Thirty-Nine: Day One

Sasuke awoke to a sharp pounding in his skull, and his first thought was that he'd been placed under an enemy genjutsu that messed with his senses, because the world around him seemed to be nothing but a blur. But gradually, his vision steadied, and his other senses came back to him.

"What happened?" he croaked to Sai, finding the pale ninja already dressed and ready for the day.

"I believe we went to that bar last night and got very drunk, but I can't quite remember."

"Damn," Sasuke said, holding his aching head in both hands. "I really hope Sakura knows how to cure a hangover."

"Is medical ninjutsu allowed to be used for hangovers?"

"I don't know," Sasuke snapped, "but it should be! Being this hung over is worse than getting stabbed."

"We should hurry," Sai said, looking at the small clock on their counter. "We are already going to be late."

"Shit!" Sasuke swore, stumbling out of bed and throwing on the clothing he'd been lucky enough to set out the day before. He must have been really drunk if he'd been able to sleep in this late. And if he was that hung over, he could only imagine how bad Naruto and Sai were. He only hoped Sakura was sober so she could heal them.

Unfortunately, fate was not smiling down on Sasuke Uchiha.

"Uhh," Sakura groaned, gently massaging her temples as she leaned up against Naruto. The blonde didn't look much better than the pink-haired medic.

"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Kakashi said, smiling at Sasuke and Sai as they stumbled into the designated meeting spot. "Late night?"

Sasuke glared at the silver-haired jonin before turning to Sakura. "Can you heal this?"

"Wish I could," she grumbled, "but I'm still so hung over I can't get my chakra control right. I accidentally knocked out Naruto."

Sasuke looked at his blonde friend, who was drooling slightly, and decided he'd rather brave the hangover.

"When is he going to wake up from that, Sakura?" Kakashi asked, turning back to the team medic. "We need him for this mission—or had you forgotten we weren't here on vacation."

Sakura stiffened, her eyes dropping to the ground as she mumbled something about the effects wearing off soon.

"Well that's good, because you four have a full day ahead of you, and I'd hate for some kid to get kidnapped on your watch because you four couldn't control yourselves last night."

"Why don't you just come out and scold us?" Sasuke snapped, too hung over to deal with Kakashi's underneath the underneath meaning. "These backhanded jabs are annoying."

"Okay," Kakashi said, dropping the smile and turning on his former protégé. "I'm incredibly disappointed in you four. You are experienced shinobi, and you should know better than to do something that stupid and reckless on a mission."

"Yeah, well we're also nineteen-year-old kids who screw up every now and then," Sakura snapped. "If we were any other team this wouldn't be such a big deal."

"That's true, if you were on any other team this wouldn't be as much of an issue, because you wouldn't have a mission of this importance. But you are on this team, and if you'd like to stay on it, you'll learn to control yourself in the future. However, if you insist on acting in a manner unbefitting of this team, I'm sure I can request a transfer for you."

Sakura's eyes widened, startled by the venom in his voice.

"What are you so worked up about?" Sasuke spat back. "This is the first time we've done something like this, and yeah, we messed up, but you've screwed up in the past too, so don't act like we're the only shinobi in the world who've made mistakes. We may be on the infamous Team Kakashi, but that doesn't mean we aren't still human."

"But you are seasoned shinobi, and should know better than to let your guard down as much as you did last night!" Kakashi shouted back. "Not one of you sensed me coming, and if I'd been an enemy, you all could have been killed! Or worse."

Sasuke opened his mouth to argue further, but, to his surprise, the silver-haired shinobi turned and stormed out of the room. He didn't even bother explaining the plan.

"So what are we supposed to do now?" Sai asked, when neither Sakura nor Sasuke seemed like they were going to move. Sasuke was still glaring after his team captain, and Sakura looked like she was trying to burn a hole in the ground by staring at it.

"Here, take these," Yamato said, walking into the room. Not surprisingly, he'd heard the entire exchange. "They're soldier pills, but they work wonders for hangovers. It won't cure you completely, but it should take the edge off a bit."

