"..." Normal chat.

ABC. Thought.

Chapter 7

Early in the morning.

Today's weather is suitable for traveling. Clear blue sky, with sun ray here and there. A little bit windy but we're not expecting rain any time soon.

"Alright, let's go."

Once having prepared everything, I head to the village's gate. There, I find Naruto, along with Sakura and Sasuke who are waiting by the trees. Like me, they're also carrying traveling backpacks on their shoulders.

"Nina-chan!"

Both Sakura and Naruto greet me enthusiastically. While Kakashi is still nowhere to be found.

"He's late again, isn't he?"

Their expressions turn bitter once I mention of our one of a kind teacher.

And instead of going on rampaging and complaining like the other two, Sasuke's acting comfortable in his own zone. But something in those horrifying dark orbs of his is telling me that I won't be able to escape this time around...

What's the worst can happen? It's not like he will kill or torture me over something so simple.

Even if things go wrong, I still have Naruto and Sakura to back me up.

"Sorry, I ran over a cat and had to take it to the vet."

Finally, after like an hour, Kakashi shows up with his shameless smile.

"Yeah, right!"

Both Naruto and Sakura yell, while Sasuke glares at him intensely.

"Here."

Ignoring his students outrage, Kakashi tosses the delivery package, which is our main objective, to me and implies that I shall be the one keeping it until we reach to our destination.

Why did he give her that package? Is it some kind of test?

The same question arises to everyone else in the team when they watch Nina putting the important item (kind of) into her backpack.

"Let's us get moving! It would be unprofessional of us if we let our customer wait, would it not?"

Kakashi smiles innocently and urges us to leave. Despite being the main reason for us to be late to begin with.

And now we have Kakashi leading us up ahead, with Naruto is walking right behind. Then me, Sakura and Sasuke.

"Hey, Nina-chan. Was it true that you and Sasuke weren't playing tag yesterday?"

As we're passing through the tree branches, Naruto whispers to me.

"Huh? Oh yeah, we weren't."

After hearing my answer, his expression turns serious. Which is rare, since it only happens unless there's an opponent or something important.

"But what made him chasing after you like that?"

He recalls to Sasuke's face at that time. Stoic and calculating. That wasn't a look of someone who was having fun with a friend, but going after an enemy.

"Well, uhm... You could say that he and I had some misunderstanding?"

Yet Naruto frowned. Indicating that he doesn't believe in my words.

Ugh! The last thing I want is having our teammates fight each other in the middle of my very first mission. And for some unknown reasons that whenever looking into those deep blue orbs of his, I can't seem to lie perfectly like I always do.

"It's all in the past. We're all good now. So there's no need to worry about it too much, okay?"

I firmly assure him that there is no longer war between us. In hope that he won't think about doing something dumb or reckless.

"If you say so..."

Only then Naruto's expression soften up. Thanks god!

Sensing someone is glaring at him, Sasuke turns to that direction and sees Naruto sticks his tongue out at him the moment their eyes meet. What's with that moron?

Hmph! And here I thought that he had taken Kakashi's words seriously and started being nice to her. If I had known about this sooner, I would have done more than burying him with clones, you know!

Naruto's teeth cringed when he recalls to his sad memories at academy. Alone, helpless and weak. With no one but Iruka to accept him and treat him like a proper human being.

"Okay. Let's stop here for a bit."

A moment later and Kakashi suggests us to take a break at a vacant space on the way. Then, everyone quickly settles for a comfortable spot and enjoys the food that they have prepared inside their backpacks.

It's noon already, huh? Time sure flies when you don't pay attention to it.

While looking for the bento box inside my backpack, I come across the package that Kakashi has given me this morning. It's only a D rank mission. I should be fine, right?

"Sasuke-kun, here. Have one!"

Sakura happily shares her home cooking with Sasuke as they sit next to each other under a tree. While Naruto's left sitting in the middle of the area, watching them eat with a cup of noodle in his hand.

And Kakashi's probably up on one of the branches reading Icha Icha tactics.

After our short break, we continue with our journey until the sun is set. That's when we start setting up our camp for the night.

Naruto's tasked to collect rocks for the campfire, while I gather dry branches around the area. Sasuke will go catch fish for dinner at the stream not too far away and expecting to have Sakura accompany him since her task is to collect water.

Hmm... This amount should be enough.

When almost finish gathering dried woods, I hear an unnatural sound of snapped tree branches behind me.

"Crack!"

When turning around, I see a shadowy figure stepping out of the bushes before me. And it turns out to be that damned Uchiha Sasuke. Jeeze. Why am I not surprised?

"What now? What do you want?"

There's no net or fish visible in his hands. Both of his shoes and clothes are clean, bearing no sign of having contacted with water or whatsoever. Did he just outright ditching his job?

"When I activated Sharingan, Naruto was unconscious and Sakura wasn't there. So you could not have possibly learnt about it from those two. And Kakashi's definitely out of the question..."

Sasuke smirks while pointing out the flaws in my story.

"That again? You really don't know when to give up, huh?"

I try to maintain my composure, while mentally face-palming myself, hard. Damn it. I missed out that part in panic cause of his threatening using the Sharingan.

"Speak, who are you and how much do you know about us?"

When he's only a few feet away, I can feel his body is fuming with killing aura.

"Are you going to assume that I'm a spy just because you caught me one time watching sunrise near your home?"

"Not just once, I had seen you wandering around Uchiha district early in the morning for several times already."

He stares at me for a short moment before answering.

"And you didn't think that I was only trying to do something's called exercising?"

And I try to reason with him, hoping that some of it will get into that thick skull of his.

"I call it observation."

"You're not making any sense."

