Sakura could admit she was bored. It had been three weeks since they had begun 'training' under the copy-nin and they'd done nothing more than multiple D-ranks every day. Sure, he'd mixed in some team based drills as they did them, training their cohesiveness as a unit, and he'd been providing her with a series of jōnin level restricted chakra theory texts to read that Sakura was 90% sure were illegal to even take out of their section in the library, let alone remove them from the building and lend them to your twelve-year old genin (though they were very interesting reads, a lot of them were breakdowns from the work Orochimaru had done, definitely not kid-friendly but Sakura was well on her way to performing untraceable kawarimis and being able to mimic different shinobi's chakra signatures- something that could reinvent how shinobi approached infiltration). But mostly it was just an endless series of menial tasks and no actual lessons.
He seemed to be pushing them towards some kind of emotional reconciliation through hardship. Sakura understood, but wasn't particularly enjoying the process.
Hence, when the Uzumaki began screaming about getting something interesting to do- whilst she didn't agree with the method of delivery- she found herself internally agreeing with the sentiment.
"If you want it that much, I'll give you a c-rank mission." The hokage said, showing absolute favouritism towards the Uzumaki rather than punishing them for massive insubordination as any other member of the village would be for screaming at him. Sakura sighed, figured she should just be glad that she was in a team with the Hokage's soft spot and tried not to worry too much about the genuine stress in Hatake's frame.
That did not, however, prevent her from getting a flash of déjà vu as the old drunk walked into the room and knowing that their first c-rank was going to go to shit.
"Oi! Kakashi!" The gate guard called, making the jōnin- only fifteen minutes late in deference to their client- eye where Sakura was standing in front of the booth warily as he handed in their mission papers. "You didn't say you had such an adorable genin on your team!"
Sakura let a light blush build on her cheeks and her already sweet smile turn angelic. The other guard leant in with a serious expression on his face.
"You be careful now, a genin's first c-rank is a big milestone. Just do your best to protect your client and you'll do great." He told her and she dropped her expression into comically determined. As expected, the chūnin looked at her like she was an adorable, small animal.
"Thank you, senpai! I'll do my best!" She said, laying a pair of cookies on the desk and hurrying to catch up where Hatake was walking through the gates.
"Take care of our cute little kohai, Hatake!" The bandaged one called after the jōnin who waved lazily behind him in response before focusing his attention down on the, now skipping alongside him, girl.
"I didn't know you where close with Kotetsu and Izumo." He said, voice bland but eye narrowed as if faced with a particularly difficult puzzle.
"I wasn't." She said, smiling up at the jōnin. "But when I asked about sign-out procedures for missions they were extremely helpful."
"Kotetsu and Izumo." He replied, tone full of disbelief. "Helpful."
"Extremely helpful!" She said and offered him the brown paper bag she was holding. "Cookie, sensei?"
He (slowly) took one and observed her consideringly. "I'll leave the Client to you, then."
Sakura nodded and bounded forward to where the Uzumaki was- unsurprisingly- in a shouting match with the drunk over something ridiculous and the Uchiha was- unhelpfully- brooding into the distance.
"Am I really going to be safe with this brat?" The old man said angrily, glaring back at Hatake, but Sakura intercepted the conversation.
"You're actually in very good hands, Tazuna-san." She said, drawing a look that could only be described as doubtful. "Sasuke-kun and I both graduated at the top of our class, and Naruto has the largest chakra reserves in the village." She pointed to the blonde, who was staring back at her looking teary eyed from the basic and slightly backhanded compliment. "Not to mention our jōnin-sensei is one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha."
"WAIT, He is?!" Uzumaki cried, pointing at Hatake. Even Uchiha- who up until this point had been stomping ahead of them and brooding into the distance- glanced back at the jōnin in surprise. Sakura huffed, apparently they still hadn't done their research, but felt her interest pique at the dramatic sigh of relief the old drunk made. A sigh that was extremely disproportionate to the low ranking of the mission.
"Maa Naruto, I'm hurt, why so surprised?" Hatake drawled, a hand over his heart.
"But you're just a lazy old pervert!" Uzumaki yelled accusingly.
"This mission is only a c-rank, so we won't be coming across any foreign ninja, and we'll easily be able to take care of anything else." Sakura continued, completely ignoring where the blonde was now being noogied by the man responsible for their safety. She did not miss the telltale expression of guilt on the Client's face.
Hatake and Uchiha hadn't either, judging by the latter's suspicious glare and the former's casual use of hand signs. Only the Uzumaki seemed entirely oblivious to the fishy nature of the client, loudly yelling and fixing his hair. Hatake's hand rested lightly by his side, fingers in the information gathering position, and Sakura smiled.
