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"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura squealed, twisting her hands together cutely. 'He's so strong and cool!' She blushed when her teacher slowly glanced at her and pretended to be very focused on getting an even coat of white paint down even though her shoulders were starting to ache from the work.
Across the yard, his eye twitched and Sasuke pretended not to hear his painfully pink and red peer, hefting another load of the wood he was carrying for a fence that had been destroyed by some academy students. Just looking at …that person… was difficult. He couldn't catch her in the corner of his eye without thinking that Valentine's Day had found something too sickeningly sweet and thrown it up. 'This mission is probably Naruto's fault,' he glowered, trying to ignite the other boy with the force of his irritation. No one else ever made as much trouble as Naruto did- he was a bad influence on the younger kids.
This mission was their third D-class, and it was even less satisfying than the others because the client was the village itself- Sasuke didn't mind hard work. He did it all the time in the uphill struggle against the decay of the nearly abandoned Uchiha complex. Work that served a purpose or helped someone was a logical and acceptable contribution to the good of the village. But work caused by fellow nin (or nin in training) was stupid. They shouldn't be creating busy work and wasting other people's time. He could be training instead and getting stronger, now that he actually had someone willing to help with skills beyond the stupid Academy standards.
With a clatter, the boards fell to the dirt in a pile behind where Naruto was hammering away. "Thanks, bastard," he said distractedly.
'He's actually good at that,' the brunette allowed grudgingly. Aloud, he just grunted and turned away. There was something galling about being relegated to hauling heavy things like an animal while his teammate did the skilled labor, but he soothed his ego by remembering that woodworking was hardly a ninja skill anyways and it didn't matter.
His male teammate's surprising usefulness was balanced out by how much Sakura was a complete waste of space. He carefully didn't look at her- giving her attention only seemed to feed her frightening delusions about him. Even now, she was working harder to keep her nails clean than she was at painting what the boys had finished fixing.
The older two teammates were no help. Kakashi was currently leaning against a tree in the yard reading with one hand in his pocket. He looked as though he might be asleep on his feet. Privately, Sasuke despaired that this was his teacher. Aiko, on the other hand, had mumbled something quickly about having paid her D-class dues and vanished. He couldn't entirely blame her, either.
The redhead rejoined the group as they walked back to the tower to report that they had finished the two D-ranks for that day. Naruto eyed her grumpily. "Where were you all day?"
She rolled her eyes. "Naruto, I'm a Chuunin grounded in-village until my team is fit for fieldwork," she reminded in an exasperated tone. "I'm on the gate duty roster now." Aiko made a face and affected a high, simpering voice. "Why hello there, are you lost little girl? Could I speak to someone about approving my papers?"
Sasuke very carefully did not react while the blond buffoon pointed and laughed and Sakura gave a huff of rather smug amusement. He would have been angry beyond belief if someone had condescended to him like that. Kakashi seemed to radiate cheer, however and casually ruffled her hair. "Aa, that's what you get for moving up in the ranks early."
She smacked at his hand, missing completely. The older man was already fifteen feet away from the group, looking back at them. "Come come, do you want to keep the Hokage waiting?"
That bit of hypocrisy made the three genin see red. Aiko was used to it.
~~~
In a separate line from her team, Aiko handed over her yellow bordered scroll with a smile and a bow. Maybe if she was lucky, she wouldn't spend two weeks in a row on the Chuunin gate roster. It was only a thirty hour time commitment per week to give nin plenty of time to train, but it was still annoying. The room was a comforting bustle of polite conversation, rustling papers and the gentle trickling sounds coming from the tiny fountain separating the nin and civilian sides of the room.
"Old man, I'm tired of these crappy missions!" Naruto burst.
All other noise but the fountain stopped. She slowly turned her head, hoping against hope that she'd been mistaken and that loud voice had been someone else. 'No such luck.'
The rest of the room was a tableau of unsurprised but displeased expressions. Kakashi slowly put one hand to his forehead. "Thank you, Naruto, for screaming at the Hokage when he walked past the missions room. Thank you so very much," he mumbled lowly. Though he'd pitched it quietly, the blonde should have heard. Aiko did from ten feet away, after all.
The Hokage just looked amused. "Well, Naruto, you're a genin," he began.
