A/N: Day fifteen.
When she looks upon the Hokage, she can't help but yawn each and every time she sees him. It's like his perpetual fatigue wafts over to her, making her wonder why he's not dead yet. Honestly, she thinks it's about time he call upon a successor to take the hat. Naruto's too young yet, but there's always one of the Sannin.
"So can we go on a mission that's actually worthy of us or are you going to stick us with more D-ranks?" Naruto drawls with the expected lack of respect, his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. Iruka slouches in his chair, seemingly used to his former student's blatant disrespect towards most authority figures.
Her temporary Academy teacher has been eying her with something akin to morbid fascination, like he's both impressed but upset that she's impressive in the first place. He's one of those kind souls that wants children to be children, even if he's teaching them to become weapons with blind loyalty every day.
There's some kind of hypocrisy that puts a bad taste in her mouth.
The Hokage takes a puff from his pipe, taking his time in responding and giving her a particular look. She nods, as it's hers and Kakashi's job to look after these two dorks. Although she wonders why it seems as though she's taking the reins on Sasuke's and Naruto's hands-on education from Kakashi. "If that's what you want. A C-rank to Nami no Kuni, where you'll be protecting a certain bridge builder until he's completed his project. You'll meet your client tomorrow, at the third gate."
After some other somewhat significant details and handing out missions scrolls, Naruto and Sasuke are dismissed first. Then, after another bout of somewhat significant details it's Kakashi who's dismissed next. When she's alone, she yawns again and hears the audible sigh of the Hokage.
"We are under the impression that Tazuna-san has lied to us about the difficulty of the mission." he reveals, his fingers intertwined and looking rather solemn. "After some investigation, we have learned that Gatou of Gatou Kanpanii has expressed interests in Nami no Kuni. It would seem that Gatou plans to eliminate Tazuna-san since the creation of the bridge conflicts with his interests. I would like for you to find and eliminate Gatou whenever you deem it convenient. Afterwards, destroy his company. Another may attempt to take the throne otherwise."
That would be Father, Sakura thinks. "What's your estimation of appropriate mission difficulty?" she inquires, finding this opportunity convenient since Father's been wanting to get rid of Gatou for a while now.
"At best, B-rank. At worst, A-rank. It's likely that Gatou has hired missing nin varying between chuunin and jounin. Deal with them however you deem appropriate. Other details with be within this scroll." Hiruzen tosses her the said scroll, to which she catches without much thought.
It doesn't take her long to read through it all, memorise it and then burn it. "Is that all, Hokage-sama?"
He stares at her for a moment, before nodding. "Dismissed."
It's a little unusual for her and her brothers to go on solo missions, but she supposes that they're more upset because they have to babysit their new genin teammates now whilst she's gone. Unfortunately for them, a mission is a mission. She's not ready to declare treason or anything like that yet.
Tazuna's appearance is rather nondescript in that he looks like one of many angry, elderly men with a drinking habit. He sees Team Seven and scowls, unimpressed with what he's seeing. It's… somewhat understandable considering his protection is three children and an adult who's almost bouncing as he walks.
"You're my protection?" the elderly man scoffs, unbelieving. "None of you look like you'd be any good at being bodyguards."
Naruto chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck which is his sign of irritation. "Yeah, well you look like a shitty old man who's about to die of alcohol poisoning at any moment. But I hear you're actually a master at building bridges, so guess that means looks can be deceiving." he retorts, in that light but cutting tone of his.
Their client glares through his small spectacles, both offended and probably trying to come up with a witty retort. It's not surprising that he clicks his tongue and turns away, unable to argue against that.
"Aren't you ninja meant to be respectful to your clients?" is his irked query, turning his attention over to Kakashi whom is meant to be considered to be the mature leader and mediator. Shamefully, Kakashi is too busy swimming in his own bliss to care about the troubles of grumpy old men.
Sakura tilts her head, drawing Tazuna's eye. "The client isn't always right, Tazuna-san. Especially when they're lying to us about mission difficulty or something similar." she smiles, imitating both Father's and Sai's signature expressions. With a nervous twitch from their client, she steps forward as a cue to start moving. "Let's go, yes?"
Her blonde teammate drapes an arm around her shoulders as they walk, grinning at her. "It's not a C-rank…?" he whispers in question, doing a good job of not eying the client who's stepped into Kakashi's pace. Probably because Kakashi is the only adult and therefore automatically more reliable despite his behaviour.
"It's likely that we'll encounter missing nin ranked from chuunin to jounin." she answers, glancing over at Sasuke as he tries to burn Naruto's hand with his gaze alone. "Be on your guard, alright?" because she'll have to step back and let the two boys handle it, unless it gets too rough for them.
