The Hokage's office smelled like paper and old tea.
"C-rank." Guy slid the scroll across the desk. "Medicine shipment to Tanzaku-area, three days out, escort the courier wagon there and walk back. The roads have had bandit trouble since the invasion. Nothing a genin cell can't handle."
Tenten took the scroll. Hinata stood to her left with her hands folded. Shino stood to her right silently.
"Standard escort mission, except for one thing. Tenten. You're leading." Guy told her.
Tenten's eyes came up.
"There's no jonin on this assignment and no chunin either. You'll run this squad as if you were one, start to finish. Route, watches, decisions. All of it is yours." Guy leaned back. "I read the mission report. Your performance during the Sasuke mission impressed me, now I'm giving you the chance to continue doing so, Tenten."
"I'll do my best, Guy-sensei!" Tenten felt ecstatic, trusted with a squad of her own by her own teacher, now the Fifth Hokage.
"Good answer. Hinata, I heard you've been cleared for duty and your injuries are completely healed. I'm happy to see it, young lady. This is your first assignment since the Chunin Exams, so pace yourself, and if anything pulls in that chest you report it to your squad leader immediately."
"Yes, Lord Hokage." Hinata's voice was quiet but it did not waver.
"Aburame, you're the third. Questions?"
"None." Shino said.
"Alright then, good luck children, be safe and be vigilant." Guy gave them a thumbs up and a smile before they exited his office.
The corridor outside was cool and empty.
Tenten turned to face them, and for one heartbeat the three of them just looked at each other, two members of Team Eight and the girl they knew almost nothing about.
Almost nothing. They knew what everyone knew. She'd been put down by the Sand girl in the preliminaries. She was Rock Lee's teammate, which meant she trained beside the scariest thing the village had produced in a generation. And as of five minutes ago, the Fifth Hokage trusted her to lead a squad on his say-so.
Then there was the thing Kiba had been telling anyone who came within ten feet of his hospital bed. Three of Orochimaru's own. Konoha's first puppet user. Konoha's scariest genin kunoichi. He'd grabbed Hinata's sleeve when she visited him in the hospital and said she didn't understand! That chick is crazy strong!
And Hinata knew one more thing. This was the girl who had been on her cousin's team. Who had trained beside Neji every day for a year, right up until he took his own life.
"So. Introductions, since we've never actually met." The girl stuck out her hand. "Tenten. Team Guy. Weapon Master, mostly."
"Hinata Hyuga." She took the hand, soft grip, proper bow. "Thank you for having me."
"Shino Aburame." He did not offer a hand. Inwardly, Tenten definitely didn't mind.
"Great. Gates in one hour, pack for a week or two even though it's six days, because wagons break and couriers sometimes lie about their schedules." Tenten was already counting it off on her fingers. "Travel rations, cold weather layer, whatever your tool kit is." Tenten repeated, and went, scrolls bouncing softly at her hip.
Hinata watched her go. She had questions about her cousin but none of them were quick questions…
Three days there. Three days back.
There would be time.
Tsunade was enjoying herself as Head of the Medical Corps in her office when someone suddenly knocked.
"Enter."
Two girls. Pink and blonde, shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, both of them having certain looks on their faces.
The pink one stepped forward first. Bowed low enough that her hair fell past her face.
"Lady Tsunade. Please take me on as your apprentice."
The blonde's head snapped sideways. Whatever she had rehearsed, it had clearly not included going second, and Ino Yamanaka was not built to go second. She stepped up level with Sakura and bowed just as low, maybe a centimeter lower.
"Me as well, Lady Tsunade. Please."
Tsunade set down her pen.
She had heard a little bit about one of them, the other was a blank. And the pink-haired girl was the one she knew more about, because two separate people had now mentioned her without being asked. Kakashi when asked about his genin team during a night of drinking. And Naruto who said, "Sakura-chan's chakra control is incredible, she learned tree walking on the first try!"
Two girls. Rivals since the Academy, if the way they were glaring at each other meant what it looked like.
That was the deciding factor, honestly. Talent quit. Talent got tired, got scared, got married, found out how much of medicine was corpses and paperwork and went home. But she had never once in fifty years seen a rivalry quit while the other one was still standing there. Hell, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were still going at it.