"I don't care what my stupid rank is, we're ninja! We should have better missions than weeding and babysitting. And don't try to tell me those are essential skills for infiltration or adulthood. That's a lie. They're just busywork to shut up fat, lazy civilians who don't want to do their own chores."
The thick-set man in silk at the front of the line filing mission requests turned an interesting shade of purple.
Sakura had gone from an embarrassed pink flush to hiding her face in her hands and eventually ended up bright red and shaking with rage. "Naruto," she growled warningly. The damage was done, however. Some of the curious civilians gave her a look. Sasuke, on the other hand, had used the substitution jutsu on a potted plant so that no one realized he came in with Naruto. Aiko spotted him leaning against a wall and pretending to be deaf on the other side of the room.
"Kakashi-kun, do you think your team is ready for a C-rank mission?" The Hokage turned to the Jounin to make his point.
The man shrugged. "Do you have one an idiot can do? Between the three of them…" Aiko was just glad she wasn't included in that count. The leaves of the Sasuke-plant standing next to Naruto gently swayed, as if in agreement.
"Quite right," the Sandaime muttered, raising one eyebrow at the way Naruto was straining to attack his teacher and being prevented by the hand on his head holding him at arm's length. "All right. I think I have a C-rank mission you should be able to do. Come back tomorrow morning to meet your client, be prepared for a long escort mission. Would you send the client from Wave Country a message? I believe I had originally decided that mission would be given to Gai's squad when they get back in a few days, but no matter." He puffed on his pipe while the secretary he'd addressed made a note. "Now, if you'll excuse me…"
Sakura grabbed Naruto's arm with what was obviously painful force and dragged him bodily out of the building, where she proceeded to tear him a new asshole for embarrassing his team like that in front of the village leader and a room of their superiors and prospective clients. Aiko sighed, not feeling up to interfering. She'd hoped to avoid this mission. Granted, she didn't actually know that the client was Tazuna, but how many missions to Wave country would there be at any given point in time?
~~~
'Just one, apparently', Aiko noted tiredly the next morning. It wasn't luck so much as paranoia that had caused her to pack especially well for this mission, but she took a moment to be thankful nonetheless.
Knowing as she did that this mission would be long- months longer than it was billed as- she'd brought more than usual, and had splurged on two of those fucking expensive storage scrolls for extra weapons and high-calorie prepackaged food (it wasn't a good idea to mix comestibles with anything else). The rest of the space in her pack was filled with four changes of clothes (an indulgence her teacher would laugh at if he saw it at the gate, but he'd be jealous later when he was wearing the same nasty pants for a month), the waxes and oils to care for her weapons, boots and gloves, and the notebook she was currently working on filling. Her notebooks were messy indulgences, filled with half-remembered stories in English, a diary, and doodles of people in pretty clothes.
"I can't believe this is the ninja I hired," the old man mumbled rebelliously. "I paid good money. The short one looks like a total idiot." The two gate guards didn't say anything, but one of them rolled his eyes and stamped the foreigner's papers with an efficiency that got the group moving as quickly as possible. Naruto, on the other hand, turned an ugly red and clenched his fists. He was a second away from opening his mouth when his sister spoke up.
Aiko gave their client an impassive stare, tilting her head slightly to catch his eye. "Looks can be deceptive. For example, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were an unemployed drunk." Sasuke gave one of those funny restrained twitches that seemed to mean he was surprised (or amused, or hell, for all she knew it meant that he was hungry. He was a hard kid to read sometimes).
"Now now, children." Kakashi clamped one hand firmly down on Naruto's shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. "Behave. And don't worry, Tazuna-san. They may be a genin team, but the redhead there is a Chuunin, and I am an elite Jounin of this village. You are in good hands."
Tazuna eyed the group dubiously, but let the matter drop.
Now that she was the one observing genin chomping at the bit to go faster than a civilian's pace on their first trip outside, Aiko had to fight the urge to smile. No wonder Kakashi treated them like a pile of naughty puppies. They had calmed down a bit into a routine characterized by occasional bursts of violence or excitement about seeing a plant or animal that they had learned about in lessons but never seen in real life by the third day when Aiko noticed the glint of sunlight off a puddle in the center of the road.
