Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden in Plain Sight ❯ Assignment ( Chapter 1 )

Chapter 1: Assignment

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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. Unfortunately enough, this was her most successful method of shoving her least favorite bits onto other people.

The man sitting opposite the Hokage sent Sakura a querulous look, but upon seeing the woman in charge wasn’t paying her any attention, neither did he. Turning back to face the blonde woman sitting across the desk, he continued his rant.

Sakura rolled her eyes behind his back.

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 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 talking about 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.

She stifled a sigh as she saw Tsunade's hand twitching toward her sake drawer. Not a good meeting then. She herself tended to drown out the words when it was a post-mission client meeting; there was never anything of importance to them. They could only be one of two things: praises, which she would occasionally listen in to if she was having a bad day - though usually her thoughts were too occupied with other things - or complaints, as this one obviously was.

"You're saying the genin team took too long to clear the debris from the road, is that right?" Tsunade droned, clearly at her wits end with this man but trying, for the sake of the elders who always prodded, bribed, and begged for her to behave with more dignity, to not let him see her obvious irritation.

Sakura thought she was doing well just with not pitching the man out the window. It invariably happened at least once a month; there were even betting pools set up around it now.

"Yes." He crossed his arms, indignant.

"If our genin are so notoriously 'subpar', as you put it, why waste the money and hire them at all? Why not just do the work yourself if you could have done it so much more capably?"

"Are you kidding?" he spluttered. "That would have taken me all day, if not longer!"

Tsunade eyed him levelly and Sakura knew what was coming. "Yet you expected three twelve year olds to get it done in one hour? I had no idea you thought yourself so much less equipped to deal with such a situation than a group of adolescents - one of which is a very petite girl. I suppose we had best be taking some teams into all the nearby villages to reinstate some strength-training regimen. I know its normal to be more lax during peacetime, but I had no idea it had degraded to this point. Thank you for letting me know. In fact," she hummed, fingernails drumming the desk thoughtfully, "I think I'll name the program after you and use your example to let everyone know why we need to reinstate such a program after so long."

The man blanched and waved his hands in front of him. "Oh, um, no, no, that won't be necessary. I'm sure the fault was mine. I may have underestimated the time frame just a bit."

But Tsunade just shook her head. "No, no," she said, miming him, "this is for the common welfare. I mean, three twelve-year-olds against a fit," Sakura struggled not to laugh, "man in his prime? Its a real health concern. Then again... When was the last time you had a full physical?" The way the blonde said 'full' left the bite of gloves snapping in the air.

"No, no, quite all right," he reiterated, already up and out of his chair and backing toward the door. "The mistake must be all mine, I assure you. No need to go to so much trouble. Our village is hearty like you wouldn't believe and they wouldn't want you going out of your way on our account. I'm sorry to have bothered you for so long, but I assure you it was nothing more than a simple error in judgment on my part. You will hear nothing but favorable reports circulating from our village, on all accounts. Good day then, Hokage-sama."

With a bow to Tsunade and a general nod in Sakura's direction he was out the door, shutting it with finality behind him as if afraid they'd follow him out.

Sakura let out a rueful chuckle and shook her head while Tsunade sighed. Really, once you had a handle on male pride they were so much easier to deal with.

"I'm half-tempted to follow through on it. If we actually had the manpower..."

Her laughter petering out, Sakura half-heartedly resumed her tasks. Tsunade obviously had something on her mind, but she wasn't ready to get to the point just yet.

After a few minutes of companionable, if expectant silence, Tsunade finally snapped. “Sakura, sit down,” she ordered, already pouring herself a generous glass of sake. "Your pacing is making me tense."

Sakura doubted that doing her job and generally tidying up the place could qualify as 'pacing', but she knew well enough not to tangle with her shishou when she was in this kind of mood. Besides, before she could say anything, Tsunade asked her to call Kotetsu in. He and Izumo were extensively involved in the daily running of the mill at this point, and thus were never far from shouting range of the hokage's door.

"Bring Shizune," she grumbled at the man as soon as he was in the door.

“She’s doing rounds in the hospital for another hour-”

She bent a look on him that let them both know that she was perfectly aware of Shizune's location. “I said get. Her. NOW!” The decibel level increased with each word and only years of inoculation kept both him and Sakura from wincing at it.

“Ah, yes ma’am, right away.”

The door snapped shut behind him and Sakura heard the beat of his rapid footfalls as he hurried away.

