Angst + Sneak Preview Teimz
Sakura walked into the hokage’s office and sighed; it was a wreck. Again. Leaning down, she started collecting all the paperwork Tsunade had sloughed off the desk in hopes that whoever next touched it would then be stuck with finishing and filing it, when a new report came in. No one took much notice of her in the office - at least not after Tsunade had made it quite apparent that not only did she shove all the unfavorable work onto her apprentice, which often included very sensitive information, but that the hokage tended to share all other information with her anyhow, if for no other reason than she liked to hear herself talk.
Of course Sakura knew there were real reasons behind Tsunade’s discussions aside from vanity - for instance the fact that discussing things aloud helped her mull through them or that she actually liked having input, especially when she came to an impasse on difficult problems - but many people wouldn’t be comfortable knowing Sakura had such a say in things. She suspected the main reason, though, was that Tsunade, for her part, didn’t like appearing too all-around responsible. She did have her image as a drunk to maintain, after all.
As such Sakura had been there to hear the pieced together reports trickling in: a random attack here, a disappearance there, two consecutive attacks in one day on outgoing mission parties, and so on. If she hadn’t heard them all she never would’ve connected them but it seemed Tsunade had come to much the same conclusion that something fishy was afoot when she called Shizune in and the three of them sat down for a closed-door meeting - not something that happened very often, excepting their occasional sake breaks.
When Tsunade’s fingers twitched toward her ‘secret’ sake drawer, Sakura hoped that maybe those fears were ill founded, but her hopes were dashed the second Shizune closed the door behind her. Before the brunette even got a word out Tsunade was shaking her head in a command for silence.
“Wards,” she said simply.
That single word spurred Shizune into a flurry of motion and caused Sakura to sit up straight in her chair. While the brunette applied small slips of paper to the door and doorframe, Sakura turned to look more closely at her mentor. The hokage had seemed to sag in her chair with the click of the lock. Sometimes Sakura forgot how old she really was, how much she’d seen. Even at the age of twenty-three Sakura had seen more than she figured most people should if they wished to retain their sanity so she couldn’t imagine what her shishou had to deal with.
Finished with the door, Shizune double checked those wards thoroughly - drawing Sakura’s attention back as she hoped to one day learn how to do them properly herself - before moving on to the window, paintings, and even the walls and floors. The listening wards, once fully in place, would trap their voices inside until the seal was broken, hopefully preventing any eavesdropping, whether intentional or not.
For all their value and convenience, the wards were rarely used on missions. Each setup, from where to place each individual ward to what needed to be written on them, had to take into account the dimensions of the room, how many entrances it had, and even the types of material used in its construction. The casing of any particular locale could take days, if not longer, and they weren’t foolproof besides.
Shizune had been making wards for this room long enough though that she knew where its malleable edges were and assured them that, though she couldn’t make the wards foolproof, it would at least alert them instantaneously in the event of a security breach. It couldn’t tell them exactly who had broken through or where they’d done it from, but even that small extra bit was a marvelous feat.
Finally satisfied with her setup, Shizune nodded to herself and pulled up a third chair. “What’s this about?” she asked as she sat.
“I don’t know yet. Maybe I’m seeing things, maybe there’s nothing there at all, but I just can’t shake the feeling that something’s going on here.”
Sakura shivered. A shinobi’s sixth sense was never something to take lightly, especially if that shinobi happened to be the leader of the village. It was far better to be overly paranoid than the reverse.
“Maybe you’re seeing things because you’re hitting the sake too hard lately?” Sakura said dryly, trying to lighten the mood. Tsunade’s flat glare told her how well it worked. She sighed. “What are you seeing that’s making you suspicious?”
She slammed down her bottle - apparently she had opened that oversized drawer of hers - uncaring of the way it made the contents slosh over the edge onto some of her papers. No doubt Sakura would be set to transcribing those later so whoever they were handed off to didn’t smell the alcohol saturating them.
“Some of the skirmishes we’ve had lately haven’t felt right.”
“When do they ever?” Shizune quipped. They were a shinobi nation, thus war was always in the back of everyone’s minds. They were living in a time of relative peace but minor battles were always being fought, with or without their daimyo’s approval.
Tsunade began by running through a report of many of the recent attacks and other suspicious happenings. “Of course it is entirely possible that these events are randomized and completely unrelated - not like we don’t have enough enemies, let alone mercenaries that wish to make some quick cash or just like the carnage, or rogue nin who wish for some form of revenge. Still, something doesn’t sit right about it with me. What about you two?”
Shizune nodded. “Even if it is random it still bears checking out to see if we can expect more of the same in the coming months.”
It almost didn’t need to be spoken aloud. When running a shinobi village it was never acceptable to take unnecessary chances - everything needed to be checked and double-checked. But it was also hard to predict the changing fortunes of the future, and if there were any indicators around as to what could be expected, it was always wise to follow them through in order to see if they would provide any beneficial information.