She winced and exchanged a look with Kakashi. His amused expression indicated that yes, she really did look that ridiculous when she practiced hiding-in-the-water in Konoha. He flashed two subtle handsigns telling her to wait.
The genin hadn't noticed a thing, which was a little embarrassing. She slowly drifted to the front of the group with them, turning only when the Chuunin burst from their hiding spot and viciously took down a log cloaked in genjutsu flesh before turning to attack their client. Sakura had the presence of mind to dash between the nin and Tazuna –good girl—but Naruto seemed frozen when Aiko and Sasuke moved to the attacking Chuunin in a burst of motion. 'Holy hell, he's fast for an academy fresh genin,' she noted. Fast or not, he didn't have the killer instinct to actually take down his opponent on the first blow, so after Aiko ducked under the spiked chain and disemboweled her opponent with a kunai she flicked the resulting mess off her hand and forearm in one sharp movement and moved to intercept the second enemy Chuunin. He made a yowling sound of outrage, quickly cut off by the blow Kakashi delivered to the back of his neck. The surviving nin crumpled at his feet.
"Good job, minions." Kakashi turned a pleasant smile to their client. "Tazuna-san, I believe we need to have a talk about lying to foreign military powers and endangering children. I stayed back to see who the target was- it could have been a case of ninja attacking ninja. But they moved for you after they had eliminated the greatest threat."
Aiko spat up a stream of clear, clean water to rinse her hands while the adults talked (really, it was more 'while Kakashi intimidated the living hell out of that idiot'). Sakura, bless her simple soul, had the presence of mind to make an 'ew' face. The other kids hadn't managed to slip back into routine yet, but they were quietly listening to Tazuna's sob story of an oppressed nation living under the thumb of a despotic moron. Sasuke was almost shaking with excitement and adrenaline. Away from the rest of the group, looking stunned, Naruto was standing silent in a way that was totally unlike his usual behavior. Aiko frowned at how forlorn he looked.
"Are you alright, Scaredy-cat?" Sasuke gave an uncharacteristically sassy smirk along with the jab.
'Well, that'll perk him up.' Aiko shook her head and took a moment to secure their surviving prisoner with wire. They were probably going to kill him, but Kakashi might want to get some information first. 'Demon brother my ass.' She checked his hands again- making sure he couldn't move or make handsigns.
The conversation drew her full attention again once Naruto started talking. "We took this mission! We can't go back on our word."
Sakura looked uncertain, eyes flicking between her companions. Kakashi just hmm'd.
"Is everyone alright with that?"
'Is it really a choice? We could abandon him and back since he lied, and I would if we weren't toting bright-eyed, idealistic Academy baby genin. They'd figure out that we'd be leaving him to die. Harsh lesson for their first mission out, I think.' When they looked at her, she reluctantly agreed. "I'll be fine with going on." Sakura agreed last, a faintly determined smile flickering over her features. For the first time Aiko had noticed, Sasuke looked at the chit with something resembling approval.
"Alright," Kakashi agreed easily. "You three set up camp. Aiko, supervise. I'm going to have a talk with our friend here for information." She didn't envy the 'Demon brother'. Even if he shared information, he wasn't going to be let go.
~~~
Even at the civilian pace, there was less than a day of walking left until they crossed the border to Wave. Aiko felt twitchy all day—she knew that Zabuza was out there somewhere. Waiting around for an A-class missing nin to attack a genin team was a terrible, rotten no-good idea, but she didn't have any other options. Well, she could pretend to have a spontaneous vision and turn around, but it would be more likely that her team would think she was crazy. 'This whole mission is stupid. If finishing that bridge is so important, what the hell was this guy doing in an entirely different country in the first place?'
"Tazuna-san. Why were you so far away from Wave country if you're hurrying to finish that bridge?"
The old man's blood shot eyes slid over to her for a second before focusing back on his long-empty flask. "I was meeting with someone who was supposed to help." His expression twisted into something bitter. "Coward changed his mind, and left me high and dry in the middle of Fire country. At that point, it was too risky to try to go home alone, so I asked for an escort. After I made it to Konoha, I realized it would be a good idea to have protection while I actually worked. I'm a very important man, after all!" He puffed out his chest.
