said, turning back to Lord Sasaki. "Team Kakashi doesn't need a leader to operate anyway. I think it would make sense if both Yamato and I stayed, however, as we each have different bits of information to bring to the situation."
The dark haired man nodded, seemingly satisfied with Kakashi's decision, so Yamato waved goodbye to his teammates before taking his place by the Copy Ninja's side.
"Thought you were going to get out of having to deal with this lot, didn't you Tenzo?" Kakashi murmured, softly so only Yamato could hear.
The wood-style user chuckled. "Oh don't worry, they actually like me. You should've seen them when Sasuke was the mission captain."
Kakashi laughed softly, before turning back to the man who had hired them.
"So how would you like to proceed, Lord Sasaki?"