For about a month, we had been doing D-rank missions, and I was tired of them. I know, with new Genin they're important. It teaches them teamwork, and kindness, and whatever, but wasting two Jonin's time for babysitting, or catching a cat? I didn't think I could take much more of it.
We were in the Hokage's office waiting for our next mission. I could tell Naruto shared my feelings about the lame missions, as he was more antsy than usual. This kid had more energy than any person I had ever seen.
"Let's see, you guys could have babysitting, or pulling weeds, or-"
"No!" Naruto yelled. "I'm tired of these lame missions! We're real ninja, we should go on real missions, believe it!" I facepalemed. Kakashi smacked the back of his head, earning a glare from Naruto.
"Naruto! Don't be disrespectful!" Iruka yelled at him. Apparently the two were close when Naruto was at the academy.
"We're not little kids! We want a real mission!" Naruto continued.
"Naruto. Clearly you don't understand how these missions work. Let me explain." Lord Third began. Great. Here we go again. Thanks a lot, Naruto. "We have the missions assigned according to rank" the Hokage continued, but everyone else pretty much stopped listening. Naruto started talking about ramen with Sasuke and Sakura. I was zoned out, as was Kakashi. No one was listening.
"Listen!" The Hokage suddenly yelled. Great. Kakashi and I are gonna get in so much trouble later. I sighed. "You want a real mission? Fine. I'll give you guys a C-ranked mission." I breathed a sigh of relief. Finally! Something not totally meaningless! "You'll be escorting someone to the Land of Water."
"Who? A princess? A feudal lord? An actress?" Naruto yelled, way too excitedly. This time, I smacked the back of his head and earned a glare. Did he really think that's what we would get?
"Bring him in please." The door opened and in walked an older man, who was definitely drunk. He smelled horrible, and had a snarl on his face. Fun. He should be great company. "Tazuna, these will be the ninja who will escort you home."
"These punks?" Great. He wasn't friendly either. I rolled my eyes. "What's with the short, weird looking one." I facepalemed again. He was talking about Naruto.
"I'll kill you!" Naruto yelled and lunged for him. Kakashi caught the back of his jacket and held him back.
"We cannot kill the client, Naruto." Kakashi said with his best bored voice.
"We'll meet at the gates in an hour." I said, nervously. This would certainly be interesting.
I spent the hour making sure I had everything I'd need, and everything Sasuke would need. He packed his bag himself, but I wanted to be sure he wouldn't forget anything. Who knows how long this mission would be?
"You've checked my bag a hundred times. I'm sure I have everything. Let's go." Sasuke said flatly.
"Sorry that I want you to have everything." I rolled my eyes and threw my bag over my shoulder. I was excited to get out of the village. I love it here and all, but traveling for missions was one of my favorite things.
We arrived at the gates and were just waiting for Kakashi. Typical.
"Mika-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"Yes?" I turned my attention to her.
"Why is Kakashi-sensei always late?" I rolled my eyes a bit. This was difficult to answer. I didn't know honestly. He just never seemed to care to be on time.
"He's been that way basically as long as I've known him." I shrugged. That's wasn't entirely true, but we didn't need to get into the Obito story right now. His tardiness started after Obito's death.
"How long have you known Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Since we were five. So I guess about 20 years." I shrugged. Had it really been that long? How does he still put up with me?
We waited boredly for Kakashi to show up. He sure likes to test patience, that's for sure. Finally, I saw him walking towards the gates.
"You're late!" Naruto and Sakura yelled. They weren't wrong. He was very late.
"Sorry, I got lost on the path of life, had to take the long way." I could just feel the smirk on his face. I rolled my eyes.
"Let's just go." Tazuna said bitterly. We set off, finally to the Land of Waves.
"You're such a bad liar." I teased Kakashi as we walked. The kids were in front, leading the way. I'm sure that decision made sense to someone. Tazuna was in the middle, and Kakashi and I walked behind them all. Since it was a C-ranked mission, I wasn't too worried about people following us, but I was still alert. Anything can happen.
"Whatever." Kakashi pulled out his book to read while we walked.
"Can you guys really take care of me? You're just kids!" Tazuna started complaining. Oh no, here we go again.
"True, they are Genin, but Mika and I are experienced Jonin. We can handle anything that may happen." Kakashi explained. I sent Tazuna a small smile, hoping to ease his nerves. Tazuna didn't say anything else, so I assume he felt better.
After awhile of walking and listening endlessly to Naruto telling everyone who would or wouldn't listen that he would be the Hokage, I saw a puddle on the ground. It hadn't rained in weeks, so it didn't make sense. I glanced over to Kakashi to see if he had seen it or not. He gave one nod as to not make anyone aware that we knew something was up.