“Right,” Sakura added. “If nothing else we can flush out any rogues out there - we don’t really have the time and manpower to be dealing with them on missions.” Especially time-sensitive missions, as had been the case for one of the teams that had been first attacked. Needless to say the hiring party hadn’t been happy, had refused to pay despite the replacements sent, and would be ruining the reputation of their village to anyone who would listen. Most definitely not good for business.
“Of course we’re sending someone,” Tsunade hissed. Typically when the hokage got crankier than usual it was because she desperately needed a drink or she was more worried than was normal of her position. Since she hadn’t seen Tsunade actually drink anything from that bottle of hers yet, Sakura had the sinking feeling she was dealing with both. “But there’s a deeper issue than that. The timing of these attacks has been far too convenient for my liking. Haven’t the two of you noticed that?”
Sakura bit back the retort that came immediately to her lips. Of course they’d noticed -you didn’t get this far in their line of work, heck you didn’t stay alive in their line of work for long if you didn’t notice things like that. But still… “If there are organized groups working out there against us then they could have a spy network set up, reporting ahead to where our teams are traveling. If it’s running well enough it could give them plenty of time to prepare an ambush, especially given that most teams aren’t racing straight out of our gate here, anxious to get to their destination.”
Tsunade cut her off with a slash of her hand. “And if they aren’t organized groups?” She let the question dangle, waiting for them to see the possibilities, the problems.
Shizune caught on first. “A set team of mercenaries used to working together, with an intelligent or talented leader, could feasibly form plans well enough to set these traps. If the group isn’t a group at all or is, as you say, ‘unorganized’, then we’d have to assume they couldn’t achieve these results without extra aid.”
“Aid?” Sakura questioned, her gaze shooting between the two women.
“Information,” Tsunade sighed.
“She means we have to consider the possibility, however unlikely, of a mole or someone selling off information,” Shizune supplied.
“A mole?!” Sakura echoed hoarsely, falling back in her chair. She couldn’t imagine a fellow shinobi having such a mind-set. Who could betray their village, their own comrades and friends? Then her mind went flashed through uncomfortable images of Danzou, Itachi…Sasuke, and she sat quietly back in her seat.
Tsunade shook her head. “It is the least likely possibility, and we almost always have it as a lingering suspicion for any control situations, but that means that any investigating we do in this case will have to be more secretive than is the norm because it’s in our own backyard.”
“Where are you going with this?” Shizune asked thoughtfully. “Normally you’d just send a group of ANBU elite that have top-clearance.”
The hokage stood abruptly, slamming her fist down on the desk. “That’s the problem! One of the attacks was made on an ANBU operative. It was closer to the village gate than any of the others so it could have just been blind luck or even skill that allowed them to ambush him as there was less ground to cover, but if there is someone feeding out information then they might have knowledge of ANBU movements.”
Agitated, she started pacing around the room. “No, it’ll have to be a small group, or even better a single individual, who can conduct the investigation in complete secrecy.”
“What about Kakashi-sensei?” Sakura ventured.
Tsunade’s eyes lit as she considered this, then blew out again as she shook her head. “Wouldn’t work.”
Sakura huffed. “Why not?”
The hokage chuckled at her apprentice’s umbrage, wondering if it was from having her suggestion rejected or whether she was offended for her former teacher’s sake.
“It would be best if we didn’t send anyone with known ANBU associations.”
“Because if there is either a mole or one of the enemy has managed to infiltrate as a spy then they might be keeping tabs on their movements in particular,” Shizune finished.
“Exactly,” Tsunade continued. “That’s what I’d do if I were spying on an enemy encampment. First watch the top shinobi to see if their patterns have changed, giving any indication that they might be on to you. In our case it would make even more sense to pay extra attention to the ANBU considering they’re sent on the more sensitive missions. However, none of them really bother to keep their identities hidden while in the village, do they?”
“Yes, but what does that have to do with Kakashi-sensei? He hasn’t been ANBU for years, and the association was long enough ago that it would take awhile to come to the attention of any informant.”
Tsunade started ticking items off on her fingers. “The information would come up at some point; he’s one of our elite, he’s the famous Copy Ninja - and that’s enough to draw anyone’s attention. He has a very distinctive fighting style, disguising him would be difficult since fiddling with anything covering his left eye would be a give-away, and he’s more widely known than most of our shinobi given that, well, how many bingo books is he in now?” She sighed. “You get the point.”
“So what you’re saying is,” Sakura said dryly, “is that you want to issue a high ranking, top-secret mission, and that you can’t use any of your best shinobi for it because they’re all too noticeable. Does that about sum it up?”
“Well of course it’ll have to be a strong, capable, and trustworthy shinobi,” Shizune supplied. “The question is how to send one of our nin to skulk around the area repeatedly without setting up a bunch of red flags to anyone who may be watching.”
