"A great day will only get better until it ends, because that means luck is on our side."
Early in the morning, Sakura walked towards the gates of Konoha with a backpack on her back and her cheek slightly swollen.
"For next time, let's mock Sakuya only when we're sure no one else is around. That punch hurt," Inner said, though she sounded annoyed, she was actually in a very good mood.
"It was worth it, though. Did you see the look on her face when I told her I was going on a C-rank mission with Sasuke-kun outside the village?" Sakura replied. Seeing her twin sister scowl and turn red with envy made the injury on her cheek feel more like a mosquito bite than a punishment.
Inner laughed, recalling the scene.
"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Naruto shouted cheerfully, approaching eagerly when he spotted her on the path. "What happened to your cheek?"
"Huh? This? It's nothing, just a mosquito bite," she said, dismissing it.
Naruto eyed her for a moment before accepting the answer.
"Yeah, mosquitoes can be really annoying."
The two continued their way until they reached the village's main entrance. Spotting three people standing by the gate, they both shouted loudly, pointing at the tallest of the three.
"You're late," Kakashi said, raising a hand in a greeting gesture, unfazed by their openly annoyed faces. "You should keep track of the time; you're just on time."
Both Naruto and Sakura turned red with anger.
"Damn you, Kakashi-sensei! After all the times you've made us wait during training, now you play dumb like this! Someday you'll get what's coming to you!" Inner Sakura shouted.
Sakura remained silent as Naruto started ranting at Kakashi, which prompted Tazuna to join in and insult him for being an immature child. Sakura was the first to calm down, and seeing Naruto and Tazuna arguing, she smacked Naruto on the head to get him to behave.
Early in the morning, Sakura walked towards the gates of Konoha with a backpack on her back and her cheek slightly swollen.
"Next time, let's make fun of Sakuya only when we're sure no one else is around. That punch hurt," Inner said, though she seemed annoyed, she was actually in a very good mood.
"It was worth it, though. Did you see the look on her face when I told her I was going on a C-rank mission with Sasuke-kun outside the village?" Sakura replied. Seeing her twin sister scowl and turn red with envy made the injury on her cheek feel more like a mosquito bite than a punishment.
Inner laughed as she recalled the scene.
"Sakura-chan! Good morning!" Naruto shouted cheerfully, approaching eagerly when he saw her on the path. "What happened to your cheek?"
"Huh? This? It's nothing, just a mosquito bite," she said nonchalantly.
Naruto looked at her for a moment before accepting the answer.
"Yeah, mosquitoes can be really annoying."
The two continued on their way until they reached the main entrance of the village. Spotting three people standing to the side of the gate, they both shouted loudly, pointing at the tallest of the three.
"You're late," Kakashi said, raising his hand in a greeting gesture, unfazed by their visibly annoyed faces. "You should keep track of the time; you're just on time."
Both Naruto and Sakura blushed with anger.
"Damn you, Kakashi-sensei! You've made us wait so much during training only to act clueless now! You'll get what's coming to you someday!" shouted Inner Sakura.
Sakura remained silent as Naruto began insulting Kakashi, prompting Tazuna to join in, calling him an immature kid. Sakura was the first to calm down, and seeing Naruto and Tazuna about to fight, she gave Naruto a smack on the head to make him behave.
Inner had no comeback.
"Don't fall behind, Sakura," Kakashi said lazily, turning to look at her.
Seeing Kakashi so composed, Sakura shook off her worry, thinking maybe she was overreacting. She quickened her pace to stand beside her sensei.
This was their first mission outside of Konoha.
They had walked a good distance since leaving Konoha's gates. The sun was high in the sky now, and finally, Naruto and Tazuna had stopped insulting each other. The only sounds were the wind blowing through the trees, the birds singing, and their footsteps on the merchant trail leading to their destination.
In silence, Sakura adjusted the top of her red kimono to let in some air. The heat was making her sweat more than expected; even her cheeks were slightly flushed. That's when something caught her attention. It wasn't the deer that peeked its head out upon hearing them approach before darting away, nor Tazuna swaying a bit from the alcohol. No, it was the puddle by the side of the road that Tazuna, Naruto, and Sasuke were passing at that moment.