"Medical ninjutsu isn't easy, girls. You might have to watch close friends die. Die because you weren't skilled enough. Die because you didn't have enough knowledge. Die because of circumstances outside of your control and then being blamed for it by others around you. Most who start do not finish." Tsunade warned them.
Neither girl moved, both staring at her with determined faces. Both Sakura and Ino would be damned if they faltered in front of the other even if it sounded really tough.
"Fine. I'll take you on." She told them, then leaned forward. "But I don't want to hear anything about regrets or complaining! Becoming my disciples will be the hardest decision and one you cannot take back!"
"Y-Yes ma'am!"
It came out of both of them at once, the same pitch, the same crack in the same place, and they both stared directly into Tsunade's eyes. Tsunade turned her chair toward the window so they would not see her smile.
"Hospital, east wing, six in the morning. Wear something you don't mind ruining."
The shop was down a side street off the smithing district, and it did not look like much from the outside. But this did not deter Lee. This place was recommended by Tenten of all people! If she came here frequently, that was how he knew, it was one of the best of the best for weapons.
The ex-shinobi behind the counter looked at the customized weights Lee carefully set down, then at Lee, then back at the weights. He tried to pick one up. He nearly threw out his back as he was almost thrown to the floor. The man used chakra to strengthen his body just to lift one of the weights. He set it down with new respect and a small wheeze.
"And you want these reforged in chakra-conducting metal?"
"Yes, sir! The weights, which can shape into my nunchaku, my staff, and my chain. And these as well." Lee laid the tonfas beside them. "I am told the metal can carry the owner's chakra nature. I was interested in having that for my own weapons."
"It can. Channel your nature through it and the metal can become the jutsu's origin instead of your own body. Wind users put edges on things that shouldn't have edges. Lightning users can turn a staff into a stun rod." The man tapped the tonfa. "What's your nature?"
"Water, sir."
The man looked at the weights again. At the sheer mass of them. He pulled a slip of paper toward himself, wrote for a while, paused, wrote some more, and turned it around.
Lee read the number before his eyes went wide.
"That's with the recommendation discount," the man said, "which you are receiving in advance, because nobody who isn't coming back orders this much chakra metal. The conversion mechanisms make it triple work. Every joint has to conduct properly or the whole flow stutters."
"I see…"Tears pooled in Lee's eyes. A young man watching his entire savings, his mission pay from the Land of Frost, the Water Daimyo escort, the A-ranks, all of it, walk to the edge of a cliff and fly away.
"Half now, half on delivery. And it won't be quick. Months, not weeks. Work like this can't be rushed and I won't pretend otherwise."
Lee paid the deposit.
The pouch went from heavy to a flat sad whisper of itself. The man counted it, nodded, and gave him a claim ticket, one small square of paper that now represented nearly everything Rock Lee owned in the world.
Outside, Lee stood in the street and held the ticket in both hands.
His stomach growled. He looked into his wallet and what looked back was nothing but sadness.
"YOSH!" he said quietly, to no one. "Then it is just like the old days. The springtime of frugality!"
It came out slightly strangled.
…
He found Sakura at the third training ground that evening.
She was sitting on a stump with her sleeves rolled up and her hands wrapped, and there were bruises on her forearms in tidy rows, and she looked like someone had wrung her out and hung her up to dry.
"Sakura-chan! How was your first day?"
"She made me do physical drills for six hours." Sakura said it to the middle distance. "One of them… Six. Hours. On the surface of the hospital pond. Holding a scalpel. If your hand shakes, the patient dies, she says. Lee, there were no fish, the fish were a metaphor, I hate the fish."
"That is wonderful!"
"Which part?!" Sakura exclaimed.
"All of it!" Lee dropped onto the stump next to her, beaming. "Six hours and you are still upright! When I first started, six hours of anything was enough to wipe me out!"
She laughed knowing he wasn't talking about a recent training session. It was a little awkward that she was being compared to a Lee that was still in the academy but Lee was kind of in his own lane as a ninja, so it made sense.
"What made you decide to mentor under Tsunade-sama?" Lee asked.
"I couldn't think of anyone better to learn under than Lady Tsunade. I'm done being the girl who begs people to stay and can't do anything when they walk away. Next time someone I love is leaving, I'll be strong enough to drag them home myself."
Then suddenly Sakura was silent for a few moments. Then she looked into Lee's eyes. "I'm sorry, Lee. I still had feelings for Sasuke-kun even when we were kind of like dating. I even think I was willing to leave Konoha with him on the night he was planning to leave…"
Lee's smile slowly erased itself from his face.
