"GRANNY TSUNADE!" Naruto burst through the door of the Hokage's office with both Sasuke and Sakura urgently trying to stop him.
"What do you want?" The blonde woman glared at the boy.
This was the third time this week.
"WHY DID YOU GIVE MY FRIENDS ANOTHER B CLASS MISSION?!" He hollered loud enough for the people outside to hear.
"BECAUSE I CAN DO WHAT I WANT!" She yelled back.
His friends sighed, knowing it was no use to try and quiet him. Ever since they had first been introduced, there had been frequent shouting matches between the two blondes to see who was louder. One of them, usually Naruto, would start an argument over something trivial and it would soon become a yelling contest, that is until Tsunade eventually scared Naruto enough to make him run.
"B-CLASS MISSIONS ARE BORING!"
"YOU'RE NOT GOING ON THE MISSION."
"BUT THEY CAN TOTALLY HANDLE A-CLASS ONES!"
"GET OUT BEFORE I CHANGE IT TO C-CLASS." And that was enough to quiet him.
He gave a huff of indignation and turned around, grabbing both his friends by the arm, he pulled them out of the office and didn't stop until they wereoutside the Hokage Tower.
"Naruto, we're fine with B-class missions, you don't have to worry." Sakura chided in exasperation as they sat down on a small bench.
"You'd be a terrible teammate. I feel bad for your sensei." Sasuke commented with a glare.
"Hey! I was just trying to help you guys out! I mean, your last A-class mission went so well! Even Granny Tsunade said so!' Naruto stated defensively.
Sakura sighed loudly.
"You'll get us in trouble if you keep doing that. Can't you speak to her normally? She's the Hokage for heaven's sake." She crossed her arms.
"Whatever, let's just go do something fun before you guys leave tomorrow." Naruto stood up, as did his friends, and they started towards a street known for its entertainment and shopping.
The city was as busy as ever, with the spring festival coming up, everyone was rushing to get their kimonos fitted and their houses decorated. Reds and blues could be seen on the kimonos being sold in every tailor shop and there were hundreds of small stores selling fans and bags and everything imaginable. The dull spirits that had resulted from the controversy with the council a few months ago had long been forgotten and replaced by the joy that came with every festival and celebration.
"So where are you guys going again?" Naruto asked while looking around at the large assortment of lanterns hanging outside of a small store.
"We're heading to Suna to escort some merchants to Konoha, they're coming for the festival, actually." Sakura answered, she was admiring a shop that was filled with bright leaves and blooming flowers.
"They're taking a shortcut through a forest that's known for housing rouge ninja and bandit groups." Sasuke added. "Stupid. They should just take the longer route." He sneered.
"I think Lady Tsunade said something about them not being able to make it in time for the first day if they didn't take the shortcut." Sakura defended. "She was pretty adamant about making sure we would get them here safely, I'm sure the village really benefits from trading with traveling merchants like them." She said thoughtfully.
"How long is it gonna take?" Naruto questioned further.
"Kakashi-sensei said it'll be two days' time to get through the forest, so I'd say maybe three days total?" She looked at Sasuke who nodded in agreement. "Yup, so we'll be back with a few days to spare before the festival starts." Sakura nodded. She picked up a few daisies and brought them up to the cashier to be wrapped, handing the woman a few coins, the pinkette thanked her and headed back to her friends.
Naruto gave a curious glance at the flowers in her hands.
"Who are those for?" He asked.
Sakura glanced cautiously at the Uchiha who stood a few feet away looking at something inside a store.
"Sasuke's brother." Her voice was barely above a whisper and her face was twisted into a troubled frown. "Itachi-san ran into some bad people when he was coming back from a mission." She said so only Naruto could hear.
"What?" Naruto was more than a little surprised to hear that. "But Itachi's so strong! Who was it?" He demanded quietly.
"I don't know, that was all Sasuke told me. We're going to visit gim later today, you can come with us if you want." She offered.
"You bet I'll be coming!" Naruto nodded.
"Great, just keep quiet ok? I don't think Sasuke wants anyone else to know." Sakura said.
"Hey."
The voice made them both jump, whipping around, they saw an unamused Sasuke staring at them.
He eyed them suspiciously.
"What're you two whispering about?"
"Nothing! We were just talking about our plans for the festival." Sakura said as smoothly as possible.
Another odd look was sent their way.
"Whatever. It's getting too crowded here, let's go." He turned and began weaving through the crowd.
With a relieved sigh, Sakura followed after him.
'I wonder what happened...' Naruto thought while heading after the two. 'Must've been someone really strong...'
