#11 - The Waves: Part 1

A long time ago, a ninja was the kind of warrior that could turn the tides of war in the favour of the nation they served.

A single ninja was considered to have the military might of 100 civilians. A ray of hope for their country and a beacon of fear for their enemies.

Now those same ninjas were hiding in bushes and trees in pursuit of a cat.

"This is Sasuke. Arrived at point B."

"This is Tsubaki. I'm here but I want to go home."

...

"This is Naruto. Arrived at Point A."

"You're slow Naruto," Kakashi said, not even acknowledging Tsubaki's remark. "Okay, Team 7... hm - the target is on the move! After it!" Kakashi ordered and Tsubaki was moving despite her reluctance. She found herself behind the trunk of a tree, hiding from a cat.

"Confirm your distance from the target," Kakashi asked,

Tsubaki rolled her eyes, "close enough that the cat can smell us," she answered,

"5 meters, I'm ready to go," Naruto answered, he was always such a good boy.

"I'm ready to go too," Sasuke added. What was his deal anyway? He was the opposite of a good boy so why was he taking it so seriously?

"Okay...Go!" Kakashi snapped, and Sasuke and Naruto leapt at the cat, Tsubaki strolled out of her hiding place with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, as Naruto captured the cat and proceeded to get mauled by it.

"Does it have a ribbon on its right ear. Confirm that it's our target," Kakashi said through the ear-pieces.

"It's the target for sure," Sasuke replied, while Tsubaki watched Naruto writhe around on the floor in mild amusement.

"Okay, operation 'Capture Tora, The Lost Pet' complete," Kakashi announced.

"ISN'T THERE A MORE EXCITING MISSION WE CAN DO!" Naruto's sudden scream had Tsubaki ripping the earpiece out of her ear and throwing it a good distance away from her.

"Naruto, I will murder you!" Sasuke snapped, his own hand cupping his ear.

Sasuke ended up not murdering Naruto since he was in charge of carrying the cat. Tora would become very violent towards Naruto, but as soon as Sasuke had him in his arms, he was purring up a storm and nuzzling against his neck.

"I didn't peg you for a cat person," Tsubaki noted, and he shrugged,

"It's a clan thing," he answered, she nodded in understanding, but Naruto spoke up,

"What does that even mean?" and Tsubaki realised that maybe people without clans wouldn't know about clan-exclusive summoning contracts.

"Basically, some clans have an exclusive contract with a summoning animal. It means that the people of that clan are naturally liked by that animal and their chakra is more compatible with it." She explained.

"Heeeh, that's cool, do you have one?" Naruto asked, and Tsubaki paused, wondering how to phrase her answer,

"The Amaya clan's summoning animal is called the 'red-crowned crane' - it's a specific species of crane with a patch of red on the top it's head." She explained, not mentioning that she explicitly wasn't allowed to form a contract with it.

"A crane huh? That suits you," Kakashi said as he joined them randomly. Tsubaki whirled around at the sound of his voice and glared,

"How long have you been there?" She demanded, a little peeved that she hadn't been able to sense him, Sasuke looked just as spooked though he tried to play it off,

"Long enough," Kakashi shrugged smugly.

They arrived at the Administrative building with Tora napping in Sasuke's arms - the poor thing's eyes snapped open and a desperate yowl left his lips as soon as he was in the arms of Madame Shijimi, the 3rd wife of the Feudal Lord.

She was apparently one of his higher-ranked concubines on an inspection visit but had lost her cat on the day she was returning - so of course, the Hokage assured her he would have his best ninja; Kakashi of the Sharingan, on the case immediately.

Not that Kakashi of the Sharingan actually did anything. Tsubaki couldn't complain though since neither had she.

"Now then, Kakashi's Team 7's next mission is..." The Hokage rummaged through some papers, "Babysitting Yojyu-sama's boy, shopping in the neighbouring town, helping dig up potatoes at...." he paused at Naruto's sudden shriek of -

"Noooo! No thanks to all of those!" He declared, "I want to a more, like, super exciting mission! Choose something else!" He demanded. Although she didn't approve of his method, Tsubaki nodded alongside him, if Naruto throwing his little tantrum meant they didn't have to do any more chores then she was all for it.

She was sick of cleaning up infant vomit and making sure Naruto didn't start fighting actual 5-year-olds and Sasuke's presence had awoken hormones in little girls that shouldn't even have been there for another 5 years which was a whole other problem of its own - and that was just the babysitting missions.

"Idiot! You're still a novice! Everyone needs to start with the easy missions to gain experience!" Iruka snapped,

"But - but we've only been doing dumb missions lately!" Naruto whined, too busy yelling at Iruka to notice Kakashi's fist before it had already thumped him on the head.

"Naruto, it looks like I need to explain to you what missions are," the Hokage said and Tsubaki, who could sense the lecture coming, rolled her eyes, resting a hand on Sasuke's shoulder and leaning in to whisper,

"Just because he's dumb doesn't mean he's wrong." Sasuke glanced to her and nodded but turned around to listen again because he was nothing if not diligent.