That, she could do.
"So Tazuna-san, you're from Wave, right?" She asked, face guileless.
"Yeah, what about it?!" He snapped defensively, taking an angry sip from his sake bottle. Sakura feigned obliviousness to the mood and let her eyes light up and an excited smile stretch over her face.
"Really? What's it like? I've always wanted to see the ocean!" She said and he visibly softened, smiling a little and slipping into a tale about the country's main features. She would bet money he had at least one young grandchild, that kind of parental ease was practiced. It was simple to feign interest in the story, ask subtle questions about the economic and political situation in the country and keep him talking as they walked. By the time the sun was setting and the group was stopping to make camp, Sakura had felt she'd gotten a good picture of the state the country was in, and how likely it was that Tazuna would be targeted by enemy ninja.
The answer, very high.
"Report." Hatake said, having pulled her aside after the client had fallen asleep. He'd been well within hearing range all day so Sakura could only imagine that he was using it as some kind of test. Or, he'd been extremely lazy and hadn't bothered paying attention.
"As far as I can tell, Wave has been overtaken by some kind of criminal group who have used thug violence, threats and Wave's geographic isolation to extort the country deep into poverty. The client is trying to build a bridge between the Land of Fire and Wave country which would remove the country's isolation and subsequently gang's power over the locals, also bringing about a massive economic boom. Tazuna, as the driving force behind the project, is enemy number one to the criminal sect and it's highly likely we'll encounter resistance well beyond a c-rank."
The jōnin nodded, scratching his chin. "Do you think we should quit the mission?" Sakura paused, considering the question fully.
"No. I think we should continue." She said and his lone eye sharpened.
"Oh, why's that?"
"Thirty two percent of Fire Country's annual seafood consumption is imported from Wave, the economic benefits of a bridge would be a boon to us as well, not to mention the massive strategic advantage of bridging halfway to Kiri." She said and Hatake nodded. "Any enemy shinobi we encounter are most likely to be Kiri missing-nin who recently deserted, with the current political climate of the Hidden Village less and less jōnin level Kirigakure shinobi have been added the bingo books each year and they've shown a marked decrease in successful missions taken outside the Land of Water. Hence, whilst it would be dangerous to continue the mission knowing it would be well above the capabilities of an average genin team, the chances of encountering a hostile shinobi capable of taking you down are negligible at best and the potential pros far outweigh the cons." Sakura's eyes narrowed in thought. "Was that why we were given this mission? Tazuna only paid for a c-rank so Konoha couldn't give him more than a genin team without showing preferential treatment, but putting the Copy-nin on a straight forward protection detail is the closest to ensuring the mission's success as you could get. The only equivalent option would be Team Gai, but they're out of the village."
Hatake stared down at her, eye wide before it narrowed dramatically.
"And how would you know if Gai is in the village?" His voice was low with warning and he had begun radiating a low level of killing intent. Sakura snorted.
"Every time you two go through with one of your ridiculous challenges they become the focus of the rumour mill for days. There hasn't been any stories of a challenge in over two weeks, hence Maito Gai must be out of the village." Sakura felt a menacing smile twist her mouth and she put on a faux innocent tone. "Don't worry sensei!" He shifted his weight to lean away from her, eye widening in alarm. "If I happen to introduce myself to Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey, I'll be sure to let him know just how much you've been singing his praises and pass on the invitation for his team to join us at practice, we both know you're just too shy to ask him yourself."
Maa, Sakura-chan." Hatake said, hand landing on her shoulder as he steered her back towards the campsite. "There's no need to go to such extreme lengths. I'll take over the watch tonight, you make sure you get plenty of beauty sleep." His grip tightened near painfully, "Alright?"
Sakura's smile widened. "Of course sensei, those books you've been lending me have kept me too busy to do much of anything, anyway."
As Hatake was wandering away she heard him mutter "worse than my black ops minions."
(He sounded almost proud)
The next morning passed in much the same manner as the day previous, with Sakura focusing her questions away from the economic climate of Wave and onto the influential figures in the community.
(Not necessarily the richest ones, but the little old ladies that everyone knows and the tavern waitress that people look forward to chatting with. The people who know the most about the comings and goings of the town, and are always happy to share it.)
It wasn't until that afternoon that they passed a mysterious puddle. Sitting as it was under the hot summer sun, in a particularly dry forest, Sakura figured whoever was hiding in it couldn't be above low chūnin. Seeing Hatake put his hand in the position for 'defend and observe' she moved closer to Tazuna, ready to protect the client in the inevitable fight.
