Team 7 was hot and grumpy but not particularly tired when the mission ended, the house restored to its former pristine state. Sakura pulled her hair back from her neck and tied it up into a bun, desire to remain cute soundly crushed by the much more practical desire to cool off after all the sweaty, dirty cleaning.
She glanced over at Sasuke, hoping he might take off his shirt to escape the heat, but sadly he seemed satisfied to simply run a hand through his glorious mane of raven black hair. Probably too proper and noble for such a low class move she thought idly, logging a few strands of hair fluttering from his beautiful head for later retrieval. Naruto had no such compunctions though, pulling his orange jacket off to reveal a mesh undershirt and significantly more toned and tanned muscle than the pinkette had been expecting.
They were just finishing up and storing away the last of the cleaning supplies when the door opened to reveal another team of Genin, one they recognized.
"Kiba!"
Naruto exclaimed in surprise when he saw the boy walking in with his dog. Sakura merely stretched tiredly and waved a hand at the other two members of Team 8.
"Hey Hinata, hey Shino. How're things?"
The Aburame nodded cordially while the Hyuuga heiress flushed a little and smiled timidly.
"Go- good afternoon, S-Sakura-chan, um Sasuke-kun, N-naruto-kun."
Sakura raised an eyebrow at the slight emphasis on the last name, coupled with the pronounced increase in the intensity of her blush. Sensei apparently noted it as well.
"Oh Hinata-chan! It's been too long, how are you?"
The young Hyuuga seemed as surprised as anyone at the big hug she received from the masked Jounin, but it only lasted for a second before she was plopped down next to the blond of Team 7.
"Hey, you're good with herbs and salves, right? I think Naruto might have gotten a few little cuts on his hands, could you help him with the bandages?"
The flush on the white-eyed girl's face grew to alarming levels as she glanced at the nearly barechested blond before Sensei leaned in to whisper something quiet in her ear. The Hyuuga heiress nodded tentatively and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before hesitantly reaching out for Naruto's hands, a jar of ointment by her knees.
Satisfied with the pair's progress, Sensei turned towards the boys of Team 8 who were looking at him with a certain degree of suspicion.
"Ahh, Kiba-kun! It must have been, my, something like seven years since I've last seen you."
The Inuzuka glowered in confused irritation, taking a deep sniff of the air, an action mirrored by his pale white puppy.
"You smell funny."
Sensei smiled through half-lidded eyes, expression vaguely threatening.
"You know, you said the exact same thing back then. Hmm. I suppose it was a bit much to hope that you'd remember me. I was on a Genin team with Inuzuka Nikkei. Before everyone died."
Hiroki-sensei's head cocked to the side with an unsettling abruptness.
"You know, I hadn't considered it before, but Nikkei must have died just a few weeks after I did. Huh. Funny how that worked out. I wonder if she really did care…"
The silence was deafening, before once again Team 7's designated Jounin switched rails.
"Ahh! Shino-kun! How is the colony coming along? Is the new queen settling in okay? No fights with the others?"
The Aburame boy quietly standing in the corner nodded in agreement as the other Uchiha laid a friendly arm around his shoulders.
"Quite well, Hiroki-san. Mimiko-chan is adapting well to the new conditions."
Sakura's teacher fidgeted a little, sending Shino sidelong looks.
"Ne, Shino-kun, can I do the thing?"
The bug ninja stiffened slightly, brows pinching over the edge of his glass as he frowned at the Jounin, though Hiroki-sensei was not deterred.
"Please? I'll make you mochi~ and chocolate chip cookies~"
Shino slumped very slightly in his baggy jacket, a gesture Sensei apparently interpreted as consent. He very carefully extended two fingers before pushing them firmly into the Aburame heir's side.
Squeak...
Sakura stared, her mouth falling slightly open at a sound one would more expect to come from a rubber toy emanating from the incredibly stoic boy. The relatively quiet conversations at the edge of the room cut off abruptly as everyone turned to stare at Shino. Sensei clapped his hands together, hopping slightly in glee while emitting a most undignified sound.
"One more, one more, mochi and cookies for a month!"
His fingers pushed at the same spot on the voluminous green coat.
Squeak…
"Eee! I just love doing that, and Hanako-chan's kikai holes are too big, it doesn't have the same pitch…"
Shino glared at Team 7's teacher from behind his darkened shades, a pair of pink spots high on his cheeks.
"And you would never dare do something like that to her. Why? Because she has you by the ba-"
"Hahaha! Yes, funny Shino-kun, well, we need to go, training to do, you know how it is, have a nice day, I'll send a clone over with the first bit of your payment after dinner, okay? See you, bye now!"
Sensei couldn't get them out of there fast enough.
. . .
June 14, 13 AK
Sakura jabbed the folded tip of her fan towards the incoming punch, the heavy block of metal impacting Sensei's wrist hard enough to snap bone on a normal person, though unfortunately it merely slid through the illusory clone with a ripple of disrupted chakra.