"Ah." 'This man is an idiot.' What little she caught of her teacher's carefully blank expression indicated that he might be having similar thoughts. Naruto gave a twitch and frowned slightly, looking around the underbrush. They were still in a lightly wooded area, but that would be ending soon. Shadows were just starting to peer over the horizon, but tonight they were going to walk past nightfall since they were so close to their destination. She might have relaxed if she wasn't so damn sure that they'd be getting attacked at any minute.
That suspicion was confirmed when Naruto flung a brace of kunai into a bush and bounded after them, shouting. Sakura's hand was suddenly boasting four kunai for claws and Sasuke balanced a shuriken between two fingers. Aiko herself slipped into the calm state of mind that characterized her fights.
"Just a bunny rabbit…" Naruto held the poor shaking animal up, cuddling it apologetically.
Sakura flushed. "You idiot! You got us all worked up over a rabbit?" Sasuke slumped in disappointment before giving the rabbit an odd look.
"He's right, someone is here," Aiko supplied. "That isn't a native animal."
As she spoke, an unnatural fog crept around her ankles, pulling gently into swirling eddies. It was a jutsu that she personally was very familiar with… and the size of it indicated that there was a decent source of water nearby. The three genin rustled uncomfortably as their vision was blocked with shocking speed and ease, going on the alert. Kakashi took up point, closer to the group than he usually favored. "Get down!"
Aiko didn't sense the large blade hurtling through the air at all, but she had already reflexively responded to her sensei's commanding tone. Sakura had been the one to drag their client down- she had a decent head on her shoulders, that one.
'Fuck, I'm glad sensei is here. I knew he would do that and I still had no idea it was hurtling towards us.'
She kept her focus on attempting to discern the enemy's position without her eyes. Zabuza must have been using some sort of distortion genjutsu, because pin-pointing his location from his voice was impossible. Instead, she tried to resort to a crude chakra sense- it didn't help in this case. His presence was monstrous- all she could tell was that he was too close, he was far too close and there was no way she could fight him on even terms.
'But ninja don't fight on even terms. Should I get rid of this fog? I could turn it into puddles or even evaporate it, given a moment, but he may react strongly to losing what he sees as a tactical advantage. Is it to my benefit to try to let this play out by formula? And even worse, I can't sense Haku at all, although I'm certain he's lurking about. Is Zabuza obscuring his signature, or is he just that good?'
The gravelly voice that she had never heard before but knew intimately had moved on to using scare tactics on the group—making the genin sharply aware that to him, they were just a cluster of targets. The calm cadence of his voice was assisted by a generous helping of KI. While Kakashi flashed away into the fog and began to clash steel, the three genin bristled with drawn weapons. Aiko merely stood in the deceptively casual 'waiting' stance of her modified taijutsu, ready for an attack on their group. She wasn't disappointed.
With a dark grin, a figure that she knew was probably a water clone was behind Naruto. She knew a clone could kill just as thoroughly as the real deal, so she felt no compunction about spitting a spray of water bullets at the figure. It dodged easily- but into the path of Kakashi's water clone. A third clone took him out and what turned out to be the real Kakashi slashed that clone into nothingness. Her head hurt from trying to keep track but her teacher seemed to know exactly what was going on when he spun to intercept their opponent from a different direction. After a brief exchange, the tall figure faded back into the mist.
"Aiko! Get rid of the mist."
'Well, if the decision is out my hands…' Bringing her hands together so that her fingertips touched, she closed her eyes for just a second to infuse the mist with her own chakra—and tried not to jump or dodge at the sudden murderous presence behind her, trusting that her sensei would take care of it. Sure enough, when she opened her eyes a millisecond later and took a deep breath in, she felt the light splash of a remarkably efficient water clone dash across her back and sensed her instructor taking off immediately after where he must have sensed the real Zabuza. With smooth efficiency she neutralized the lingering chakra that Zabuza had apparently not been maintaining –'makes sense, Kakashi is keeping him busy' – and exhaled a burst that forced the mist to condense and spray out in the same move. It fell harmlessly to the ground, but she maintained her grip on it so that he didn't use the now-soaked ground to his advantage.