Tsunade didn’t say a word until Shizune arrived but Sakura could tell from her keyed-up state that this was about more than just the pompous idiot from before. When Shizune entered, before the brunette could even give voice to a greeting, Tsunade held up a finger.

“Wards.”

That single word spurred Shizune into a flurry of motion and caused Sakura to sit up straight in her chair. The brunette applied small slips of paper to the door and its frame 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 external eavesdropping, whether intentional or not.

Yet 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, however, had been making wards for this room long enough 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.

The Hokage seemed to sag in her chair with the assurance of their security. Sometimes Sakura forgot how old Tsunade 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.

“I don’t know yet,” she said. “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. In their line of work, it was far better to be overly paranoid than the reverse.

Sighing, Tsunade reached into her sake drawer and pulled out two more cups, pouring a generous amount for each of them. The presence of the liquor, however, had the opposite effect than intended - it made both Sakura and Shizune even more tense. After all, Tsunade didn't often share from her stash.

This definitely wasn't going to be good.

“Maybe you’re seeing things because you’re hitting the sake too hard lately?” Sakura joked sardonically, attempting some levity. Tsunade’s flat stare told her how well it worked. The young woman sighed. “What are you seeing that’s making you suspicious?”

The blonde slammed down her bottle, 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 on 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.

"In the past four months we've had nine casualties." She looked expectantly at the other two.

Shizune glanced at her questioningly. "I'm sorry to say so, but that in itself is nothing too out of the ordinary." During peace they could go months without a casualty and then other times ten shinobi would die in a month. There were so many factors: the types of missions being assigned, how many people were on each mission, and occasionally just plain luck. Sometimes the numbers were high, sometimes low, but they all balanced out in the end. Nine in four months unfortunately wasn't high enough to raise any suspicions on its own.

Tsunade acknowledged the point. "Three of those deaths were from a nine-man mission dealing with the Watanabe uprising. The ones that concern me, however, are the others. Four of the remaining six were on solo missions, and the last two were a pair of ANBU." She shook her head as if to clear it. "Now I can't know if those last six were hit because of their low numbers and lack of backup. However I don't like the fact that these unexplained deaths, the ones that don't have direct evidence of who killed our shinobi, had no survivors.."

The words fell like leaden lumps around the room, reverberating through them. No survivors meant no one left to identify their attackers. It wasn’t as uncommon an occurrence as any of them would hope, but for there to be enough similar attacks for Tsunade to see the beginnings of a pattern was definitely a bad omen.

Sakura had heard of the deaths, though only knew the details of one of them. A single-man mission, the nin had been attacked on the route home, after the mission was thought over. It had been assumed he'd been tailed by his target, who hadn't liked that his stolen scroll had been reappropriated.

Unfortunately, given their profession, it still wasn't that uncommon a circumstance, even given their alliances with the other shinobi nations. Those treaties, however, did nothing to influence the rogues, mercenaries, missing-nin, and general thugs that made up the majority of their mission combatants.

"There's no direct indication, though, that makes you suspicious? That this is anything other than business as usual?" Shizune asked.

"No," Tsunade acknowledged. "Just a culmination of little things plus a gut feeling. The solo mission deaths - there could be no survivors simply because it was easier for the enemy to attack single shinobi. It could simply be convenience and coincidence, pure chance that so many happened at around the same time. But by that same token, it could be they were attacked because it was easier to leave no survivors. It's impossible to know for sure."

“Did any of them bear signs of interrogation?” Sakura asked into the heavy room.

“No.”

On one hand it was a relief to know none of their shinobi had been subjected to torture, or that none of their sensitive secrets could have been leaked. On the other hand it meant the enemy did not want information; they wanted death. Typically that meant the attacks were motivated by revenge or hate, something that was much harder to deal with and counterbalance than simple information gathering.

"And of course there's the fact that the last two deaths were ANBU operatives..."

She didn’t have to spell it out. ANBU missions were certainly of a more highly classified status than those of non-ANBU nature – S-class notwithstanding – but that didn’t mean there weren’t plenty of people who knew about them. While the operatives weren’t allowed to tell their friends and family about the exact details of their tasks, those people usually still knew when they were set to leave.

While solo missions meant typically only the Hokage, the ANBU director, the assigned nin and the nin’s team leader knew the specifics, team missions were altogether a different story. They required directives and supply requisitions, which assured that forms which had at least the basic information of date and location of the op, passed through numerous other hands. There were missives and logistics, other loose ends that had to be tied up within the ANBU compound itself, and by the end of it more than just a handful of people knew about a team mission.