A tingle at the back of her neck prompted her to spin around, fans unfolding with a smooth click of polished metal so that one could slide the oncoming kunai away while the other slashed at the Jounin with a serrated edge. Hiroki only narrowly dodged, the bladed fan nicking the fabric of his flak jacket.
Sakura's eyes narrowed slightly; something about that had felt off, the weight of the kunai and the resistance of the fabric-
Her eyes widened abruptly and she clasped her hands together around her folded fans to dispel the genjutsu. Sensei looked surprised and pleased from his position several feet away, a brace of senbon poking between his fingers. She slid the fans into holsters at her waist and in the same motion pulled out a half-dozen shuriken, hurling them forward in a wide arc so that a few collided and went spinning in unpredictable directions.
Even as her teacher deflected and dodged the projectiles she Substituted with a small boulder behind him, coming out of a crouch with her fan back in hand and hurtling towards the unprotected small of Sensei's back-
Bandaged fingers tapped her on the shoulder and she stumbled a little as her strike met nothing but air, before turning to face Hiroki with a sigh. However, contrary to her expectations, the Jounin was smiling faintly at her, fairly radiating approval.
"Well done Sakura. Very well done. You noticed the genjutsu tells perfectly, and your Substitution was almost perfect; hardly any waste or indication of your target. Your shuriken jutsu could use a bit of work though, the spread was a little on the wide side, even for blocking escape routes."
The young kunoichi flushed slightly at the praise and rubbed a hand against the back of her head a bit sheepishly, breathing still a bit heavy from the exertion. She and Sensei turned to watch the boys in their sparring while she caught her breath, spending a moment in peaceful silence.
Her gaze trailed after Sasuke's moves, each strike at his opponents a flowing sweep as the long straight sword seemed to echo his motions like a ribbon of silver. His sword form was superb, not an action wasted, and his physical form was quite lovely to watch too, lithe and leanly muscled like a panther or a snake. Sakura surreptitiously wiped away a spot of drool, and caught Sensei smirking faintly out of the corner of her eye.
"Have you thought more about what you want, Sakura?"
She nodded confidently, surveying her love and her other teammate confidently.
"I want Sasuke. I want Team 7 to be great. I want power."
The pinkette very deliberately ignored the faint squee of affection which came from her Sensei at the last, but smiled proudly all the same. After a moment to compose himself, Hiroki nodded firmly.
"Well, I think you might just be ready for a C-rank."
. . .
To her surprise, the strongest objector to giving new Genin a potentially dangerous mission was their former academy instructor.
"They've only been Genin for a month! They can't possibly be-"
"I don't think you're quite grasping the lengths they've gone to, Iruka-san. I wouldn't let them take on a mission if I didn't think they could bring it to completion."
Sensei fluttered his eyelashes at the agitated Chunin, leaning in slightly and speaking with a husky voice.
"You know how good I am at teaching people how to tackle big jobs."
To Sakura's surprise, the academy teacher began to stammer and flush before sitting back down abruptly, a single drop of blood beading at his nose. Hokage-sama raised an amused eyebrow before she held out a scroll for Team 7, the purple varnish on her nails glinting slightly.
"If you're sure Hiroki, I do have a pretty easy mission for you. Escort, two weeks tops."
The Jounin froze, turning to look at the blonde Hokage with an expression devoid of any emotion.
"...Escort? Who's the client?"
The Godaime's eyes narrowed slightly, noticing the slight shift in tone.
"Tazuna, the bridge builder. Needs protection on the way back to-"
"-the Land of Waves."
Tsunade-sama nodded slowly, staring hard at Hiroki-sensei, her amber eyes piercing.
"Yes… this isn't going to be a problem, is it?"
Sakura frowned, glancing between the two high ranking shinobi, trying to figure out what they seemed to be communicating without using words. Her sensei opened his mouth for a moment, his mask stretching as he paused, gaze distant. After a second he shook his head slowly, a somewhat pensive frown visible through the fabric.
"No… no, it should be fine."
Hokage-sama settled back into her chair, still looking hard at the Jounin before nodding assent.
"Very good. Tazuna-san!"
The door at the back of the room opened to admit an older gentleman taking a swig of something with an exceedingly pungent smell. Sakura wrinkled her nose disapprovingly but didn't comment on the public drunkenness.
"This the team then? I didn't pay good money for a bunch of snot nosed kids."
Sensei glowered menacingly at the inebriated man, looming in that special way that only a professional assassin can.
"Oh, don't worry Tazuna-san, I'm sure we'll be fine. It's not like anyone is really trying to kill you, after all."
Sakura frowned at the tiny flinch from the old man, but Hiroki-sensei just hummed to himself in a musing tone as he scanned over her and her teammates, looking for something she couldn't figure out.
"The more things change, the more things stay the same…"
. . .
A/N:Tsunade should have put more faith in Hiroki's notes...
Well, I'm sure everything will turn out fine!
Sakura is becoming moderately badass, and that fills Hiroki with unspeakable emotions.
And thus does her slice of the arc end. Next up: Naruto!