"I didn't know that Kakashi of the Sharingan eye was babysitting brats nowadays," the now-visible man taunted, casually slinging his enormous sword over his shoulder. Kakashi merely shrugged, watching the other man warily. Before now, Aiko had thought her sensei was tall. But this guy… She took advantage of her first opportunity to study him—Zabuza of the Bloody Mist was fucking scary looking. He was a solid 7 feet tall and had the muscle of a linebacker coupled with a more than slightly sinister grin. As the whole package was wrapped up in pointlessly eccentric clothing mostly consisting of bandages, he didn't look like an opponent she would want to fight herself.
'They just don't make them like that in Konoha.'
"Like what you see, brat," the man she'd been staring at growled, boasting a shit-your-pants-terrifying grin with – yes, those teeth were actually pointed.
She looked at his eyes for the first time. "No," Aiko admitted honestly. "I suspect you're a crazy person and a really bad dresser to boot."
"Moving on," her teacher muttered as he swung into action again, ignoring the water clone that she'd been staring at for a moment while he intercepted the real assassin's swing with that scary ass sword. The fight seemed to be nearly one-sided and her teacher easily drove the enormous man backwards, away from the client and genin. It took a long moment for her to realize why that observation made her feel uncomfortable, but by that point the trap was set. The instant her teacher stepped foot onto the lake surface, she remembered. 'Oh, crap. The water prison.'
The horror and self-recrimination on her teacher's face when he realized what she had was something she'd never seen before. It was a stupid mistake to force him towards water, born out of arrogance in what seemed to be an easy fight and his desire to keep the three 12 year olds out of the fight.
"Sakura, protect the client. Naruto, Sasuke, disrupt that water clone. He can't make another one and he can't move without letting go of sensei," she barked, flipping through a quick series of handsigns." It didn't even occur to her to look to see if the genin obeyed.
"No!" Kakashi roared. "It's over, this fight is lost. You four need to get out of here. He can't go far from here while he's holding me."
"I don't abandon comrades!" Naruto shouted. The determined looks on Sasuke and Sakura's faces seemed to agree. Aiko couldn't help but smirk lopsidedly, hearing some sort of scuffle between the boys and the one water clone left to harass them. 'I've got a much better idea, sensei dearest.'
"Sorry sensei. You're just going to have to deal with the embarrassment of being rescued by your students." She released her attack into the water ten feet away from Zabuza, who had been preparing to dodge as best as he could without losing his grip on the water prison. The look of confounded surprise on his normally sinister face was downright comical when he realized she'd just electrocuted the entire lake, her teacher included before dropping into convulsions would have fueled a fit of giggles in another situation. "Sorry about that too," she muttered, leaping onto the water the instant that the electrical current had died down to grab both men. 'I didn't want to warn Zabuza, so I couldn't really say anything.'
As he was still stunned from her stupidly logical attack – really, why was it so surprising that she would use the one enormous weakness of his surroundings against him? – it was easy to hit the pressure point on the back of Zabuza's neck and put him out of commission temporarily before changing her grip to his arm so that she could pull both him and her ailing teacher out of the lake before they drowned.
When her teacher managed to pry his dark eye open, he seemed to be glaring reproachfully at her. "You're a horrible child," he wheezed, quickly recovering. It had been a relatively weak charge, meant more to stun than damage. She gave a pleasant smile and let him fall to the ground with a wet slop beside the unconscious criminal.
"You're welcome, sensei. I've gotten too fond of you to lose you now to a fashion disaster like that." Though he couldn't be fully recovered, her teacher regained his feet and looked his usual self except for the way he was leaning on her by the time she'd finished the sentence.
"Be on guard," she said quietly, more to the kids than her sensei. If she could sense Haku, no doubt he did as well. Kakashi may have been too tired to do so in the original fight, but this hadn't descended into a Sharingan-aided pissing match, so his chakra reserves should be fine. "There's someone else nearby—an accomplice of his no doubt." Aiko wouldn't have sensed him if Zabuza hadn't just slid off the map with his trip into sleepyland and if she hadn't known to keep looking for a second partner, but now that she had sensed Haku it was fair game to say something about that. Sasuke (who looked uncannily like a soaked and angry housecat) bristled, all sharp angles and tense muscles ready to explode. He didn't disappoint- when the senbon attack flew to their incapacitated enemy he deflected all but one with a kunai, scanning for the interloper. The lone senbon Sasuke wasn't fast enough to get planted itself into the side of Zabuza's neck. Naruto turned slightly green.