Normally that wasn’t a salient issue, but under the circumstances…

Shizune nodded thoughtfully. "Having ANBU operatives attacked raises the bar. It could mean..." She trailed off, unsure if she was willing to go ahead and voice it aloud.

“It could mean any number of things,” Tsunade bit out in aggravation, rubbing at her temples. “This team was assaulted closer to Konoha than any of the others, so the attack could be blamed on proximity making the team easier to find."

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, circumstantial, or coincidental, 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 allowable to take 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 more alcohol in her system - Sakura swore it was slowly replacing her blood- or she was worried more than usual, even given her position. 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 heading. 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 destinations.”

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. After all, she'd already been considering it. “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.

“Inside information,” Tsunade sighed.

“She means we have to consider the possibility, however unlikely, of a spy inside the walls, or a mole or other type of informant,” 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! Because one of the attacks was made on a team of ANBU it compromises them, as there's no way of knowing if it was chance or by design. 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 she blew out a heavy breath 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 change, giving any indication that they might be on to you. In our case it would make even more sense to pay extra attention to 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 and he’s the famous Copy Ninja – 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,” Sakura commented 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?”

Tsunade snorted. Maybe now they knew what she was up against, hell, what it was like to be Hokage on a daily basis.

“Well of course it’ll have to be a strong, capable, and trustworthy shinobi,” Shizune supplied, glancing furtively at Sakura. “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. In the interim, Shizune sent a couple more speculative glances Sakura's way, and the younger woman was becoming too distracted by the motion to think about what she was supposed to be thinking about. Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"What is it?" she huffed, blowing a stray strand of pink hair out of her eyes. "Just tell me already so I can get back to focusing on the task at hand."

"Ah," Tsunade hummed, "so you see it too, Shizune."

The brunette nodded, shining eyes focused on Sakura.

"W-what am I missing?" Sakura asked.

"It was the conclusion I'd reached as well," Tsunade continued, ignoring Sakura, "but I needed to make sure I wasn't reaching too far or missing something important."

Groaning, Sakura griped, "Will you two please tell me what you're going on about, or should I assume you went simultaneously insane?"

Chuckling, Shizune shook her head as she declared, "It's you."

Sakura didn't even have time to quirk an eyebrow before Tsunade clarified, "You're doing it, Sakura."

It took a minute for Sakura to process what Tsunade had said.

"M-me?" she stuttered. "Why in the world makes you think I'd be a good pick for this? No offense, shishou, but if we're aiming for subtlety and secrecy, I can hardly see how I'd be a good fit. As your apprentice I'm in the public eye - most everyone can recognize me - plus my fighting techniques are rather identifiable. Not to mention I have hair that all but screams out 'Here I am! Here I am!'"

"You act like you think I haven't thought this through," Tsunade said in a dangerous tone, her nails tapping out a rhythm against the top of her desk.

Usually that voice sent shinobi scurrying, but Sakura had more than become used to Tsunade's posturing and tactics. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "As long as you weren't drunk when you thought it up."

"What was that?" Tsunade asked sharply as Shizune smothered a laugh.

"Nothing, shishou," Sakura replied, all smiles and saccharine sweetness.

Tsunade grunted.

"But," Sakura continued, "without using your heightened intellect to explain to this lowly peon the reasons for such a choice, how can I but see it as doomed to failure?"

At this Tsunade cracked a smile. "You hang out with Naruto too much. Sometimes I wonder if I should be training him to become the hokage's jester instead."

"Only if he could have the title of the strongest jester in the world," she said with mock gravity.

Tsunade chuckled. "I'm sure that could be arranged. It's not like there are many others to compete with for that particular title. If they did decide to have fights for ranking then we could create a festival around it, and then maybe I'd be remembered for some positive contribution to society."

"Now, come on..." Sakura said in protest, Shizune accompanying her, but Tsunade waved her hand dismissively.

"The reason you're the best choice is because you have all of the most important qualifications. I know I can trust you, you're intelligent, and I can meet with you whenever I like without giving anything away."

"That's it?" she asked, clearly unimpressed. "How do you plan to explain my absences when I'm out looking at the sites?"

"Medical missions," Shizune interjected, as if that should be self-evident. "Checking the health status of outlying villages for potential endemic threats, teaching seminars... You know, the usual."

"But those are such short missions, usually only two or three days. I'd only have enough time to check one site at a time, and even then not as thoroughly as I'd like."