Watching the two missing-nin appear and 'kill' Kakashi was interesting and Sakura mentally made a note to blackmail him into teaching her that genjutsu later as she drew her chokutō and settled into a defensive position in front of the client. Strictly speaking Sakura should be positioned on the client's left flank, with the Uzumaki in front and the Uchiha on the right, but her teammates were both AWOL; the Uzumaki having been completely oblivious and frozen up at the first taste of adrenaline and the Uchiha having missed Hatake's hand signals and thrown himself head first into danger at the first sign of a fight.
Perhaps she was being too harsh on the Uchiha. He had protected the blonde with an admittedly impressive aim, it was just hard to take the kid seriously when he put as much visible angst as possible into every movement. One of the missing-nin headed for the Uzumaki whilst the other circled towards the client, specifically trying to duck around her positioning to get at the old man. She shifted her weight and arced her blade, prepared to block, only for the Uchiha to dramatically throw himself in front of her as some kind of human shield and Hatake to appear and grab the pair of enemy shinobi.
He turned a lone, incensed eye on the black haired boy, who straightened slightly under the scrutiny.
"Sasuke." Hatake said. "Whilst I applaud your willingness to protect your teammates, do turn around."
The Uchiha looked over his shoulder and blanched. Sakura glared back at him, slowly moving her blade away from where it had been centimetres from his unprotected kidneys, having only barely been able to stop her swing before it injured the preteen.
"Always respect a kenjutsu user, if Pinky had been just a tiny bit less competent you'd be dead." The jōnin said, voice entirely matter of fact. "Nice job Sakura. Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away, I didn't expect you to freeze up like that. Their claws are soaked in poison, we have to remove it from your blood quickly. Tazuna." The jōnin turned the full force of his glare on the old man.
"Wh-what is it?"
"I need to talk to you."
Sakura sighed and stepped away from the client, sheathing her sword and stretching her back out, enjoying watching Hatake rip the old drunk to shreds. "Naruto will need medical treatment, we have to get him to a doctor!" She interjected, voice full of false earnesty and watching the way the old drunk visibly panicked. She might've felt some actual worry for her blonde teammate, but judging by the way Hatake had made a big deal out of it only to waste time talking, it was probably a ploy and Naruto was not actually in danger.
The Uzumaki stabbing himself was a surprise, and the wound certainly looked showy, with swathes of blood over the back of his hand, but it very noticeably stopped pouring blood surprisingly quickly. Normal human bodies did not clot that quickly.
Sakura would know.
She watched the surprise on the jōnin's slither of face as he bandaged the wound and knew he'd noticed it too. Was it a jinchūriki thing? Did the fox give the blonde a ridiculously abnormal healing rate? What was it's limit? Could it regrow organs? Limbs?
Sometimes Sakura wished Orochimaru was still in the village, just so she could send him research ideas.
"GET DOWN!" Hatake yelled. Sakura reacted instinctively, grabbing the orange ball on her way and hitting the ground. A distant part of her mind noted the Uchiha doing the same for the client.
The air rushed over her. The giant sword made an audible squealing through the space above them. It buried itself into a tree with a massive thunk and Sakura looked up to find a giant, terrifying man standing upon the massive hilt. Long limbs and thick muscle. Standing with a predatory surety that wasn't dissimilar to Hatake's lazy slouch.
But where Hatake was predatory in the manner of an expertly trained dog that ripped out throats on command, an ultimately gentle creature that happened to be highly deadly when motivated, the man on the sword was a wild, bloodthirsty animal on a very short, very thin leash. Every shift of his body pulsated with barely restrained violence.
For all her research and all her training, Sakura didn't put together the face and the sword until Hatake named him. When he did her heart rate picked up. Momochi Zabuza was a threat.
"Surround and protect Tazuna. Do not enter the fight. That is the teamwork here." Hatake said and Sakura moved into action, flowing smoothly into position and drawing her blade. She expected at least the Uchiha to follow her movement but both of the preteens were staring wide-eyed at Hatake as he revealed his Sharingan. She felt her teeth grit involuntarily.
"The man who has copied a thousand jutsu, 'copy-nin Kakashi'." Zabuza was saying, his voice like steel wool. "Now. I have to kill that old man." Finally, finally, the boys fell into their defensive positions. "But Kakashi, it seems I will have to go through you first." With that the missing-nin disappeared.