"When Naruto told me that he wasn't able to bring Sasuke back, it was like I broke for a second. I'd never see him again. The first boy I ever liked. And that's when I realized that I never really mattered much to Sasuke-kun… He left even when I begged with all of my heart and soul. He left even when Naruto and everyone else nearly died trying to bring him back. For Orochimaru… For the creep that nearly killed me, him, and Naruto… I tried to make sense of it, understand it, but I just can't. Is revenge really worth throwing away everything you had just for the power to take revenge?"
"…" Lee was momentarily silent as Sakura bared her heart to him.
He wouldn't lie. It hurt to think that Sasuke still had such an influence on her even despite his actions. But he supposed it made sense. She's had a crush on him since the academy. She's only known him for far less time.
"I can't say I understand what's going through Sasuke's mind. I can't say I even understand what you're feeling regarding Sasuke. But if Sasuke was willing to turn his back on his home and all his friends for revenge, then it sounds like revenge meant more to him than anything else." Lee reasoned.
"I just don't get it!" Sakura exclaimed.
"We can't understand everyone, Sakura-chan… Sometimes, not even those closest to us…" Lee somberly looked up in the sky.
And Sakura realized who he was talking about… She hugged him as she fought the tears from running down her face. Lee gently rubbed her back as she sniffled into his chest. "I'm sorry, Lee… I didn't mean to spring this crap on you…" Sakura apologized.
"I'm always here for you, Sakura-chan." Lee rubbed her back in soothing patterns.
"No. Not just for that." Sakura pulled back enough to look at him properly, eyes red, refusing to look away. "I'm sorry for what I almost did to you. You chose me with your whole heart, and I was still keeping a piece of mine packed for someone who never wanted it. If he had asked me to come that night… I don't know what I would have answered. And you deserved so much better than 'I don't know.' You were never my second choice, Lee. It just took losing the wrong boy to see the right one had been standing in front of me the whole time. You really have been here for me…" Sakura hugged him tighter, feeling his warm comforting muscular body. "Ever since the Chunin Exams… That's probably where I'd say the start of all this even happened… You confessing… The second test with Orochimaru's genin… Then the month leading up to the finals… I'd say that was probably the happiest I've ever been…"
"I'm happy to hear that… And if you would allow me, I'm willing to make you even happier going forward in the future. If you would like, Sakura-chan…" Lee's face was flushed as he held her.
"I think that would be nice, Lee…" Sakura softly smiled where he couldn't see.
They sat in the cooling evening, wrapped together, and neither of them was in any hurry at all.
Far from the village, past the border posts and the trade roads, in a wood where no road went, six bodies cooled in the dark.
The camp had held nine Cloud shinobi. The mission scroll had called for the elimination of all nine and the recovery of what they carried. The other three were at the bottom of the ravine behind the camp, where the sentries had been standing when they descended over them.
"Clear." The word came through a blank white mask, flat, machine-even. The operative crouched by the campfire's ashes and lifted a document case free of a dead man's coat.
"Clear," said a second voice, from the treeline.
"Clear," said a third, by the ravine.
The squad leader stood in the center of the camp and saw all of it at once, every body, every pack, every approach through the trees for a kilometer in any direction, because the squad leader did not need to turn his head to look at anything. The veins at his temples stood out beneath the edges of his mask.
"Casualties?" he asked.
"None, Captain." said the operative with the document case. He was slight, pale where his sleeve gapped, and his voice was pleasant, but emotionally tone-deaf. "Nine targets eliminated. Objective and bodies recovered."
"Eliminate our traces. We were never here." He turned southwest, the direction of home, if the word still applied. "Let's move on to the next target."
They moved, five shadows and him, no sound but the environment around them.
The pale one fell in at his shoulder, exactly where he always positioned himself, close enough to observe, far enough to be unremarkable. Sparrow had long since stopped wondering why. Every squad had one of him. Every report found its way to the same desk in the dark. Let it. There was nothing in his work to report except that the work was flawless.
Above the trees, too high for any normal eye and visible to him anyway, a thin line of birds crossed the night sky, heading somewhere warm.
The squad leader watched them for the length of one stride.
Then he returned his attention back to his duty. They were in enemy territory. There wasn't time for personal hobbies. He also couldn't let Him get too far ahead.