Sakura looked at it puzzledly before discreetly scanning the trees and the sky. Everything was dry. The ground under the tree shade looked parched, and the sun had been radiating intense heat since dawn. If her memory served her right, she had read about natural sciences and knew that this event was impossible under these conditions, especially because she hadn't seen a single cloud in the sky since they set out.
With curiosity piquing her mind, she extended her chakra towards the puddle, just as she had secretly learned from her brother when he was teaching Sakuya to use sensing.
She tensed when she felt two presences within the puddle.
Trying to stay calm, Sakura reached for her trembling hand towards her weapons kit. Her heart raced with each step she took towards the puddle.
"What if they're waiting to launch a surprise attack? Naruto and Sasuke-kun haven't noticed. Being attacked from behind would be the best opportunity. What if there are more waiting in the forest? What if they want to kidnap us? What if they intend to kill us?"
Kakashi took her hand, surprising her. When she turned to look at him, he simply smiled with his one visible eye before shaking his head. She tried to convey what she had just sensed, but instead received a couple of pats on the head. He was trying to reassure her.
"It's true, Kakashi-sensei is a jounin. Nothing bad can happen to us," Sakura told herself. She closed her ninja pouch and forged ahead, trying to calm her racing heart.
She had to muster all her strength to pass by the puddle, pretending not to have noticed. They had barely walked a few meters when two figures emerged from the puddle, heading straight towards a startled Kakashi.
Everything happened too fast for the boys and Tazuna. As they turned around, they saw Kakashi surrounded by chains wielded by the two ninjas.
"Do it!" one of them shouted.
They held their breath as the men pulled on the chains, tearing Kakashi's body apart.
Sakura screamed.
"Ka-ka- Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto yelled.
Naruto froze as both ninjas targeted him next. Sasuke reacted swiftly, throwing a shuriken and a kunai directly at their chains, pinning them to a tree and immobilizing the ninjas. He followed with a kick to their faces.
The two released their chains. One moved towards Naruto, paralyzed with fear, while the other advanced towards Tazuna.
"I have to stop him, I have to stop him!" Sakura repeated in her mind until her body finally moved. She stood in front of Tazuna, gripping a kunai tightly, intent on defending herself and protecting the client. "Stay behind me!" she said with determination.
Sasuke pushed them both, knocking them to the ground to shield them. Sakura gritted her teeth as she felt a sharp tug on her ankle upon falling.
Just as the ninja was about to reach Sasuke, Kakashi suddenly appeared and stopped him.
"Kakashi-sensei! You're alive!" Sakura thought excitedly, momentarily forgetting the pain in her twisted ankle.
Sasuke helped Tazuna up from the ground before assisting Sakura, who stifled a groan as she put weight on her injured ankle. She immediately knew it was sprained.
"Good job, Sasuke. You too, Sakura," Kakashi praised them both as he approached.
Naruto started feeling frustrated for being the only one who hadn't reacted as he should have. Unlike Sasuke, who made it look natural, he had frozen in place.
"Hey," Sasuke said, making Naruto jump slightly. "Are you hurt, scaredy-cat?" he added with a smirk.
"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled angrily.
"Naruto," Kakashi said firmly, halting Naruto in his tracks. "Don't move. Those ninjas' claws were poisoned. We need to get it out fast. You have to open the wound and get it out fast, so don't move. By the way, Mr. Tazuna has some explaining to do."
Sakura ignored her pain to help Kakashi and Sasuke tie up the two ninjas who had attacked them. She wanted to hear what Kakashi had to say to Tazuna; maybe it had to do with what she had suspected from the beginning.
Kakashi began explaining that the attackers were Mist Village ninjas. When the ninjas woke up, they asked how they had been discovered, and Kakashi mentioned the puddle on a clear day when it hadn't rained in weeks. Sakura blushed slightly with pride as Kakashi acknowledged that she had also detected it, causing the other boys to look at her.
"In that case, why did you let the genin face them in battle?" Tazuna asked.
The three of them had the same question in their minds.
"I could have handled it from the beginning, but I wouldn't have understood their objective and what would happen next," Kakashi said.
As Tazuna attempted to explain, he was caught in a contradiction. With Kakashi's deductions, it became clear that the mission was a Rank B and not a Rank C as initially stated.