They have to experience the hardships of missions in order to grow, after all.
The Uchiha finally grows tired of Naruto's arm around her shoulders, so he manually removes his best friend's arm from her. "It irks me." is Sasuke's simple explanation, even running his fingers over her shoulders as to brush off germs.
Naruto snorts, leaning away and shoving his hands into his pockets. "Just because we're on a mission, I'll postpone messing with you." he smirks, winking at her because messing with Sasuke means messing with her. She doesn't mind too much, since it's more amusing than annoying. Most of the time.
However, he's right that it's not the time right now to mess around. She feels the sloppily-hidden chakra signatures of the shinobi tailing him, though it's much sooner than she expected. Perhaps they were waiting for Tazuna to leave, although she wonders how he even got Konohagakure in the first place if Gatou's hired missing nin to get rid of the bridge builder.
Gatou might have hired missing nin after Tazuna departed to Konohagakure, then the said missing nin followed the trail and waited outside the gates.
Her eyes land on the single puddle in sight, which is really going against the whole inconspicuous tone ninja are meant to go for . In actuality, that's just plain horrible and it wouldn't take much to get rid of them right now.
She doubts that Naruto or Sasuke will have a hard time dealing with them.
Just as they're passing by the puddle, Naruto pulls out some kind of vial and pours the contents over the puddle. The group pauses and she's somewhat bemused that the missing nin haven't made their move yet. "I wanted to see if this thing I made could turn the water orange."
Sasuke then abruptly sets the puddle on fire, revealing that the liquid is an unscented type of oil. The incompetence of their enemy is almost astounding, as the missing nin burst out of the puddle and are ̶ as expected ̶ on fire. They move frantically in an attempt to put themselves out, leaving them both disoriented and vulnerable.
She steps back with Kakashi and Tazuna as her two teammates charge forward, moving with practised ease as they coordinate their attacks to take down their flaming opponents. Sakura blinks, finding herself truly disappointed to see such inept ninja as the air becomes heavy with burning metal and flesh.
It's not surprising to see Naruto and Sasuke coordinate their attacks, since they've known each other since they were toddlers at the earliest. Then their skill is at least chuunin, considering the private training from their respective guardians. This is why they're high-tier genin, but really it's just sad that their first kills are too easy.
Naruto seems to agree, when he sneers and ruffles his hair in aggravation. He stares down at charring corpses. "What the hell? I mean, really, what the hell? What the actual fuck was that?"
Kakashi hums, unperturbed. "Well… Good job, Naruto… Sasuke… Let's dispose the corpses and continue on our way…" he praises them with his usual airiness, ignoring the way that Tazuna shakes from the horror of seeing people getting burnt and cut to death.
"This is more underwhelming than I expected." Sasuke comments with a mild frown, watching Kakashi dowse the flames with a simple Suiton jutsu. "Perhaps this is what Itachi-nii felt when he massacred our parents and the Elders."
His best friend twitches, as it's still a sore spot after all these years. They usually attempt to ignore that it ever happened, really.
"There'll be more, I'm sure." Sakura murmurs, thinking of when it's a good time to split off and commence with her primary mission to eliminate Gatou. "They were disgraces as ninja, so don't think of it too much."
The first thing that Naruto does when in the face of an A-ranked missing nin, is mock their appearance and curious lack of eyebrows. Granted, she does find it a little strange herself but it's not the strangest physical trait to possess. There's a clan reminiscent to shark people, after all.
However, if she looks closer it turns out that he actually does have eyebrows. "You have to look closer, Naruto. His eyebrows are just really small and… plucked." she comments with a purposeful lack of expression.
The Uzumaki snorts. "Who has time to pluck their eyebrows? Especially a missing nin from Kirigakure?"
Momochi Zabuza's brow twitches in irritation, flinging a few kunai in their direction. Naruto smacks one away and she catches the rest, looking down at the weapons before returning her gaze up at the shirtless man.
"You think they can take them on?" she asks Kakashi, leaning her head back in his general direction. Then she tilts her head. "No, that's a bit much even for them. It's too early, how about you two go after the one in the trees?"
"Sounds like you're the leader of this little group, girlie." Zabuza rasps out, sounding like he's smoked far too much in his lifetime. Or maybe that's just how his voice is, since Shion's is naturally low and scratchy. "If that's the case, then what's the famed Sharingan no Kakashi?"
"Her pet." Naruto and Sasuke answer in sync. Kakashi beams at this, as though that's something he'd rather be referred to as instead of his official moniker.
Sakura laughs. "He's the teacher, of course. Our dynamics are just a little dysfunctional, that's all." she clarifies with a slight smile. She wonders if there's much point in trying to convince them to go against Gatou, or perhaps she could pay them once she's got her hands on Gatou's funds.