"Thanks," Sakura mumbled unenthusiastically, still staring at the ground. But she popped the pill in her mouth anyway.

Yamato sighed, observing the sorry state his teammates were in and wondering why he was the one who always had to deal with these domestic messes. He wasn't their mother.

"Don't read too much into what Kakashi said, okay? He's probably just stressed out about the mission, and he worries about you guys, even if you are stronger than him."

"Hn. Well he sure has a funny way of showing it," Sasuke snapped, but he let the subject drop. "What's the plan?"

"Just standard tailing, at least for now. Keep close to your target, but don't do anything out of the ordinary. Well, we should probably get going. Oh, and someone should probably wake up Naruto."

Naruto had to admit, he'd been in pretty bad shape after a lot of battles, but hangovers had their own special category. Maybe it was because Kurama's chakra wasn't much help against the effects of alcohol. In fact, the Kyuubi had made it clear to Naruto long ago that he did not like alcohol and would not deal with the jinchuriki when he was inebriated.

"Bah, I've become too dependent on that stupid fox's chakra anyway," the blonde muttered to himself as he checked to his left once again to make sure Yumi Sasaki was still where he'd last seen her. They were in enough trouble with Kakashi already without adding a lost child to the list.

"Hey, Naruto!" a familiar voice called out, and Naruto began to question whether or not Yamato's soldier pills had worked. The voice sounded like—

"Shikamaru?"

"Yeah, long time no see."

"Hey Naruto," Temari waved. "Fancy seeing you here. I take it you're on a mission with the Sasakis?"

"Y-yeah, we are, but what are you guys doing here?"

"Taking a vacation," Temari smiled. "Neither of us have had any downtime lately, so my brother thought it would be nice to give us a bit of a break."

"Yeah, it's kind of a drag, but it's the Kazekage's order, so we couldn't say no."

"Man, you guys are lucky. I wish we could have a break, but then we'd just get yelled at again by Kaka-sensei."

Temari laughed. "Yeah, we heard about that."

"Aw man, really? Now it's gonna get out that Team Seven got yelled at, and Kiba'll never let me forget it."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," the Suna kunoichi said. "I'm not going to tell anyone, and Shika would say it'd be to troublesome to spread gossip like that."

"Yeah," the lazy shinobi in question said with a yawn, "Temari's right. You should just be glad Ino's not here. Then you'd never hear the end of it."

Naruto shuddered. "Don't remind me."

"Well, we should probably get going. I know we're here on break and all, but if you guys need anything just ask, okay? It'll be a drag, but I'll help you out."

The blonde jinchuriki smiled. "Yeah, thanks Shikamaru. I know we can always count on you."

He waved goodbye to the couple as they headed towards the bar on the upper deck—and memories he wanted to avoid. Naruto turned his gaze back to the girl he was supposed to be guarding, and was surprised to find her watching him. As soon as his eyes met hers, she turned away, giggling and blushing furiously. Naruto smiled. It sort of reminded him of Hinata before they started dating.

Then his eyes widened as a sudden realization dawned on him.

"Eh?!"

It was close to noon before Sakura felt she had enough control over her chakra to attempt to soothe the symptoms of her hangover. She groaned in partial relief as the green-tinted chakra seeped into her system, taking away some of the pounding in her head. There was a reason she very rarely got drunk, and her current state was proof of her general inability to deal with being hung over.

"That's really cool."

Sakura turned, startled at the voice. No one had been around when she started healing herself, and she could have sworn she hadn't been followed.

"What?" she asked, quickly dispelling her chakra and turning around. "What's cool?"

"Oh," the brunette girl said, "I'm sorry. I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to see that."

Sakura relaxed, realizing that the girl was none other than Benni Sasaki, the oldest Sasaki girl. She didn't know what Kakashi would have done if she'd accidentally blown her cover on the first day.

"It's okay," Sakura told her, moving out of the empty corridor and back out into the open. "We're just not supposed to let people here know we're ninja."

"Sorry."