Sakura's mind raced, her brain desperately piecing together every tiny scrap of information on the threat. Disturbingly little came to mind.
"He'll come after me first." Hatake said and Sakura's attention caught, eyes roving the surface of the water where the Kiri Shinobi had disappeared. "Momochi Zabuza, as a member of the hidden mist he was known as an expert in silent killing. You don't even notice until you're already dead. It's not like I can use the Sharingan perfectly. You guys be careful."
The mist thickened, rolling in from the water. Visibility plummeted.
"8 Choices." A disembodied voice boomed around them as it slowly became difficult to see past their own hands.
An assassination expert, faced with a Hatake Kakashi who's already gotten serious. Zabuza was trying to eliminate the effectiveness of the Sharingan with the mist.
"Liver, lungs, spine, femoral vein, jugular, brain, kidneys, heart."
Though he was making a show of going after Hatake, ultimately his objective was the client, Zabuza could simply go after the old man but whilst he would likely be able to kill Tazuna he wouldn't be able to do it fast enough to prevent Hatake from killing him in return. What would an assassin do?
"Which one should I go after?"
Exploit Hatake's weaknesses. Go after the children. Force him out of position.
A wall of killing intent slammed into Sakura. Her blood pounded like fire through her veins. Her breathing quickened. Her hands were steady on her blade.
A manic smile stretched her face. She shifted further onto the bridge builder's flank.
"I don't let my comrades die." The distraction said and Sakura moved. Her hands were a blur of hand signs and she disappeared into the mist. Her chakra signature slammed to nothing and the familiar feeling of water rushing over her skin followed. The clone stuttered for a moment, eyes tracking her movement, before it was being slammed into by Hatake's distraction. The real Zabuza wouldn't have had time to notice.
A Sakura-clone jumped away from the mess, landing as though pushed like the others.
"It's over." Hatake said, kunai at Zabuza's throat. Sakura's mind whirled as she disappeared into the bushes.
"There is no way you can defeat me with your monkey like limitations." Zabuza was saying. Was he stalling? Was it megalomania?
Why hadn't Kakashi killed him yet?
"But that was impressive of you! At that time you had already copied my water clone jutsu." Zabuza was still talking and Hatake was just letting him. It couldn't be a clone, the Sharingan would tell him, but why wasn't he killing the missing-nin? "You had your clone say those words to attract my attention while the real you hid in the mist and watched."
Sakura's breath caught. The pieces clicked into place. It was another clone stalling until the real Zabuza made a move. Hatake was going along with it, waiting for the assassin to overplay his hand.
"Nice plan. But." The clones eyes were feral, even a fake Zabuza was terrifying. Sakura's smile widened were she hid, her clone cowering in the dirt and gaining exactly zero attention. If the assassin paid half a lick of mind to it it would be obvious it was a clone, but the man was arrogant. Sakura was just a small, pink haired and defenceless little girl. Why would he bother?
"I'm not that easy." The real Zabuza said, appearing behind Hatake and taking a swing.
Hatake dodged the swing but he took the kick, a pale hand digging into a weapons pouch and leaving a protective trail of makibishi before the client as he went. Zabuza growled and gave chase, effectively putting a massive amount of space between the fight and the weaknesses.
It was a good plan from Hatake, right up until the water started trying to suck him back in as he climbed out, buying Zabuza just enough time to trap their sensei in a water prison.
"Now Kakashi, we can finish this later, but first. I'll take care of them." Zabuza said and turned his attention onto the terrified looking group of kids. Hatake's crimson eye flicked over Sakura's clone, locked onto her actual position in the trees on his left, and then pointedly looked away again. Sakura figured she could take that as permission and begun threading out her chakra.
For most shinobi, the Kawarimi worked like something of a field. As the shinobi went through the requisite hand signs, their chakra would expand outwards in a circle, coating everything around them in a layer of it. They would then mentally picture the item they wanted to swap with and perform their last hand sign. This would cause their chakra to 'catch' and result in the switch. It made the move completely instantaneous, but also extremely easy to track. Anyone within the field would feel the catch the moment it happened, acting like a beacon to point them in the right direction.
The jōnin reading materials Hatake had been slipping her worked on teaching the user to send out only a sector of chakra, significantly reducing the size of the field and hopefully keeping the attackers outside it, hence making them unable to follow their movements.
Sakura, with near perfect chakra control from natural talent and long hours of practice as a baby, had been perfecting the ability to send out just a string- almost invisible with how little chakra she could put into it- to connect with her target object, using that to feed a coat of chakra over it and then perform the catch.
It was near untraceable, and she'd gotten damn good at it.