Tsunade leaned forward. "That can't be helped. Besides, whoever perpetrated the attacks might be keeping an eye on the sites in case of investigation; it might actually be to our benefit if you don't visit each one immediately after the other."

Sakura leaned back in her chair with a mumbled cursed. "At that rate at least half of any remaining evidence will have been eroded by the weather, if it's not entirely deteriorated already at the sites of the earliest incursions."

"It's better than nothing."

"Besides," Sakura continued, "to cover that story I'll have to do some of those medical missions, so there'll actually be gossip about me circulating in said villages. Figuring out the timing will be atrocious!"

"That's really your biggest objection?" Tsunade asked drily.

Sakura snorted. "Hardly." She was starting to wonder if she was really the only one seeing all the holes here. Was she magnifying them or were the two of them relegating them to mere divots in the road? "What happened to finding someone not on the enemy's radar and easy to disguise? My fighting style is just as distinctive as many of those with bloodline limits."

"Yes, but not many have the extreme chakra control you have - the kind that will allow you to completely conceal your chakra signature."

"Wait, what? But I've never done that before."

"It's actually not that hard," Shizune claimed, if not entirely modestly.

Continuing on in that track, Tsunade said, "Not to mention it's one of the base requirements for joining ANBU."

"If it's not that difficult and everyone in ANBU can do it then why do you need my 'extreme chakra control'?"

The blonde rested heavily on her elbows. "As I said, you're the best combination of requirements for the task."

"Besides," Shizune added, "not all ANBU members can master the technique. It takes a lot of skill to be able to maintain the concealment for long periods of time, or even while sleeping."

"And you expect me to learn to do all that by the time you want this mission to start?"

"Are you saying you're not up to the challenge?" Tsunade asked goadingly.

Sakura folded her arms and glared, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Oh, all right. As Shizune said, it's not that difficult a thing to do, not with the control that's been drilled into you for the last decade or so. Besides, I have a wonderful teacher lined up for you."

Intrigued, Sakura sat forward. "Really? Who's that?"

"Well now...does that mean you're accepting the assignment? I can't tell you until you do. Might comprise the whole thing otherwise."

Sakura stuck her tongue out. She knew her shishou was just giving her a hard time; after all, she'd just established that she found Sakura trustworthy. "Tease," she accused.

"Always," Tsunade agreed, grinning momentarily.

Unfortunately, after that she chose to remain silent, which usually meant she now expected Sakura to work the rest out for herself. Slave driver.

"Okay, okay," she began, mumbling to herself. "Since you went out of your way to mention that ANBU has basically cornered the market on chakra shielding, I'm assuming that the teacher you picked is ANBU as well." She didn't even bother to look up for confirmation. "It would make the most sense if the operative assigned this mission went undercover under the guise of ANBU, since it's the easiest way to actually disguise most people." At this she tugged gently on her hair.

"And if the shinobi goes undercover as ANBU, they'll have to know the inner workings of ANBU, at least enough to get by. Not only have we established that ANBU is likely under surveillance, but it's entirely likely the operative could run into other ANBU out in the field. Here the undercover agent would need to know how ANBU operatives interact, any potential internal codes or whatnot, to avoid raising suspicion among our own people and blowing his or her cover."

Tsunade smirked, knowing Sakura was only throwing around words like 'operative' and 'agent' because she was irked and showing her irritation by throwing a small tantrum. The young woman could grouse and grumble with the best of them, but when it came down to it she always did what was needed. Hell, she volunteered herself most of the time. Tsunade knew the girl thought herself a curmudgeon, but she was more generous than she believed.

That was why she'd needed to make sure she wasn't grasping at straws with this idea. If she brought it up she knew Sakura would eventually accede to the idea, regardless of how well-thought out it was, so she needed to make sure that at least one of the others reached the same conclusion about just how well she fit the plan.

“Tell me again why it can’t be Kakashi-sensei?” she griped and Tsunade chuckled. She had her.

“Precisely because he’s one of the ones we go to for these types of missions. Not to mention he can’t completely hide his chakra.”

“What? He can’t?!” Sakura exclaimed, surprise writ across her features. “What do you mean?”

“The Sharingan. While he can hide his chakra, since he can’t turn the Sharingan off he can’t completely hide it. It’s not his native chakra so any shield he makes has holes in it.”