Right after we all passed the puddle, Kakashi was wrapped in wire and torn to shreds. I panicked slightly, but knew it was probably a substitution jutsu.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, sounding terrified. I ignored her, and focused on the two ninja who jumped out of the trees. One of them went straight for me, and the other jumped towards the kids. I blocked him with my kunai, and prayed the kids could handle the other guy. It sounded like a fight was happening, so I took that to be a good sign. The ninja tried to kick me, but I dodged it and threw a kunai at him instead. He dodged that, and ran right at me. I used my teleportation technique and was behind him in an instant, tackling him to the ground. I knew Kakashi was watching to see who these guys were after, so I knew we wanted them alive for questioning. I tied him up with ninja wire and moved to see if I could help the others. Right as I turned around, Kakashi came out from the trees and took care of the other guy, tying him up like I did to the other.
"Sorry I didn't step in sooner, I didn't expect you to freeze up and get hurt Naruto. Good job Sasuke and Sakura!" He gave them a closed eye smile.
"What about me?" I said sarcastically, lifting one of the ninja so I could move him away from the others. He just rolled his eyes at me and didn't even bother to respond.
"You talk to the ninja, I'll talk to Tazuna." I just nodded and moved the two guys to the trees. The only information I got out of them was that they were instructed to kill Tazuna.
When I went back to the group, Naruto was stabbing his hand and screaming, while Kakashi just stood there and let him. I rolled my eyes again, and went to bandage his hand up.
"Why did you do that, Naruto?" I asked, irritated that he was injured.
"Kakashi-sensei said we would have to go back if I didn't!" He explained. I sent a glare to Kakashi.
"Well, now you might die from blood loss." Kakashi said flatly, not impressed. I took a roll of bandages out of my pouch and started to wrap Naruto's hand, but it was already healing. Weird. I've never seen someone heal that fast. I wonder if it's because of the Nine Tails chakra.
"Thanks, Mika-sensei!" Naruto yelled and went to join the other two.
"What'd you find out?" I asked.
"Tazuna lied. Gato is after him. This likely won't be the last attack." I nodded, knowing we'd have to be even more on our toes.
After a long walk, we finally made it to the boats that would take us to the Land of Water. We had to take a small boat through the mist to avoid being seen, and I was not thrilled. I don't like boats, and there were not enough seats.
"There aren't enough seats." Sasuke observed.
"Thanks, captain obvious." I rolled my eyes, earning a 'hn' reply. I don't know who taught him that, but it was annoying. "You'll have to sit on me." I told him. He looked like he might actually die if that happened.
"I will not. I refuse." He stuck his nose in the air.
"It's a boat ride, Sasuke. I'm your sister. It won't kill you, I promise." I said flatly.
"I said no." He argued.
"Don't talk back to me." I glared at him.
"Don't nag." He glared right back. I raised my eyebrow at him. We'd been bickering more and more recently, but usually he's not quite this disrespectful.
"Stop acting like a child." I went to grab his wrist and just make him do it, but was stopped by Kakashi grabbing my wrist first.
"Mika, just drop it." He rolled his eyes at me. I glared at him too. "You can sit on me, and everyone will have a seat and we don't have to argue." He pulled me along. I blushed heavily at the idea of sitting on him.
"It's fine, Kakashi." I remembered he didn't want me to use nicknames when we were around the kids. "It makes more sense for Sasuke to get over himself and sit on me. We're family." I shrugged. Sasuke just needed to get over his 'I'm better than everyone' attitude and deal with it.
"And we've been friends for basically our whole lives. It's fine." I rolled my eyes, and sat down awkwardly, not super sure what to do with myself. Sasuke sat at the other end of the boat, glaring at me.
"Fine." I grumbled. I was blushing like crazy, and was very thankful for my long hair that could cover it up. Unfortunately, Naruto sat across from me, and of all the times to be observant, he chose now.
"Mika-sensei, are you blushing?" He teased.
"N-n-no! I'm not." I tried to defend myself.
"She definitely is." Sakura joined in, giggling. Sasuke just smirked at me. Now, I probably looked like a freaking tomato. Great.
"I'm really not, I'm just warm." I tried to reason. It was somewhat humid on the river, it could make sense.
"Riiiight." Sakura smirked at me. I facepalemed. This is great. I'll never live it down. Fantastic.
"Mika, are you nervous?" Kakashi teased me, apparently finding this situation amusing.
"Not at all, Kashi." I grumbled loud enough for the others to hear, making sure to drag out his name to get him back for teasing me. I felt him stiffen under me at the use of his nickname.
"Kashi? Who's Kashi?" Naruto asked, like an idiot.
"That's his nickname, idiot." Sasuke rolled his eyes. Naruto and Sakura just laughed.
"You're lucky I might need help on this mission. I could throw you into the water easily, you know." Kakashi mumbled. I laughed.
"You wouldn't dare." I shot back. He pushed me a bit to test me. I turned around as much as I could and punched him in the arm, earning a closed eye smile as an apology.
"Maybe Sasuke should have just sat on Mika." Tazuna complained and took another drink from his flask. "We need to be quiet. We can't be seen."
"Right. Sorry. Guys, keep it down." I said, mostly to Naruto.