Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden in Plain Sight ❯ Grueling ( Chapter 7 )

Chapter 7: Grueling

~ ~ ~

Sakura thanked her lucky stars. After her first stop she didn't have to worry about who she would or would not meet at the other campsites she was going to stop at that day. Genma had a mouth on him that all but ensured that at least a good portion of shinobi would know there was a new rookie recruit amongst the ANBU insisting on sticking to the rules.

Still, having backup didn't hurt so it pleased her when she did run into a genin group and another pair of jounin further out.

When she came across the duo - Hiro and Matama - it was nearing sunset, so she did the sensible thing and set up camp with them. It was always wiser to sleep with someone around who could watch your back.

She offered to take the second watch - the one most hated - but Matama outright refused to let her. The other woman insisted that it made no sense since 'Moriko' was headed out on a mission. Since they were on their way back to Konoha, it was safer that one of them take it instead of sending a fellow shinobi out into the field with sleep deprivation.

Sakura found the gesture oddly sweet and protective, and she wondered briefly if Matama had a history that made her sensitive to the subject. She herself had certainly never traveled with shinobi so generous about watch assignment. Hell, all of Team Kakashi made it some kind of battle to see who could get the best slots. Even Kakashi-sensei. He invariably got first or last watch and he wasn't above pulling rank to get it.

However, whenever she had her turn she noticed that he was rarely making use of his sleep-roll. Instead, though she never saw him at it, she knew he was acting as a second pair of eyes through the night. How he managed on so little sleep she had no idea; maybe that was why he was so quiet and grumpy all the time. That much sleep deprivation - even if she knew he did laze about like a bum while they were in Konoha - couldn't be good for the constitution. Regardless, why he bothered to fight for the best watch slots she didn't know, unless it was to toughen them up or some crap like that.

In the end Matama gave Sakura the first watch, which was fine by her as it hadn't exactly been a taxing day. Luckily she didn't have to talk to the two much after that, which made keeping her cover all the easier. She didn't know these two shinobi, but that didn't mean they didn't know her. Being the Hokage's apprentice did keep her somewhat in the public eye. But, whether from tiredness or lack of desire to converse, the two went quickly to sleep, and the night passed quickly.

They woke Sakura in the morning and said their farewells before heading back to Konoha. She waited until they were long gone before reaching up to check the nearly invisible thread she'd wound around both her head and mask. It wasn't that she didn't trust Hiro and Matama in particular, she just couldn't afford to trust anyone.

Thankfully, the special knot she'd tied was still intact, which meant they hadn't tried to peek at her face while she slept. That was always nice.

Quickly gathering her things, she stretched herself limber and took off at a run. Now that the basework was done, she was pumped to finally get on to the actual investigating.

~ ~ ~

It was a little before midday when Sakura arrived at Site A, the location of the first attack they suspected to be part of the chain. What she saw right off the bat wasn't promising.

The location was obviously aged and at least somewhat spoiled. There were animal tracks from at least three deer, a variety of rodents, and a rabbit - if she didn't miss her guess - in the loose, dry ground. The area was wind windblown, with twigs, grass, and leaves strewn about with lines and swirls marked in the dirt. At least there hadn't been heavy rain in the area or the ground would be completely worthless to her.

Scanning her immediate surroundings, she quickly found the nin's death marker and gravitated toward it, trying to fight back chills as she did so.

A death marker was different than a gravestone; the second was a memorial to the dead but the first was a warning to the living. It was to let those nearby know what had happened in that location, lest they be caught unawares - either by the same circumstances that had caused the death or by the victim's restless spirit.

Just to be safe she knelt and offered a prayer at the marker, one to the spirit of the dead shinobi, that he might find rest, enlightenment, or the path of reincarnation quickly, and another to any kami that might be listening or hold sway over this region, that her comrade would find his way easily. Satisfied she'd done all she could to ward off spiritual interference, she stood and examined the marker.