After an hour of wandering around and talking, Sasuke stood up, stating that he had somewhere to be. He motioned for Sakura to follow and had already bid Naruto goodbye when the pinkette stopped him.
"Oh, um, is it alright if he comes with us?" Sakura asked sheepishly.
The Uchiha turned around and gave her a questioning glare.
"You told him?" He asked sharply, causing her to shift slightly.
"Um, yea..." She trailed off.
There was a moment of silence before Sasuke sighed.
"Fine, let's go." He turned around and started towards the hospital.
Sakura and Naruto exchanged a quick thumbs up and ran to follow him.
The building was painted white from floor to ceiling, the inside smelled of all types of cleaning products and the nurses were hurrying around the halls carrying medicines and clipboards.
"Hello, how may I help you?" A woman with long brown hair greeted them when they approached the front desk.
"I'm here to see Uchiha Itachi." Sasuke said, the woman stood and gestured for them to follow her.
"Of course, I'll bring you to his room."
She lead them up the stairs and past some halls that all looked the same. The door she stopped in front of had the number 220 above its frame. It slid open easily and the woman motioned for the three to enter.
"Uchiha-san, you have guests." She announced before stepping out and closing the door.
"Sasuke, how are you?" Itachi smiled at his brother. There were a few wires connected to him and a soft beeping sound showed that his heart rate was normal. "Nice to see you again, Sakura." He waved.
"This is Naruto, kind of a friend." Sasuke pointed to the other boy.
"Hey!" Naruto exclaimed indignantly.
Itachi chuckled at his brother's antics.
"I remember you too Naruto, you and Sasuke have known each other for a long time, huh?" He smiled, earning a huff from his brother.
The three hung around and chatted with the older Uchiha, talking about whatever came to their minds. Of course, Naruto did most of the talking and Sakura was occasionally able to get a word in. Sasuke remained silent for most of the time.
"It's getting late, we should leave Itachi-san to rest." Sakura spoke up when the sky began to glow orange.
"Thank you both for visiting, be careful on your way back." Itachi waved with a warm smile.
"Let's go." Sakura grabbed Naruto and pulled him out of the room.
Once they stood outside, she glanced back at Sasuke who still sat in his chair.
"I'll catch up with you guys." He waved.
Sakura nodded and dragged the blonde out of the building.
"Hey!" Naruto yelled as he was forcefully pulled out the door and down the stairs. He managed to free his arm when they reached the hospital entrance. "What was that for?!"
Sakura smacked the back of his head.
"Idiot! Give them a second to talk alone!" She scolded.
Naruto huffed quietly.
"Whatever..."
Sasuke sat facing his brother, an unamused expression plastering his face.
"What is it?" Itachi asked, seeing the boy's quizzical stare.
"What really happened?" He questioned. "Why were they there?"
Itachi sighed heavily.
"I don't know, Sasuke. I've already told you everything I saw."
The younger Uchiha clearly didn't accept this answer.
"You expect me to believe they attacked you out of the blue? Everyone knows that people like them never do anything randomly." He stated, crossing his arms.
"You're right, but I don't know what their motive was."
"And it's not being investigated?"
"It is, the intelligence branch is looking into it along with the other similar reports."
"Have they found anything?"
"Not yet. I don't think they know where to start, I doubt anyone does. You know they're difficult to track."
There was silence between the brothers.
"You should get home, it'll be dark soon." Itachi stated, glancing at the setting sun.
Sasuke sighed and stood up.
"I'll be back some time tomorrow." He said, turning towards to leave. "See ya."
The door clicked shut behind him and his footsteps faded down the hallway.
Itachi closed his eyes and leaned back, wincing as a sharp pain shot through his wrist. Those two Akatsuki members were definitely nothing to laugh at. Such a troublesome group they were... He may not have made it out with such minor injuries if it wasn't for her: that odd woman that appeared out of nowhere.
At first he thought she was an anbu that had been sent as support, but not only did the Hokage never assign backups, but at that point his mission was already over and he was on his way back. Then he thought she could have just been a shinobi who was nearby and heard the commotion, but that didn't seem entirely true either; she wasn't wearing any sort of ninja attire nor was she carrying any weapons on her. Any sane shinobi who was in her situation would have ran and gotten help, but she didn't seem to have a single bit of hesitation in intervening. He barely remembered anything about that woman as he was too focused on bandaging his twisted arm as well as his other more serious injuries, not to mention the pain that tore through every part of his body was distracting to say the least.
He shook his head and locked away the thoughts, he didn't need to think about that right now, what he needed to do was focus on recovering and getting back to his missions. Then he would be able to track down whoever she was.