"No really, it's okay," Sakura said, sitting down on a bench. To her surprise, the Sasaki heiress came and sat down next to her.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" the brown-haired girl asked, and Sakura was beginning to think this particular Sasaki took more after her mother.

"Of course, but if you don't mind my asking, why do you want to sit here with me. I'm sure there are plenty of other more interesting people out on the main deck that would love to talk to you."

Benni laughed. "Yeah, they would, but they wouldn't want to talk to me. They'd want to talk to the oldest daughter of the most influential family in the country; they wouldn't want to talk to Benni. And besides, I doubt any of them are even half as interesting as a kunoichi."

Sakura smiled. "I see you know a bit about shinobi."

Benni blushed. "Well, I like to learn about other countries and other lands. I like to see what I could have been if I hadn't been born into this family. Oh—not that I don't love my family! I do! It's just that I'm…"

"Different?" Sakura finished. "I know the feeling. Everyone in my family is a civilian. I'm the only ninja."

"Was that hard?"

"At first. I moved out when I was sixteen after a few particularly nasty disagreements with my parents. But I was partially to blame I guess. I've always had a pretty violent temper."

"So you've lived on your own since you were sixteen?"

"Well, not really. It's not like I didn't go home now and then. And I had my teammates, so I was never really alone."

Benni sighed. "That must be nice. Sometimes I feel like I'm all alone, even though I'm surrounded by lots of people… I'm sorry, you probably don't want to listen to me ramble when my life isn't nearly as hard as yours. You must think I'm incredibly spoiled."

Sakura smiled. "Not at all. Sometimes those with lots of people around them are the loneliest of all."

The Sasaki heiress grinned back at her. "There aren't many people who will talk with me like this."

"Well, I won't tell if you won't," the pink-haired medic teased, lightly bumping the younger girl's shoulder. "So is there a guy?"

A sad look crossed Benni's face, and Sakura wondered if she'd said something wrong.

"Well, it's an arranged marriage."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"No! It's not like that. We're actually really in love. It's just…we can't really show it. It's complicated."

"I'm willing to listen if you want to talk about it."

Benni smiled, and Sakura got the feeling that there weren't a lot of people who were willing to talk with the girl.

"Well, Kosuke and I have known each other since we were really little. His family comes from a lower noble house, so it's a good match for both of us. We just sort of grew up together I guess."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Sakura asked.

"Yes and no," Benni shrugged. "Good for us, not so good for our families. See, if we showed how much we really cared about each other, our families would probably break off the engagement, worrying that we'd show more loyalty to each other over our clans."

Sakura nodded, not completely following what the girl was saying, but she had never understood the customs of nobles to begin with, so this was nothing new for her.

"Sometimes we meet in secret, without the supervision of our families. It's the only time we can really be ourselves. Unfortunately, with everyone in this close proximity, we haven't been able to spend much time together on this ship."

Against her better judgment, Sakura found herself speaking. "I could help you sneak out."

"Really?"

"Sure, I'm a ninja. They'd never catch me."

"No, I mean, you'd do that for me? Couldn't you get in trouble with your captain?"

Sakura snorted. "I'm already in trouble with him, what's a little more?"

"Oh. Are the two of you…?"

"Huh. What? Oh, no. We're not together. He used to be my teacher."

"Oh." Benni paused. "He's hot though. I mean, he always wears that mask, but you can just tell. Is that weird to say?"

Sakura chuckled. "Yeah, I guess he is pretty good-looking. Just don't tell anyone I said that."

Benni smiled. "My lips are sealed."

"I like you. You're not like most of the nobles we've guarded before."

"Thanks. Sometimes I don't really think I'm cut out for this whole 'eldest daughter' thing. I think the role would have been much better suited to Yumi."

"Well, I wasn't much suited for being a ninja when I was a kid, but then I learned. So you never know. Things could change."

"I'm just not sure I want them to, you know?"

Sakura couldn't argue with that, so she just stayed silent until the sun had started to set.