“But…but ANBU…”

Tsunade shook her head, knowing where she was going with this. “He had both his original eyes when he joined ANBU. The Sharingan was gifted to him after that. Even then, it wasn’t necessarily a hindrance, since it confused his identity among enemies. When he was shielded the only chakra that leaked was Uchiha.”

Sakura’s eyes widened in understanding. He could confuse the enemy into thinking he was two people instead of one, or just only allow the Uchiha chakra through and let the enemy think he was someone else altogether.

“That changed with the Uchiha massacre though. After that there were only three Sharingan users left, and one was a missing-nin while another was a mere child. It took a while but eventually he had to give up the ghost; he was too easy to finger, even in disguise. It’s the main reason he retired from ANBU.”

Sitting there in shock, Sakura had to wonder what else she didn’t know about her former teacher.

"If you're that worried about it though, Sakura," Shizune added, "we can always have him escort you once or twice while you're out."

She rolled her eyes. "You know that's not the point." Then, pausing, she added, "What do you mean? Are you planning to have escorts on the mission? Won't that make secrecy all the more difficult?"

Tsunade held up her hand. "We can't know how matters will proceed from here - whether the attacks will come more frequently or not. It's possible that we might need to send an escort to watch the perimeter while you are doing your scouting, but for now at least we envision that to be a rare thing, if needed at all. Still, it's good to have options.

"Regardless, we're digressing. You asked why you, so let's have at it. You haven’t had a combat assignment since, what, the war? While yes, you are certainly in the public eye and considered a top shinobi” – Sakura grimaced, certain she was being pandered to – “you mostly stay in Konoha. When you are out its typically medical or intel missions, with a few exceptions here or there. And while this assignment certainly has an intel gathering aspect, it’s too dangerous to be considered strictly that.

“Besides, you’re smart – which is good for more than just picking up clues. You can think or even talk yourself out of many situations without having to resort to violence. And if you are in some sort of confrontation you have enough moves and tricks up your sleeve to defend yourself without having to resort to your chakra-enhanced strength; you’re able to keep that as a last resort.”

Sakura slouched in her chair and roughly combed her fingers through her hair. “I don’t suppose you’d just let me throw a hood on and be done with it?”

Both Shizune and Tsunade laughed. “I think you already know the answer to that,” the brunette declared.

That she did. Sakura sighed irritably. Very few, if any, ANBU wore hoods. In fact, not a single shinobi came to mind that wore one regularly. So for her to wear one while striving for secrecy would be like all but blaring out that she was trying to hide her hair for some reason. Then, if she was being watched out in the field, all the enemy would have to do would be to look for people with easily identifiable hair or head tattoos.

Not long after that, she’d be looking at getting herself ambushed.

Damn them and their logic.

“Fine,” she grumbled. “How long do I have to prepare?”

“Two weeks,” Tsunade declared with a smug smile. She hadn’t thought it’d take this much for Sakura to come around, but she’d known she would. And know the girl would give her utmost.

“Two weeks?! Are you kidding me? You expect me to come up with a foolproof disguise, master chakra-shielding, and learn the ins-and-outs of ANBU all in a measly fourteen days?”

“You don’t think you can?”

Sakura glared flatly.

Tsunade sighed. “I know it’s a lot to ask, and it’ll be difficult, but every day we wait is one when another of our shinobi could be attacked and killed, another where weather further destroys any evidence at the sites of the previous killings.

I have faith that you can do this.”

Sakura met her shishou’s eyes somberly, and was both relieved and humbled by the belief she saw in them.

“How will you judge whether or not I’ve succeeded? Whether I measure up to the standard you need?”

“In two weeks I’ll have twenty relatively new ANBU members come here, of which you’ll be one. If Shizune and I can’t pick you out with any certainty, you pass.”

“And if I fail?”

Tsunade and Shizune shared a look. “It won’t come to that.” She took a deep breath. “But if it does then we’ll send someone else; we won’t have time to wait for you to perfect your disguise or skills any further. Maybe we’ll even have to accept the risk and send someone like Kakashi, I don’t know. Shizune and I will puzzle over a Plan B in the meantime, but your task is to focus on your transformation.”

“Yes, Tsunade-sama.”

“All right. As of right now you’re on a two week leave from all of your duties. You’ve clearly been overworking yourself, Sakura,” she added in an overly-concerned tone, “and are in need of a good break. After all, I can’t have people on my roster who aren’t at a hundred-percent.”

