Sunlight filtered through the dense of canopy of tree leaves, causing a few ferns covered in morning dew to glisten prettily in the rays of gold coming from above. Beneath the rustling leaves and the singing songbirds perched high up on their branches, four figures trudged along a narrow, well-trodden dirt path that snaked between the trees, their loud arguments preceding them by hundreds of metres.
At any rate, leaving aside the loudmouths ruining the quiet peacefulness of the forest, it was promising to be a beautiful October day— it was neither too hot nor too cold, which was a welcome change of pace from the endless rain of the previous day…
"Remind us again why we're going on this mission, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked nervously, glancing behind her every three metres. "I've never even heard of the Land of Honey before— are we sure this place really exists? This couldn't be a trap, or anything like that, right?"
After her last encounter with the Akatsuki, Sakura was understandably nervous about leaving the safety of the Hidden Leaf— at least, while she was still in a weakened state.
"Relax, Sakura," said Kakashi calmly. "This mission was issued more than a month ago by the sister of the Land of Honey's Daimyō— I can guarantee that it has nothing to do with the Akatsuki."
The Land of Honey was one of those tiny countries sandwiched in the thin strip of land between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth, and to get there, Team Kakashi had been forced to travel through the Land of Rain's territory.
In this timeline, the Hidden Sand had decided against reforming its military alliance with the Hidden Leaf, which meant that the Land of Wind's borders had been closed to them. As a result, Kakashi had elected to pass through the Land of Rain, a country so weak and small that it couldn't possibly refuse them safe passage— not knowing that it was actually a tiger's den!
"Sakura's right— this mission is a waste of our time," Sasuke drawled. "Even our resident loser could complete it on his own."
"Oi!" Naruto roared. "Who are you calling a loser!?"
"I never mentioned you by name, but it looks like you managed to piece it together all the same," said Sasuke loftily. "Good for you— at least you're not so hopeless that you can't recognise just how much of a loser you are."
The whole trip had been — with the high-strung Sasuke constantly antagonising Naruto, and with the hapless Naruto only understanding about half of the abuse hurled his way. Not that he needed to understand Sasuke's words to know that he was being insulted— the conceited sneer on his rival's face when he talked to him was enough of a giveaway.
"That's enough, you two— we're almost at the mission area," said Kakashi sharply. "This is exactly why I picked an easy mission for us— it's been a while since you've all fought side by side, so you need to relearn how to work together as a team."
"As if I'd need that bastard's help!" said Naruto hotly. "I'll take care of those thieves all by myself— just watch me, Sakura!"
Even though he was currently busy being mad at Sasuke, Naruto never missed a chance to shoot his shot with Sakura!
"Come on, let's not fight," said Sakura encouragingly. "The sooner we can get this stupid statue, the sooner we can go back home!"
"Agreed," said Sasuke.
Kakashi's eyebrows twitched.
The whole point of this mission was to get their teamwork up to speed— rushing the job and doing sloppy work wasn't exactly the lesson he was trying to teach them here!
"Let's review the mission's details before you begin," Kakashi sighed. "Forty days ago, a solid gold statue was stolen from the Honey Daimyō's mansion by a local band of thieves, and if the reports are to be believed, their group should only be composed of ordinary men— however, seeing as the Land of Honey's authorities haven't managed to catch the culprits after all this time, there may be more than meets the eye to this."
Kakashi paused briefly and looked at his three pupils in turn.
"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura," Kakashi continued. "Your task is to find and retrieve the stolen statue and to capture the thieves. Understood?"
"And what will you be doing, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked cheekily.
"Who knows," said Kakashi mysteriously. "Well, then, off you go…"
And having given them the mission parameters, Kakashi flickered into the tree branches, to watch over his pupils' progress from above… only to find that Sasuke had managed to follow his movements with his eyes. To think that his three cute pupils, who had used to hang on his every word and action like it was divine revelation, were now … those three had grown up into rebellious teenagers, Kakashi bitterly thought to himself!
"What are you looking at?" Naruto rudely asked Sasuke, who was looking up and staring back at Kakashi. "Didn't ya hear, or d'ya have wax in your ears? Kakashi-sensei gave us a job to do!"
"Better deaf than blind," said Sasuke snidely. "…loser."
Sakura rolled her eyes and got down on her knees, feeling a vague sense of pride upon feeling her newly grown D-cup breasts jostling into each other as she placed both of her palms flat against the ground.
"Area Scanning Jutsu!"
Chakra rippled outwards from her palms and into the ground.
"Was that a new Jutsu, Sakura?" Naruto asked curiously, turning away from Sasuke.
"I learned it from Lady Tsunade while I was in the hospital," answered Sakura, who was, as always, wishy-washy when it came to picking something to focus on. "There are around ten people grouped up due west from here— I think it might be our culprits."
Unbeknownst to her, the original Sakura had also learned this technique from Tsunade. It was a Sensing Jutsu that worked better indoors and underground, since it functioned a lot like a ground-penetrating radar, but it could also detect anything within a certain radius that was in contact with the ground!
"Bet I can take down more thieves than you, ya know," Naruto goaded Sasuke.
"In your dreams, loser," Sasuke fired back.
The enemies this time would all be normal men who didn't know how to use chakra— how threatening could they possibly be? What could possibly go wrong?
"How about we make this interesting?" Sakura proposed. "Whoever takes down the least has to pay for everyone's post-mission celebratory ramen at Ichiraku's!"
However, unbeknownst to Team Kakashi, while their victory over the thieves was all but assured, it would be a victory that Sakura would end up paying dearly for… and for the rest of her days, she would look back upon this fine October morning as the single most embarrassing and mortifying moment in her entire life!