"And you could have picked another path to work with your so called *exercising*. There's no reason for you to have to be there. Unless..."

Without even saying, I can see that Sasuke has planned out multiple ridiculous possibilities and theories inside that crazy head of his.

Sigh... If I had known that he would such a bother, I would have never set my feet into that goddamned place.

"Well excuse me for not finding any banner or anything lying around to inform myself that it's restricted."

Perhaps if I can keep the conversation long enough, Naruto will notice our abnormal absences and starts searching.

"Enough beating around the bush and spit it out already. Who are you working for!?"

However Sasuke's gotten impatience, as I notice that he's reached for the Kunai sitting inside his Shinobi's pocket.

Kakashi's somewhere nearby but he doesn't show any sign of interfering. Great, I bet that damned crow is enjoying this.

To escape, I throw a bunch of dry branches into his face and dash away.

"Running again, are we? But not this time!"

But Sasuke has prepared his tool, a rope dart, for this scenario and aims for my legs.

"Ouch!"

At result, I trip and fall flat onto the ground.

"Feel like talking yet? Pretending to faint is useless."

Sasuke approaches to my spot with a victory smirk on his face.

"Hurry up and talk while I'm still being nice."

He squats down next to me and puts the Kunai's blade up to my neck. His eyes are cold and deadly.

"What's the change of mind? Not going to use Sharingan on me anymore?"

And I know that he will split my throat in any second without hesitation.

"Using my power is a waste on the likes of you."

Sasuke replies calmly, there's a tin of mockery in his tone.

*The likes of me*, huh? If that pretty face gets a bit closer, he's going to eat some nice fists.

However as much as wanting to kick his ass, I have to solve this conflict in peace. We are suppose to be allies, not enemies. Goddamn it!

"Kakashi-sensei, you are here. Aren't you?"

And I decide to drag him into this mess, as my last resort.

"This lame trick isn't going to save you twice."

Annoyed, Sasuke presses the sharp blade closer to my skin.

Great, this idiotic hasn't realized that his ex-anbu of a teacher's been here watching his melodrama from the start.

"Sensei! If you're not coming out, I'm going to tell the Third Hokage that you're mistreating me when we get back!"

Paying no mind to the Uchiha, I continue calling out to him.

"Alright, alright. I'm here."

Eventually, Kakashi appears standing right before us. And thanks to his cold blank stare, Sasuke releases my neck from the Kunai's blade and moves away.

"Say something to that thick head, will you?"

Therefore I ask Kakashi to knock some senses into that stubborn Uchiha.

"Hmm... What can I say..."

Yet he acts like being completely lost in the middle of a conversation.

"Tell Sasuke to stop being paranoid! What else?!"

I nag him to be serious, while struggling to get the damn rope off my legs.

Ever since I've arrived to Konoha, Kakashi has been following and studying my every actions, as well as doing multiple background checks on me. Therefore I'm confident that he understands who I am much better than that brat.

"Well?"

Sasuke stands there and patiently waits for his teacher's explanation.

"She's right, Sasuke. Everything is just a misunderstanding. You can trust me, Nina is not a spy."

Kakashi smiles to calm the fuming Uchiha before him.

"And what makes you think I will believe that?"

Sasuke snarls. His hand still holds the Kunai firmly and looks like he's about to stab me with it in any second.

"Then do you have any proof to prove that I'm a spy?"

When I chime in, Sasuke glares at me.

"You still haven't answered me how you know things happened at the Land of Wave."

"I told her. Right, Nina?"

Kakashi's the one who responses to that question, surprising all of us.

"Yeah! I begged him to tell me about you guys prior missions since I was too anxious for my first!"

And I take my chance to grab that opportunity right away.

"Yup! And I couldn't resist those puppy eyes of hers."

He adds to make it sounds more convincing.

"Really, then why did you lie about hearing this from Naruto?"

Not buying our words easily, Sasuke asks me.

"Because Kakashi-sensei asked me not to tell anyone that it's him who told me that. Right, sensei?"

And it's not until seeing Kakashi nods to me that Sasuke calms down and walks off. Not forgetting to shoot a *I will trust you, for now* look at us before leaving.

While on the way back to our camp, Kakashi hands me his handkerchief with a bit of remedies lying inside.

"What are they for?"

A little confused but I take it anyway.

"To cover that wound."

He says, pointing at a specific area around my neck.

Oh right, I totally forgot about it due to all the chaos. If Naruto sees it, he's going to make a big fuss for sure.

Therefore I use the handkerchief to wipe away the blood on my skin and remedies to heal. The moment getting to our campfire, my wound's been healed and nothing on me is showing sign of having gone through an assault.

"What took you so long!?"

Concerned, Naruto approaches me.

Earlier, Naruto had collected the dry woods himself to start the fire since he was too bored waiting for our return. And Sakura had to catch fish for dinner because someone who was suppose to do that job had ran away.

"It's quite dark out there. So I got a bit lost."

I explain to him as we approach the campfire.

"Sasuke-kun! You suddenly left when we're heading to the river! What happened?! Where did you go?!"

Sakura sticks close to Sasuke when he takes a seat near the campfire. After offering a cooked fish to him but is ignored, she becomes quiet and eats the food by herself. Looking disheartened.

Jeeze. What's with him acting so emo for? Wasn't it me who was threatened and almost got killed just now?

Sitting next to Naruto and eating the grilled fish, I watch the odd couples. Can't help but feeling confused.

Later on, Sasuke volunteers to take the night shift, despite Kakashi's saying that it's not necessary.

While Naturo's annoyed thinking that he's showing off by acting tough, Sakura worries for his health since he didn't have anything for dinner.

In my case, I don't care for one bit and sleep through the night peacefully.