"I guess I should probably go. Wouldn't want to be late to dinner, and you've probably got to check in with that captain of yours."

Sakura sighed, not looking forward to another scolding from Kakashi. "Yeah, I guess I probably should, shouldn't I? Well, there's no getting around it. But don't forget, we're going to sneak out tonight! I'll come by your quarters around eleven. Will that be late enough?"

Benni nodded excitedly. "Yeah, most everyone in my family goes to sleep early."

"Well then I suggest you try to get a little bit of shuteye before I head over. You're going to need to be on top of your game for this stealth mission," the medic said with a wink.

"Thanks, Sakura. Really."

Sakura nodded. "Anytime. That's what I'm here for."

After a long day filled with watching nobles, the tired—and slightly headache-prone—members of Team Seven stumbled unhappily into Yamato's room. They had eventually recovered from their hangovers of course, but even seasoned shinobi felt groggy after a late night at the bar.

Looking at his four younger teammates, Kakashi could tell they were all looking forward to a good night's sleep. He would try to keep their meeting short.

"So how did everyone's first day go?" Kakashi asked with his signature eye smile.

He was met with silence, so he opened his eye and turned back to his team. A long, boring day of sitting through meetings had made him more apathetic to the previous night's events, and while the silver-haired man was still disappointed, he could honestly say that he was over his earlier anger.

His team, obviously, was not. Sasuke was glaring at him, Naruto was alternating between glancing hesitantly at him and his other teammates, Sai was being Sai, and Sakura was looking anywhere but at him. Yamato shifted uncomfortably beside him, and Kakashi turned to the brown-haired man.

"Don't look at me, senpai!" Yamato said, holding up his hands. "You're the one who's fighting with them. Don't bring me into it!"

"Still don't like conflict, do you?" Kakashi grumbled, but he knew his old friend was right. It was his mess, so he was the one who had to deal with it.

"Okay, so I guess we can't just pretend this morning never happened then, eh?" He paused, laughing softly, but quickly continued when he saw he wasn't going to get a reaction out of his students. Sighing, he slumped forward, running a hand through his silver locks.

"Look, I'm sorry. You guys should have known better, but I still overreacted."

"Yeah maybe just a bit," Naruto grumbled, not intending for Kakashi to be able to hear him, but the Copy Ninja's senses were trained to be far superior to those of ordinary people. Still, he chose to ignore the blonde.

"This mission has put me on high alert, and I've been under a lot of stress lately from Sasaki. It doesn't excuse my reactions and my words to you guys, so I really do apologize."

Kakashi glanced back at the four shinobi in front of him, unsure if he had to continue. He wasn't very good at apologizing, and he didn't know when he needed to stop. Finally, it seemed, Sasuke took pity on him.

"You can stop apologizing now, Kakashi. We get it. And you don't have to be so formal. It's just us."

Kakashi's visible eye filled with relief, but that relief was short-lived as Yamato laughed beside him.

"He's never been very good at apologizing to people. In fact, I'm impressed he gave you guys such a sincere one. He's never even been that formal with a client. I remember this one time, we were escorting this beautiful young princess, and Kakashi accidentally—"

"Okay Tenzo, I think that's enough," Kakashi growled. "Stop right there or I'll have to stop you. And I won't be apologizing for that one."

Yamato grinned. He hated getting involved in team squabbles, but he was always willing to lighten the mood. And there was no better way to do that than by telling embarrassing stories about his senpai's ANBU days.

"Aw I wanted to hear the story," Naruto whined. "I wanna know what Kakashi-sensei was like."

Even Sakura—who had been looking gloomier than the others—cracked a small smile.

"You know what he was like, Naruto. You're best friends with Sasuke, after all."

"They are very similar. They both even have irrationally impossible hair," Sai observed.

Sakura laughed, always amused by the things that Sai picked up on. Social norms? Never. But hair?

"I don't think that's what Sakura meant, Sai," Naruto said with a grin.

Sasuke shot Kakashi a look that said 'they're hopeless,' and Kakashi knew the morning had been forgotten.