Of course shinobi died for all sorts of reasons out in the field. The most feared but, perhaps surprisingly, the least common was the ambush or other enemy attack. However there were natural causes as well, such as a heart attack or stroke. These sometimes occurred even in young nin and weren't as rare as one would hope. Plus there was a whole assortment of other reasons as well, the main being either stupidity or bad luck. The latter consisted of things like being poisoned on a mission, escaping, but not being able to get home in time to get the antidote. The former consisted of things like getting injured on a mission and leaving successfully, but instead of taking it easy on the way home or stopping to treat an injury, simply pushing as hard as possible toward Konoha and succumbing to said injuries.

The stones were marked with characters to show the cause of death to any who cared to know - which was pretty much anyone. Shinobi were notorious paranoid - it was a cultivated skill - and always wanted as much information and detail about a situation as possible. If one found a death marker with an 'A' on it, it let them know an ambush had happened there before, thus it was not a good place to set up camp for the night.

Natural causes - marked with an 'N' - were just as dangerous. Any shinobi worth their salt knew a heart attack could be mimicked by certain poisons. In most, admittedly mistrustful, nin minds, a death by natural causes - especially while out in the field - simply meant that the enemy had been smarter, faster, or untraceable.

Then of course there was the ubiquitous 'E', for everything else that didn't fall neatly into the other two categories. Most shinobi were convinced these were either enemy attacks that went too smoothly for the other side, or severe stupidity on the side of the victim. Either way, it was still a place to avoid.

No one, shinobi or civilian - who knew the system concerning the death markers just as well - lingered around the stones if they could. Aside from the obvious concerns about the safety of the site, it was all too possible for vengeful or unsettled spirits to be wandering around. And it was why Sakura was going to do her job as quickly, though efficiently, as possible. She wanted to be on her way before sundown. Besides, it helped her keep to her timetable, which she always held in high importance. She wondered idly if that was natural inclination or a learned response to a certain teacher.

Sakura headed toward the tree closest to the marker, knowing it was the thing most likely to still show signs of a struggle. A quick inspection revealed a good amount of missing bark and a few score marks consistent with a short blade like a kunai or something similar. With the amount of customized weapons these days it was impossible to know for sure.

She broadened her search, looking at all the other nearby trees, since they were the least affected by weathering, but found only more of the same. Some trees were missing bits of bark here and there, and while many had shallow cuts or scratches, none were nearly so deep as those by the marker, meaning that was likely the particular spot where he'd received the fatal blow.

Taking to the tree tops, she was suddenly immensely grateful for the small bit of chakra-free training she'd done with Lee. Luckily he'd seen it as more of a challenge to make her be creative in her adaptation as opposed to an actual spar, because without her chakra she'd have been beaten handily and completely. Then of course there were the times that Kakashi felt like being lazy or just plain mean and made them spar without chakra just for the hell of it. The jerk.

Still, it had done its work. With some creative acrobatics she was in among the branches, able to deftly hop from tree to tree where thick branches overlapped, even if her balance wasn't quite as stable without being able to rely on her chakra. Luckily, up at this height, she was able to see even more. If she squinted just right, she thought she might be able to see some gouges in the dirt, some scuffing that could be the place where most of the ground fighting had occurred. She noted the exact location so she could check it out later, once she was back on the ground.

Along the branches, though, she found several bare sections, the exposed skin of the tree marred by the toughened sole of a shoe pushing off with considerable force. Obviously a decent amount of the fighting, if not most, had taken place up here. She even found a group of bare spots on several separate but closely-knit trees that all pointed toward and converged on the same spot. So either the victim and assailant had come back to the same location multiple times - unlikely, though possible if one had left behind a favored weapon or something similar - or there had been multiple assailants, which was most likely.

Setting up an ambush with only one person had a lower success rate and was typically only used as a last resort or if utter delicacy and/or covertness was needed. Neither seemed to be the case here - considering they didn't bother to disfigure the body or cover signs of their attack - so she tentatively concluded that, yes, there had been multiple attackers. How many, though, was still impossible to determine.