"We're genin, we need to return to the village and also extract the venom from Naruto as soon as possible," Sakura said. Although she had also been injured, after Kakashi's praise, she didn't have the courage to mention it.
Naruto, looking at his wound in frustration, said, "I guess we have to go back to the village."
To everyone's surprise, Naruto stabbed a kunai into his injured hand.
"Naruto, stop it! What are you doing?" Sakura cried out.
"I worked so hard to get here. I pushed myself until I got hurt, trained alone for hours, whatever it took to reach my dream," his hand dripping blood onto the ground. "I'll never step back again, or let anyone else rescue me, and I won't allow Sasuke to save me again. I promise this on this wound."
He turned to look at them with a smile, his face reflecting unwavering determination.
"Mr. Builder, I'll complete this mission. I'll respect and protect you with this kunai. A true ninja never gives up, and neither will I. Now, let's go."
"Naruto, that was really great, how you cut off the venom's circulation. But if you lose more blood, you're going to die," Kakashi said, mocking him.
On the other hand, Sakura looked at him, amazed at how heroic he seemed speaking like that, but also annoyed at how foolish he looked fearing for his life.
"I'll bandage it," Sakura said, noting that the wound had already closed. Kakashi noticed it too, but neither of them said anything about it.
As Sakura bandaged Naruto's wound, she felt conflicted about the praise she had received twice from Kakashi. In reality, she had only stood in front of Tazuna "trying to protect him" and was the first to agree that they should return once they realized the mission was a Rank B. Inspired by Naruto's determination, she decided that for their sake, she would silently endure the sharp pain in her sprained ankle.
It wasn't as if it was the first time she had to endure pain.
"A great day can turn into a catastrophe if we're not careful. I hope it doesn't end up being the worst day."
Omake/Extra:
After a long and exhausting argument with Deidara about which form of art is superior, Sasori returned to his room in the Akatsuki tower. With his wooden body, he didn't experience hunger, cold, or fatigue, but that day, it seemed like he could still sense traces of those feelings. Perhaps spending so much time with Deidara was starting to affect him.
With nothing else to do, he headed to the workshop table to work on his current art piece. As he sat down, he noticed a puppet on the periphery, barely taller than half his arm. It was rough and clumsily carved by inexperienced hands: its nose was crooked, eye sockets rough, and it sported an uneven, poorly painted smile that revealed its hollow interior. Two pieces of wood protruded from its back, and its arms and torso lacked precise anatomical proportions.
He observed the puppet for a moment before picking it up carefully.
"It's quite ugly."
Long ago, when Sakura had just arrived at Akatsuki, Sasori frowned upon entering his workshop and finding her seated in his chair, right where he carved his puppets. Everyone knew that no one could enter that room.
Silently, he approached until he was beside her.
"What are you doing? I told you that you can't come in here," he said brusquely. He didn't care what Itachi's girl did, but entering the workshop alone was unacceptable. There were dangerous things there, like poisons and hidden knives among the puppets and in plain sight.
Sakura was so engrossed in her task that she jumped and squealed when she turned around and found herself face to face with Sasori. Upon realizing who it was, she gave him a big smile.
"Oh, Uncle, you're here early!"
"Sasori," he corrected her. "I asked you what you're doing here without permission. You can only be here if I'm here and only to observe," he added sternly, watching her squirm in her seat.
"Well, I wanted to give you this that I just finished," Sakura said, pulling out what she had hidden behind her. "I stayed quiet like you said and finally did it. It's my first puppet! It's a fairy."
The puppet looked nothing like a fairy. Sasori didn't even dare to take it.
"It's not as beautiful as yours. I promise to get better, but in the meantime, I want you to have my first artwork with you always."
Sasori observed the "fairy" puppet for a moment before looking back at Sakura and placing the puppet in a corner of the table, its new designated spot.
"Then I better teach you how to make real works of art," he said, pushing Sakura aside and sitting in his chair, picking up a new piece of wood to teach her.
"Uncle, you're so strict," Sakura laughed.
For the first time, Sasori didn't correct her.
And that's how she handed him that ugly puppet and began learning how to carve puppets. Sasori left the puppet in its designated place and continued with his artwork