“Of course, shishou,” she agreed, rolling her eyes at Tsunade’s bad acting. And while it was a good cover story it would make it harder to sneak off to train with her ANBU instructor. Ah well. She supposed it’d be good practice for when she had to sneak around between her two future personalities.

"Okay, okay, I got it. I guess I should get to it then. Is there anything else I need to know now?"

Tsunade shook her head. "That's all of the basics."

"And if I need to ask you something without alerting any possible eavesdroppers?"

Taking a moment to think, Tsunade snapped her fingers. "Rub your thumb and forefinger across your chin as if thinking about something. Then if you think you can get the point across in some code or something, I'll know what you're referring to. Otherwise you an ask for Shizune and when I make the same motion to her, she'll know to put up the wards."

"But that's such a common gesture!" Sakura protested. "How do you know I won't do it unconsciously, start talking about something completely unrelated, and confuse the heck out of us both?"

"I have never once seen you do that. And after all our years of working together, I know your mannerisms - both conscious and unconscious - rather well."

Sakura looked to Shizune for confirmation. The brunette shrugged. "She's right. I've never seen you do that either."

"Huh." That made her realize she had yet another thing to work on. Her unconscious habits - even something so innocuous as how she held a kunai or how she walked - could give her away. This was going to be even more work than she'd initially thought. She'd have to develop an entirely new persona.

Well, at least it wouldn't be boring. Besides, it'd give her a chance to brush up on her acting skills.

Standing, she brushed her skirt flat. "All right then. When's my first lesson?"

"You meet with Tenzou at six tomorrow morning."

"Yamato-senpai?" she asked excitedly. It was always nice to work with someone she already knew and had a good dynamic with. Plus it had been so long since she'd seen him that it would be great to catch up. The fact that she'd learned he was a good - and patient - teacher certainly didn't hurt.

"No, Tenzou-senpai," Tsunade emphasized. "That's one of the reasons I'm pairing you up with him; you need to learn to address him correctly in each guise or you risk giving yourself away. I'm sure he'll be able to drill the distinction into you by the time the two weeks are up." She smiled in a way that Sakura was vaguely sure was sadistic, and suddenly she wasn't so excited about working with her sometimes teammate.

When Sakura just continued to stare warily at her, Tsunade made a shooing motion. "Go on now, you have plenty of other things you could be doing than gawking at my beauty."

Sakura smothered a chuckle but then stretched her arms over-head, exaggerating a yawn. "Ya know, shishou, I'm rather tuckered from all that overworking myself. I guess now might be a good time to drag myself home. It's time to catch up on my sleep and all."

Shizune smiled and shook her head but went to start removing the wards.

"And don't worry," Sakura added, "I'll be doing plenty of complaining about my horrible, naggy boss and my forced leave of absence as I trudge on home."

Holding up a finger, Shizune made a motion to indicate she'd just removed the protection from the room and they could now be heard. She hurriedly gathered up the remaining pieces of paper stuck to the various parts of the room, tore them into tiny little pieces, then stuffed them into her pocket for proper disposal later.

Sakura stuffed her hands in her pockets before winking at the pair of them. "Fine then," she grumbled unhappily before stomping out of the room.

When she came across a curious Kotetsu in the hall, she glared at him until he asked if she was okay. "The hag has decreed that I'm on leave, because apparently I'm so stupid I don't know how to watch my own health. The nerve, right? I mean, what field am I in after all? I don't work myself any harder than she does."

The poor man chuckled nervously, much to Sakura's inner amusement. Maybe she was more like her teacher than even she realized.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that Sakura-san. But hey, if nothing else you can take a nice vacation or spend your mornings sleeping in."

"Do I look like I need to be catching up on sleep?" she asked, voice dangerous.

"Not at all!" he declared, waving his hands frantically. "Just, who doesn't like sleeping in?"

"Fine," she muttered, turning away from him. "See you in a couple weeks then. Make sure to help keep her in line when Shizune's not around."

He groaned and Sakura allowed herself a small smile as she retreated down the hall. All along her route home she griped and complained to anyone who'd listen, willing or not, but only half-listened to their soft platitudes and careful sympathy. (After all, apprentice or not she was still bad-mouthing the Hokage, so they couldn't be too ardent in their condolences.) Her mind was on rather different matters, already making and discarding plans about how to manage her appearance. Still, there was only so much she'd be able to figure out before her meeting with Yamato - no, Tenzou, Tenzou, she corrected herself - tomorrow morning.

Maybe she should go to bed early after all. Tomorrow was sure to be a busy and demanding day.