Tsubaki just sighed and just watched blankly while the Hokage went through the most basic of basic information with Naruto - she was pretty sure he had skipped the class when they went through missions because he was trying to carve his own face into the Hokage Mountain.

"What do you want to eat tonight?" She asked Sasuke, who frowned considering the question carefully,

"I'm craving something sweet," he answered finally,

"You can't just have dessert though, what about you Naruto?" Tsubaki asked, who was still sat on the floor, he shuffled his butt so his back was to the Hokage, who was still explaining missions and frowned,

"I had tonkotsu ramen yesterday, so I think I'm going to have miso ramen today -" he was saying when he was cut off by the Hokage who had finally realised no one had been paying any attention to whatever he was saying,

"Listen!" The Hokage snapped and Kakashi, who had also been listening in to their dinner plans rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly,

"I am sorry about them,"

Naruto, on the other hand, was completely unapologetic, "You're always lecturing me like that gramps! But I'm not the kid who always used to play around and pull pranks anymore!" He declared, crossing his arms and pouting.

"Didn't he try to replace Kakashi-sensei's shampoo with hair dye yesterday?" Tsubaki whispered to Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes.

"Okay, I understand," the Hokage said and even Sasuke perked up at that, "If you're going to insist so much then I will allow you to take on a C-rank mission, it is an escort mission," the Hokage said. Tsubaki regarded Naruto with a little more respect, if his tantrums had that much sway, then maybe she could use that someday.

"For real? Who? Who? The Feudal Lord? Or one of the princesses?" He asked eagerly,

"It wouldn't be a C-rank mission for someone that important, idiot." Tsubaki sighed,

"Tsubaki is right, don't get so hasty. I'll introduce you to him now," he said, with a smile, some part of Tsubaki didn't trust that smile, and she was right to be cautious, because a moment later, there was a drunken dwarf man standing at the doorway.

"What? They're all kids!" Was the first thing he said before drinking directly from the bottle in his hand, Tsubaki wrinkled her nose as the smell of booze wafted through the room. He smelled like liver failure.

"Hey is the smallest one with the idiotic face really even a ninja?" the man asked, and Naruto laughed boisterously,

"Hey, who's the smallest one with the idiotic face?" he asked gleefully and Tsubaki sighed, stepping forward so they were lined up together, Sasuke did the same.

Sasuke beat Tsubaki by 2 cm but Naruto was 5cm smaller than her. As soon as he realised it was him, Kakashi had to hold him back by the collar of his jumpsuit because he had tried to leap at the client.

"I'm gonna kill you!" He was screaming

"I've told you to buy vegetable side dishes - if you only eat ramen you won't get the right nutrients and your growth will be stunted," Tsubaki scolded, Sasuke smirked,

"So not only are you useless, you're stunted too," he gloated.

"Sasuke you ass!" Naruto was trying to fight him now.

"I am the great bridge-building expert, Tazuna. Once we return to my country, I will have all of you protect my life with yours while I complete the bridge," he declared.

"Would you normally call yourself 'great'?" Tsubaki snorted,

"An arrogant drunkard," Sasuke sighed,

"Is a bridge-building expert even a real thing?" Naruto asked.

Tazuna bristled at their comments, "Just do your jobs you damn brats!" he screamed, completely irritated.

Kakashi sighed heavily, before leading them out of the room, one hand still on Naruto's shoulder because he did not trust the boy to leave the room peacefully.

"This mission will last quite a while, so make sure you prepare yourself to be away from your homes for a few weeks. Is there anything specific you need to do?" Kakashi asked them, Naruto and Sasuke shook their heads.

"Tsubaki?" Kakashi asked - she was frowning down at her feet.

"Ah, um, I'll need to get permission from the clan to leave the village so..." she trailed off awkwardly. Kakashi nodded,

"That's fine, I can speak for you if there's a problem so just let me know if you need help okay?" He asked gently. He vaguely knew of her circumstances since all the teachers had been given their student's files and had made home-visits before choosing their team.

Kakashi especially had been given an in-depth tour of their circumstances since he had a slightly more special team of emotional baggage and unique abilities.

"Thanks, Sensei, but it shouldn't be an issue since it's a mission. I'll see you guys soon okay?" She told Naruto and Sasuke who nodded but stared after her, confused.

Now that they thought about it, Tsubaki knew all about them, their problems and goals and dreams, but she never really talked about herself - not specifically anyway.

Both Naruto and Sasuke knew a lot of things about her; they knew she liked pouring the sauce all over her food instead of dipping, they knew she couldn't drink things with ice in them because her teeth her sensitive and they knew she had very little impulse control when it came to shopping.

But they didn't know anything about her home life, they had always assumed it was usual and normal because she also had a nice bento and smiled a lot, but as she walked away from them, somehow it felt like they didn't really know anything at all.

"Hey, is something wrong with Tsubaki leaving the village?" Naruto asked Kakashi, after a moment of silence. Kakashi paused, then realised that she hadn't told them anything, had she? Because even Sasuke was looking up at him with interest.

"Ah, it's not my place to say. Let's just say things are a little bit complicated for her," He told them, before forcing them to leave and pack for their mission, before they could ask any questions.