So she sent a string of chakra out, pushing it below the surface of the water to hide it even further, and connected to her chosen object, coating it painstakingly slowly with chakra as Zabuza bragged. She finished just in time to see the Uzumaki get kicked in the head. She didn't let the technique catch. Not yet. She would need a distraction.
"Take Tazuna and run! You have no chance of beating him!" Hatake screamed. "As long as he's keeping me trapped here he can't move! The water clone cannot go very far from his real body! Just run away!"
She was almost certain the Sharingan was able to see what she was doing with her chakra. Won't be able to kill him? Force him to move from keeping me trapped? Sakura's smile went unhinged. Definitely permission. She watched Naruto become increasingly DETERMINED with a tingling sense of anticipation.
Then, Naruto was running. Almost everyone was screaming. Sakura waited until just the point when the blonde was kicked away from the danger before she let her chakra catch.
Kubikiribōchō disappeared and reappeared in the trees. A brown and green mottled figure appeared on the missing-inn's back. Sakura's chokutō made a vicious slash towards the man's ridiculous arm warmer.
He dodged it of course, Sakura was still just a genin and he was a jōnin, but he was forced to pull his arm out of the water prison to do so. She had gone through the hand signs and disappeared again- replaced with a log this time and using the usual full field- before she hit the water. Zabuza made a move in her new direction, violence in his eyes and a pounding vein on his forehead, but Kakashi stopped him with a crushing grip on the missing-nin's wrist, rising out of the water like a true demon.
Sakura laughed slightly hysterically and let her clone and henge drop, watching with undisguised awe as the two jōnin went at each other with everything, the fight becoming its own natural disaster. Hatake managing to not only perform massive feats of ninjutsu, but also simultaneously mess with the guy psychologically.
Sakura felt her resolve harden. One day, she would be that good.
Then senbon pierced Zabuza's neck.
"Hehe, you're right, he's dead." A childish voice sounded, the black clothes figure appearing out of the trees. Hatake shunshined to the dead man's side and felt for a pulse, evidently finding none.
"Thank you very much, I have been searching for the opportunity to kill Zabuza for a long time." The child said, something about it just screaming wrong to Sakura.
"That mask." Hatake replied. "You're a hidden mist hunter-nin."
"Impressive. You are correct."
"Hunter-nin?!" Uzumaki interjected, a mulish expression on his face.
"Yes my duty is to hunt down missing-nins. I'm a member of the hidden mist's hunter-nin team." The kid said, his voice polite. Sakura's eyes narrowed and the problem she had with the picture clicked. She didn't care what the kid said, who he poked full of holes or what elite assassination squad he was apparently apart of. The kid was not a killer. He had none of the inherent violence, none of the predatory stance, nothing but a genuinely polite attitude. She would always recognise one of her own, and she didn't recognise this kid.
Kiri would have chewed this kid up and spit him out without a second thought. Bullshit he was a super elite assassin. He was a teammate of Zabuza's that had just used senbon to fake the man's death.
Sakura took a half step forward before she paused. She knew that if she attacked the kid Hatake would follow through, she'd definitely shown her judgment was good enough for him to trust her decisions, but she eyed the way he was subtly using the 'hair ruffle' to lean his weight on the blonde. Essentially using Uzumaki as a living walking stick.
Hatake was on the verge of chakra exhaustion, they had no way of knowing how strong the kid was and at the very least Zabuza would need time to recover before attacking again. The kid said goodbye. Sakura let him go.
"Now we have to get Tazuna back home." Hatake said, pulling his forehead protector back down, and Sakura rushed to his side. "Lets GO!" He yelled before promptly collapsing, Sakura caught him just before he hit the dirt.
"Oof." She said and turned to a screaming Naruto. "Help me out? Sensei's really heavy."
Before she could argue the man was removed from her hands completely, the boys somehow both working together to carry him and turning it into a competition.
"The hunter-nin's protect information from getting out. They are the specialists who guard their village's secrets." Hatake lectured.
"Sensei." Sakura interrupted, tone flat, and the single grey eye turned to look at her.
"Sakura." Hatake replied equally deadpan. "Why do I feel like you're going to say something I'm not going to like?"
"The supposed Kiri hunter-nin was exceedingly polite to us, a group of Konoha shinobi." Sakura replied, causing an expression of dawning horror to appear on Hatake's sliver of visible face. "They also didn't dispose of the 'body', they took it. And Kubikiribōchō. I checked."
Hatake closed his eye, took a deep breath, and whispered "fuck" with great feeling.