They all sat in silence, minds working furiously to take in the implications and try to figure out a solution that wouldn’t wind up putting the whole village at risk.
Sakura decided to put forth another suggestion. “What about Shino-san? He already keeps his face hidden and his bloodline limit would be extremely useful in gathering data.” If he went undercover with his face exposed no one would be the wiser.
Tsunade growled irritably. “Still too noticeable. Almost every high level jutsu he has is related to his bloodline limit and he has to keep on multiple layers of clothing in order to keep his body at the proper temperature for a host.”
Shizune looked at her speculatively and Sakura felt a sudden chill run down her spine. “What about her?” she asked at large, gesturing to the younger woman.
Sakura stared at her, agog. It was obvious the brunette was just grasping at straws. She opened her mouth to say just how ridiculous the notion was, but then she caught a glance of her shishou, who was eyeing her with obvious consternation. It was the skepticism there that flipped the switch in her.
Pride engaged, she straightened her spine. Now that she thought about it, it wasn’t such a bad idea. In fact, it might just be downright brilliant. “That just might work.”
Tsunade raised an eyebrow.
Sakura lifted her hand and started ticking off points. “I’m not, nor have I ever been ANBU, so we don’t need to worry about the obvious connection there. Furthermore, it wouldn’t be suspicious if you sent me off on any fake solo missions to cover my absence.”
Only jounin and ANBU were allowed to solo and Sakura hadn’t achieved the rank until she was nineteen. Everyone knew she was skilled enough - the hokage wouldn’t suffer a fool for her apprentice, after all. She gave plenty of reasons for why she’d waited to take the test, but the truth was that it had simply felt wrong to do it when Naruto wasn’t there.
After the war he’d gone off to do more training with Bee-san, dragging Yamato around with him. With Sasuke now gone forever she just couldn’t imagine going through such a crucial step without her only remaining original teammate. If she achieved jounin without him it’d feel like she was leaving him behind.
When he’d finally returned they took the test together and had celebrated raucously. (Sakura didn’t think she’d ever drunk that much in her life, before or since, and that was saying something considering the company she kept.)
Since her promotion she’d taken a few solo missions, but they were primarily of the medical variety, which was seemingly completely uninteresting to most other shinobi. Since solo missions were typically only assigned to the same jounin time and again, this would be a convenient cover for her.
“Third,” she continued, “I don’t have a bloodline limit.”
“Because your chakra-enhanced strength isn’t a dead give-away as to who you are?” Tsunade drawled.
Sakura rolled her eyes. “It’s not my only asset; I can tone it down if I absolutely have to use it, as you well know since you’re the one who passed it on to me. I also have genjutsu. And my smarts. This is supposed to be about information gathering, isn’t it?”
“You know you always have to assume the possibility of combat, and then what? It’s easy enough to mask your chakra, but when you’re fighting? Next to impossible, if not actually impossible. Not to mention you also have bright pink hair and are well known enough that it’ll be tough to come up with a believable disguise that isn’t obvious.”
That was the crux of the matter, wasn’t it, and would be not just for her, but any other candidate they came up with.
“What if it is obvious?” Shizune asked slowly.
Sakura turned to her. “Huh?”
“You’d have to learn ANBU protocol anyhow.”
“Why’s that?”
Shizune sighed when Tsunade looked to her for the answer as well. “The best way to learn if there is a mole, especially in the ANBU core, is for our informant to be able to interact with them. If we’re able to pass Sakura off as an ANBU operative then that can cover at least one aspect of her cover.”
Tsunade huffed irritably. “Yes, but the hair…”
Sakura smiled. Her shishou only got stubborn like that when she was holding out just for the sake of it. “You like the idea, admit it. Besides, I’m already read in so you won’t even have to tell anyone else about what’s going on.”
“Except Yamato.”
Sakura sat up, confused. “Why him?”
“Because he’s going to be training you, starting tomorrow. You’ll learn about ANBU from him, learn how to move among them and what to do when you come across others out in the field. But if you don’t come up with a convincing enough disguise, or Yamato doesn’t think you’re up to the task, then the mission is grounded and I’m finding someone else.”
Great, Sakura groaned inwardly, nothing like some added pressure to make things go smoothly.
With a grunt, she waved her hand at them. “Shizune, take down the wards. I have other things to take care of today.”
Taking that as her dismissal Sakura got up to leave, only to be forestalled at the sound of the hokage’s voice.
“That being said, don’t push yourself beyond your capabilities. There are always other alternatives, all right?”
She nodded.
Tsunade glared. “Well then, what are you still doing standing here? You’ve got work to do. Get at it!”
Chuckling to herself at the hokage’s mood-swings Sakura headed out, wondering just what on earth she’d gotten herself into.