The room was bathed in a warm orange glow as the sun retired for the day.
It was around noon one day as Nina glared down at the documents in her hands, she'd found them while searching through the Hokage Tower's file room the day before. Those papers weren't her initial target, in fact she was looking for some information that was much older and in a completely different section in the room. Having failed to find the what she needed, she was on her way to a different room when she noticed something odd in the file cabinet holding the most recent documents. Sliding the top drawer open, she took the paper that had been peeking out and examined it.
Her eyes stopped on a particular name: Uchiha Itachi.
The following lines outlined a simple yet upsetting mission proposal: send the boy undercover to infiltrate the Akatsuki under a different name. A setup was to happen that would leave the village thinking he was dead.
When her eyes reached the bottom, she frowned: were her eyes lying to her?
At the bottom of the last page was, not only the Hokage's seal of approval, but also the woman's signature.
Nina set the papers down and closed her eyes, a heavy sigh could be heard as she pinched the bridge of her nose. Did Tsunade really agree to such a mission? And assigned to someone so young? She hoped there was some sort of misunderstanding that had made her approve of a mission she didn't know the details of. She shook her head and stood from her chair, folding the documents, she tucked them away in her kimono and stepped out of the small wooden house.
Tsunade sighed as she listened to the ramblings of the elders, the argued over trivial things that were just important enough for them to avoid talking about anything that was actually relevant.
She rested her elbows on the table and closed her eyes.
"Hokage-sama, what do you think?" The voice of the elder seated next to her caught her attention, unfortunately, she had no idea what they were talking about.
"Yes, I agree." She said carefully, hoping that whatever she was agreeing with wasn't too terrible.
"Wonderful! So it's settled, another training area will be added on the academy's property." The man nodded victoriously and changed the subject before anyone could start arguing again. "On to the next issue, the Yamanaka clan requested..."
She tuned out everything else.
Tsunade rubbed her temples as the elders filed out of the room. Three hours of pointless bickering was finally over and, just when she decided to go out for a drink, a knock came at the door.
"Come in." She called with a sigh.
The door opened and in stepped a woman with long white hair, the purple kimono she wore swished at her feet.
"Can I help you?" She asked, in a hurry to leave the place.
"I never thought you would be one to agree to something like this, Tsunade." The woman dropped a folder of papers on her desk.
"Where did you get this? Who are you?" Tsunade demanded, now slightly on edge.
"Where I found this is not of concern. As for who I am..." She paused. "You'll know soon enough. I am not here to threaten you nor do I mean you any harm, but I will ask you to reconsider your decision. Carefully." She stared the Hokage dead in the eye, turned, and left the office, closing the door behind her.
Tsunade was left with a confused frown.
'Who the hell was that?'
"Lady Tsunade, care to explain why you recalled this mission? I believe we had already decided the Uchiha boy was the best candidate." An elder frowned as she turned to the Hokage.
Her colleagues nodded, none of them were pleased with having their decision changed. Tsunade, however, was perfectly calm and carefully explained why another meeting was being held about the subject.
"To put it simply, the risk is too great. There are plenty of Uchiha who hold high level positions and will have access to the mission files if it were to be finalized. All it'll take is one Uchiha that's more loyal to their clan than the village and everything will be exposed. I'm sure a clan of people as proud as they are won't take too kindly to losing their prodigy."
The room was silent, the elders holding hesitant frowns on their faces. Of course they had considered the possibility of having the information leaked but no one had realized how heavy the consequences would be.
"Very well. We will come up with another plan to gain information on the Akatsuki." One man sighed reluctantly after a long silence.
"I thank you for your time and understanding, you are dismissed." Tsunade nodded to the elders who stood and filtered out of the room. The Senju sighed heavily and slumped in her chair. It was never easy to convince the elders of anything, especially when she didn't have their full confidence yet.
Tap tap tap
She turned to see where the sound was coming from.
At the window was a small white pigeon pecking at the glass. A piece of paper was tied to its leg.
'Strange,' Tsunade thought, standing and pushing open the window, letting the bird hop inside. 'Did Kumo's reply get here already?'
Untying the letter, she unrolled it and scanned over its contents.
Dear Tsunade,
I'm happy to see you've chosen to reconsider the mission. Rest assured the change was for the best.
I do not wish for this to come as a surprise and so I will tell you now; the Akatsuki is on the move. The base that the anbu have recently discovered is not their base, do not enter that cave or you may lose many men. I suggest continuing your search for them in the Northern part of the forest.
Good luck.