Hopping out of a tree and landing in a crouch, she carefully made her way to the spot she'd noticed earlier, taking care to mark out the newer footprints that were evidence of her own passage. With careful inspection, after picking up and setting aside all the leaves and other detritus obscuring the place, she was able to successfully identify two partial footprints. Of course, they were from generic sandals that could belong to just about anyone, so they were no use in identifying the attackers, but at least it was something. Frankly she was glad be getting any concrete evidence out of this site. She just hoped that something she took back with her would be of use later on.

Finally, taking a deep breath, she steeled herself for the last place she needed to inspect. Spinning on her heel she walked back to the death marker, unconsciously holding her breath to prevent smelling any lingering scent of death or decay. She turned her eyes to the ground immediately in front of the marker, kneeling down in front of it. Saying a quick apology for disturbing the site, she leaned over to look more closely at the ground.

It was mostly what she'd expected. There was a good deal of ground made hard, dark from the blood the body had pumped out and lain in until it was recovered. Of course, much of it was gone, the local fauna having pecked and licked it up as food.

It was too much. The pain from her scalp, the stress of the mission, the way she'd had to both deal with being chakra blind and physically pushing herself, and now this. Nausea roiled in her gut and she bolted, making it twenty yards before expelling the contents of her stomach onto the damp grass. After a few moments she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, flopping onto her back she gazed up at the sky, watching the branches bend and weave in the wind, and just taking a minute to re-center herself.

It wasn't like death was new to her. Not only was she a shinobi but she worked in a hospital for pity's sake. She supposed it was just the combination of everything that was affecting her - the pain, the fatigue, the reminder of how small and insignificant they all were.

It didn't matter to the world that this shinobi had died. The world kept on spinning and his blood provided sustenance for others - as his body would have done as well if they hadn't retrieved it as a memorial, to be interred in the ground. Where he'd be food for insects and worms instead.

She shuddered. It just seemed all so impersonal. But she supposed it was. His death really only mattered to some people in Konoha - a mere handful when compared with the world's population at large - and maybe to the political scene to some extent. Such a small drop, really.

She knew it was more than that, though, that life was made up of a multitude of different experiences and relationships, even small moments affecting the whole and those around them. Ultimately, she couldn't decide which was the sadder case - that to nature their lives were insignificant, just a turning of the wheel, or that humans were really the only ones to have discovered the significance yet.

Exhaling slowly, she stood to her feet, making sure her stomach was back on an even keel. After all, she really didn't want to end up having to investigate around her own vomit. But really, this was not the time to be having an introspective moment. On a solo mission, deep undercover, and investigating a possible series of ambushes that could point toward a dangerous enemy? Yeah, totally the time to let her mind wander.

Laughing at herself, she pulled a sheaf of paper out of her pack and set about the tedious task of taking rubbings. Of everything. Never knew if something might come in handy down the line.

The slashes in the tree bark might be able to prove or disprove this and a later site being linked - or at least targeted by the same individual with the same weapons preference or technique. Or if any enemy was captured it could prove or disprove their connection.

Also, the amount of bark that came off a tree branch from the thrust of one particular individual pushing off was generally about the same, as this person would consistently have the same body mass, muscle strength and tension, and technique, among other things. Similarities and dissimilarities between this and other locations would be useful later on.

Even the footprints she found could be useful. Though just partials, she'd be able to determine the shoe size from the copy. If it didn't match that of the victim, from there she could loosely determine a physique - height, gender, build. While those were just general guidelines and not always accurate, at least it was something to start with.

Then there were the vials of dirt. With all her rubbings done she turned her attention to this task, gathering her vials from an assortment of locales. However she took three samples from the area with the victim's blood so she could check for poison. His body had been tested and came up negative for toxins, but there were some that evacuated the body almost instantly and new ones were being concocted all the time, so it never hurt to double check. The others she took with no real hope but crossed her fingers that luck - or vengeance - might be on her side and something might show up.

