"Open wide, Tenpuramaru," Sakura cooed. "You won't survive Pain's invasion unless you grow big and strong…"
Sakura sprinkled fish feed into Tenpuramaru's bowl and watched as the small goldfish nibbled at the tiny flecks suspended in the water. He hadn't grown much since she'd won him at a goldfish-scooping stand, which worried her slightly.
'Do you think Isaribi-chan can talk to fish, like that one superhero from those American films?' said Inner Sakura. 'Maybe she could talk to Tenpuramaru and tell us what's wrong with him. Or her.'
Isaribi had been released from custody after it had become apparent that she had been blackmailed into helping the true culprits behind the attacks on the Land of the Sea, Amachi and Orochimaru. Tsunade had promised Isaribi she'd do her utmost to reverse what had been done to her— she felt personally responsible for her plight, since the blame lay with her former teammate Orochimaru, who had technically still been a Konoha shinobi at the time of the experiments.
"Sakura-chan!" Mebuki called from downstairs. "Your friends are here to see you! The short blonde one and the handsome one you used to keep talking about!"
"Who are you calling short?!" Naruto shouted, his voice rattling the walls.
Girls matured earlier than boys, so for now, Sakura still stood a little taller than Sasuke and Naruto— but it wouldn't be long before she found herself in their shadows…
Determined to get her visitors out of the house before her parents could embarrass her any further with the original Sakura's dark history, Sakura hurried out of her room and ran down the stairs to the living room, where she found Naruto and Sasuke nursing cups of tea with her mother and her father.
"Sakura-chan!" said Naruto, his face brightening up considerably as he watched her bounce down the stairs.
"There's no way you're leaving the house dressed like that!" said Kizashi, doing his best to sound stern. "Didn't your mother buy you new clothes for the New Year?"
Sasuke took a sip of his green tea, watching with quiet longing as Sakura and her parents launched into a loud argument about how much she was costing them in clothes. Sasuke noted that the walls in their apartment were quite thin, so the neighbours could doubtlessly hear every word being said…
Eventually, Sakura had enough, and she stormed out of her apartment despite her parents' protestations, followed closely by Naruto and Sasuke. So what if her dress was as revealing as the Hokage's? Lady Tsunade represented the entire village, and nobody disrespected her!
…and a few minutes later, Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were standing at attention in front of the Hokage's desk, like the good child soldiers they were. Also, for some reason, there was a messenger pigeon standing on Tsunade's head.
Naruto put his hands in front of his mouth to stifle his chortles.
"The Hidden Star Village calls for aid," began Tsunade, unperturbed. "I want you three to head there immediately and offer any assistance you can. The details are in this scroll right here."
She pushed a scroll across her desk to them.
"They're a hidden shinobi village just like us, aren't they?" asked Naruto pointedly. "Why don't they solve their own problems, y'know?"
"The Hidden Star Village is extremely small and weak, even for a minor village," explained Tsunade. "Even so, they are exceedingly prideful and ambitious, meaning they have very few friends and many enemies."
Basically, the Five Great Shinobi Villages could have crushed the Hidden Star Village whenever they felt like it, but they didn't, choosing instead to keep it around as a joke. It was just too funny watching them puff themselves up with self-importance! They had even gone as far as to elect a Hoshikage, even though the Kage title was reserved for the leaders of the Five Greats!
'Isn't it, like, totes hilarious how they're, like, trying so hard to make themselves look important?' said Inner Sakura snarkily. 'Like, calm down, you're not that deep. Ugh.'
At 17 years of age, Inner Sakura— the fusion of the original Sakura's subconscious and Sakura's former teenage boy self's subconscious— was deep into her JK phase, so Sakura chose to ignore her, since she had nothing helpful to say.
But in all seriousness, the continued existence of the Hidden Star Village was due to its usefulness as a buffer between major powers, and the existence of the meteorite that gave star shinobi the ability to solidify their chakra and easily form chakra constructs.
"So, is it just going to be us three?" asked Sakura. "What about Kakashi-sensei? He's not coming?"
"You've all proved yourselves quite capable of handling threats far beyond your age and rank," replied Tsunade steadily. "It would be wasteful to allocate an Elite Jōnin's valuable time resources on babysitting you lot for such an easy mission, so you're going by yourselves."
Removing the Kurosuki crime family from Katabami Mine, defeating the foreign invaders from overseas, repelling Orochimaru and saving the Land of the Sea… those were all S-rank feats!
If Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were indeed the elites Tsunade claimed they were, then why weren't they being paid like it? Each of them was easily Tokubetsu Jōnin-level, yet they were still receiving Genin- and Chūnin-tier cuts from mission commissions, while the village pocketed the rest…
'Unfair!' pouted Inner Sakura, puffing up her cheeks cutely.
"Besides," Tsunade added, "Kakashi's not available— he's taking an early vacation, considering you'll all be heading out on a long mission overseas, come early summer."
"A long mission?" echoed Sakura, before adding, "oi, what about our vacation!? Don't we get one?"
It was still April, so summer was still a bit under two months away.
"The commissioner specifically requested you by name," Tsunade explained, ignoring Sakura's afterthought. "The client's an extremely wealthy nobleman, and he's paid a hefty sum to reserve Team Kakashi's protection services, and— why am I even telling you this!? Get out of my office and get moving— you already have a mission to focus on!"
And just like that, after months of inactivity, Team 7 (minus Kakashi) was back on the road!
Destination: Hoshigakure, in the Land of Bears!