No, she thinks. It's best to just get rid of them, so Kakashi can deal with Zabuza and the other two will fight the one hiding. She'll interfere if necessary, but as of the moment she'll essentially just chill with Tazuna.
She flings a kunai in the hidden ninja's general direction, expecting them to either remain hidden or jump out and reveal themselves. They choose the second and go to stand by their… partner? Master? With their face concealed by a hunter nin mask, she thinks that they're rather androgynous if she goes by the rest of their appearance.
"Deal with the brats, hey Haku?" Zabuza commands, manoeuvring his oversized sword and likely wearing a feral grin behind the bandages in preparation for the impending battle. "I've always wanted to fight someone like you, Hatake Kakashi."
Kakashi hums in response. "Do you think I should kill him…?" he queries, turning to her. She nods, since he has a nice bounty and Kirigakure will probably want that sword back.
"Can you?" she questions in return, with a teasing smile. Even if he's like that, his skills are as lethal as one would expect from a world renowned shinobi.
Her temporary teacher makes a sound similar to a dog whine. "You doubt me…?" but he's smiling behind that mask of his.
Tazuna releases an unexpectedly girly shriek when the battle finally commences.
Now that they've settled into Tazuna's home, she has to properly give some thought to the fact that Naruto demanded they take in his opponent whom is known as Haku. This, of course, was after Kakashi had severed Zabuza's head and subsequently sent the boy ̶ who is unbelievably effeminate ̶ into a rage. Lots of kekkei genkai centred around ice being flung everywhere, declarations of tools and precious ones, among other things.
After much thought and dealing with yelling contests between Naruto and Haku, Sakura decided that it'd be convenient if they could turn the teen into one of their own. The Hyouton is a rare kekkei genkai and there are ways to forcefully change people's minds. Since he seems to have a thing for being a tool, perhaps they could just influence him to be their tool instead. If not, well, it's not really much of a painful loss.
"Is it really a good idea to have him here?" Tazuna questions them, eying the despondent pretty boy teen with wariness and distrust. "He can't… harm us, right?"
"Nah," Naruto waves a dismissive hand as he shoves some rice in his mouth, "his chakra's sealed and he'll go into shock or something if he moves too quickly at any time. You've got some scary ideas, Sakura-chan." there's also the part where his hands and feet are chained, for added security.
She hums, leaning on the table and staring at their hostage. He's truly devastated that Zabuza's gone and though she doesn't feel much guilt for being a part of the man's demise, she understands. Just the mere thought of losing any one of the people she cares about is painful enough. She can only imagine how shattering it must be to lose them.
All the males of her team, including Haku are littered in injuries. They're mostly small and inconsequential, though most of Naruto's injuries are almost entirely healed thanks to the special existence sealed in his stomach. She had to heal Kakashi's broken hand and Sasuke's twisted ankle after he managed to slip on ice. That led to Naruto bursting out in unintentional laughter, which made him vulnerable and an enraged Haku took it.
They're idiots, she sighs.
"I could make you forget him." Sakura murmurs, resting her chin on her intertwined fingers. Haku gives a miniscule twitch, but his blank gaze remains on the table. "You could forget that he ever existed, so you don't have to feel the pain of his loss."
She knows that's basically an insult to Zabuza's memory, but it's intentional. Haku's brow twitches then, before he slowly raises his head and meets her eyes with an impressive glare of utter hatred. She only smiles in return.
"How could you ask me that?" he spits, his voice neither too feminine nor masculine.
Silence reigns over the cheap dinner table, with the slight clanking of utensils tapping bowls and plates. The tension in the air is strong, but it's not as oppressive as it could be.
Sakura shrugs, straightening and cracking her back. "You understand that we're going to take you back to Konohagakure, then you'll be conditioned to become a loyal shinobi and start a new life there. This is something you have no choice in, so I was just curious if you wanted the pain to go away before all that." she stands, sliding her gaze over to Naruto. "He's your responsibility, you know."
Naruto frowns, looking over to their captive with a peculiar expression. "Yeah… Sorry to bother you with him." he smiles, and she thinks it's such a complicated smile.
"I have some business to attend to, so I'll see you guys later." she pats a sleepy Kakashi on the head as she passes him. "Don't wait up for me."
"Where are you going?" Sasuke questions her, sounds almost alarmed.
She turns with a secretive smile. "That's classified."
Chapter Word Count: 2,766
Total Word Count: 48,679
Targeted Word Count: 1,667
A/N: There was a long ass rant here before, but I decided to get rid of it because no one needs that in their life.