If, for instance, they'd used exploding tags - which was unlikely since she didn't see any singed foliage - some residue might still linger in the surrounding area. If they were incompetent shinobi - which she doubted, considering their success rate - or just in a hurry, then they might have shed evidence of their passage. Nothing so ridiculous as a scrap of fabric on a low hanging branch, no. She was looking for things like foreign seeds - even leaves or twigs, as some liked to chew on them - that had latched on to their clothing and hair but gotten dislodged during the fighting. Even dirt left behind by their shoes could be useful, since the exact composition varied from place to place.

However it had been so long though that she doubted that even had she been lucky and they'd left such a trail, that any of it remained. Even if some had, how likely was she to pick the exact right spots and scoop it up in these tiny little vials? Unlikely was being optimistic. Still, she was nothing if not thorough.

She spent another hour going over the place, making sure that she'd missed nothing, that she'd copied and sampled everything, before packing up and hefting her bag. Putting a hand to her eyes she squinted at the bright sky, estimating it was a little more than two past noon. If she pushed hard she could probably be home a little while after midnight. She'd prefer that to sleeping out in the open again while in such imperfect disguise.

She knew she'd have to sleep on her missions again at some point - some of them were just too far away, and too much lack of sleep made nin sloppy. But until she had functioning chakra again, and could set wards, charms, and even traps for enemies and curious allies alike, she felt naked. Exposed.

That was always a dangerous feeling.

She made another mental note to contact Tenzou as soon as she got home, asking him if he could start training first thing in the morning. Sleep could wait; this could not.

Newly determined, she shifted her pack on her shoulders and took off running.

~ ~ ~

Getting home around 1am, Sakura immediately sank onto her bed, then groaned as she remembered the things she had to do. First was getting rid of the disguise. Her ANBU uniform went into a specially crafted, triple-warded cabinet that Shizune had made herself. After that she trudged to the bathroom and chopped her hair off at the chin, setting the remains aside carefully to toss into the fireplace later, then pulled herself into the shower to start the tedious process of washing out her hair dye. Seventeen washes and an hour and a half later, she finally had pink hair again.

Staggering out of the shower half asleep, she absent-mindedly wrapped a towel around herself and grabbed the brown hair sitting on the counter. Heading to the fireplace, she threw it on top of the couple logs and kindling already in set in there. Too exhausted for building it the old fashioned way, she settled on a small exploding tag to get things going, smiling as the fire bloomed to life right away and then crinkling her nose at the smell of burning hair.

Now finally she could get to sleep. She made two clones, sending them off before lying down and falling almost instantly into slumber. One clone went to the Hokage's office to report her return. Even if Shizune or Tsunade wasn't there - and it seemed like one always was, regardless of the hour - then she could report her return to the nin on duty and consider it done. She'd have to talk to her shishou about the mission later regardless, but it was best to let them know of her safe return as soon as possible, given the nature of the mission.

The other clone she sent to Tenzou to make her request for immediate training. She didn't know if he'd be able to accept, since she didn't know his mission line-up or other obligations, but she figured the sooner she asked the easier it'd be. Hence she didn't feel bad about waking him up at this hour; they all did what they needed to in order to make sure the mission got done. She'd have gone herself but she was just too physically spent and besides, she had plenty of chakra to spare.

That clone dissipated twenty minutes later, the sudden influx of new knowledge jarring her awake and letting her know that Tenzou had agreed to her request and she now only had two and a half hours before she had to get up. She groaned aloud, her head hitting the pillow with a thud before falling quickly back asleep.

~ ~ ~

A/N: Just got back and finished this on the plane, so figured I may as well post it before hitting the hay. Sorry if there are any glaring errors or anything. Things should start picking up a bit in the next chapter or two.