A figure about Sakura's proportions appeared in a flash of shunshin, crouched fifteen feet away. "My apologies. I have been hunting that man for quite a while. I will take his body back to the village for identification now."
"Bull," Aiko spat, using her free arm to force him to dodge a kunai. "That's no hunter-nin." Though all four kids were in ready stances and Haku instantly tensed for a fight, the next thing Aiko noted- well, she noted two things at once, really. The first was that no one was leaning on her anymore, and the second was that her teacher was standing behind the fake hunter-nin. The altercation was brutally short. The boy went down with one blow and no chance to fight back.
'Annnnd that's why he is an elite Jounin and I get to guard the gates from foreign merchants.'
"You know, I'm starting to think that someone wants you dead," Sasuke said dryly, giving their quivering client a scathing look.
"We may be out of our league," Sakura added nervously, creeping up and gently toeing the fallen boy, eventually taking off his mask after she got a 'go-ahead' nod from her sensei. She sucked in a breath. Whether that was from surprise, jealousy, or something else entirely was hard to say.
"Wow, she's prettier than Sakura-chan," Naruto breathed. Said girl flushed an unbecoming shade and clenched a fist. Aiko put a hand on the shorter girl's shoulder to hold her back from pummeling the idiot.
"Easy there. Naruto, that was rude. Sensei, are we going to continue? I mean, it was one thing to continue when we knew we were up against someone willing to hire two Chuunin missing nin. But this is the second group they've sent, and this guy is no Chuunin." She gestured carelessly at Zabuza. "Besides, isn't this Momochi Zabuza? I don't know about the kid, but there is definitely a bounty on this one and he probably has information about what is going on in Mist."
"You're looking at this the wrong way." Kakashi easily knelt to check for a pulse… and found none. Aiko tried not to shudder, being relatively certain that Haku had played his temporary death trick, but she had no evidence she could point to that indicated the man was still alive.
Kakashi was probably going to burn the bodies- standard procedure. If the man was still alive… It didn't bear thinking too much about.
"This Gato has no reason to know that his team has failed. The fact that we encountered four missing nin from the same village implies they were working as a team and Zabuza only stepped in when he confirmed the Chuunin failed. Gato probably won't have more missing nin on hire- he'd have no need for more than a Jounin and three Chuunin to run errands. Anyone else he has on staff will likely be just civilian thugs."
"Therefore, the mission is within our abilities," Sakura concluded easily, sounding relieved. "But sensei, doesn't that mean Tazuna-san is safe now?"
Sasuke gave her a condescending look. "Even untrained thugs could be enough to prevent the bridge from being built." The girl looked embarrassed and twisted her fingers together.
"So we could go with him and either just keep him safe or take care of the root of the problem. If Gato is dead, he won't be sending anyone else after our client." Aiko pointed out casually. Their teacher remained silent, clearly letting them work through the problem on their own. Tazuna, on the other hand, was staring at the four children with open-mouthed horror. 'What, never seen pre-teens blink off a few life-or-death battles in a day?' The thought was a bit silly. She knew full-well that the genin weren't as unaffected as they looked.
Naruto scratched his nose. "So, what are we going to do with her?" He pointed with his customary lack of finesse at Haku. There was a moment of awkward silence where everyone but him seemed to come to the same conclusion.
Sasuke shifted his weight, not quite managing to look at Haku. "We can't take them with us, and we can't let them recuperate and attack us again." He didn't seem able to conclude the statement, but Sakura turned green in a way that conveyed she knew what had to be done as well.
"But she's helpless!" Naruto protested indignantly. "We can't just kill her there while she's knocked out."
"Naruto, being a ninja means doing some unpleasant things. That person is far from helpless." Kakashi put uncharacteristic seriousness into his voice. "Any one of the ninja we encountered today would have killed you without a second thought. That's part of our world."
"But!"
"Stop. Now." The boy fell silent, defeated. "If you can't bear to watch, then you can start hiding the signs that there was a fight here. That goes for you two as well. Aiko, take care of the bodies. I'm going to run a perimeter check." With that, he gave them all a considering look and flashed out of sight with more urgency than his tone had indicated.
"You can't just.."
Aiko met her brother's whisper with a calm, firm gaze. "Don't look." She drew a kunai into her left hand.