Team Kakashi assembled behind the ninja academy, where their new team leader was already waiting for them. Just as Sakura had suspected, Kakashi's temporary replacement turned out to be Yamato… or Tenzō, or whatever his real name was.
Sakura goggled at the man, imitating his wide-eyed look.
He had great big, almond-shaped eyes, so dark a blue they were nearly black, and a wide mouth, which were his two most striking features. His forehead protector extended down the sides of his face like a pair of overgrown sideburns, and he wore the standard-issue flak jacket that many Leaf Chūnin and Jōnin seemed to favour.
As for Sakura, she couldn't zip up her own flak jacket past her midriff any more, so it was left to collect dust in her wardrobe. And besides, red and pink were in this season!
Sakura, so hot right now. Sakura.
"So, er… starting today," said Yamato, slightly disarmed by the intensity of Sakura's gaze, "I'll be filling in for Kakashi…"
Noticing what Sakura was up to, Naruto decided to join in, and now the two of them were staring at Yamato with wide, unblinking eyes— unsettling the poor man even further. Was this some new form of bullying that was popular with the younger generation, Yamato wondered helplessly to himself?
"Anyway, since we'll be deploying almost immediately, we'll have to get to know each other better on the way to our destination," said Yamato, pressing on. "So, er… for now, why don't you lot go ahead and introduce yourselves?"
"Uzumaki Naruto!" shouted the blond boy at once, jabbing his thumb at his chest with pride. "I'm going to be Hokage one day— you'd better believe it!"
Yamato studied the boy carefully.
This was the village's Jinchūriki— the main reason Lady Tsunade had chosen him, a Wood Style user, to act as Team 7's temporary leader. Naruto was loud, boisterous, dressed in eye-catching colours… just what sort of ninja had Kakashi-senpai been raising!?
At any rate, next up was the ridiculously top-heavy pink-haired girl. He wondered how she could fight with such large masses hanging in front of her. Didn't they get in the way of her punches and sword swings? Now that he was thinking about it, could she even put her hands together to perform hand signs!?
"I'm Haru—" Sakura began, then quickly corrected herself. "I mean, I'm Uchiha Sakura. My dream is to become the strongest, most beautiful kunoichi in the universe, so I can serve the village better and help bring about world peace!"
While Sakura's way of chasing her goals hadn't changed a bit in the last two years, her goal post had shifted, if only slightly. Where once she had sought strength simply to survive to the end of the story and beyond, she now wholeheartedly wanted to use the strength she'd built to help the friends she'd made along the way… and even those rude, whispering villagers who still muttered behind her back. They'd quickly change their tune once she saved the village from Pain!
Say what you like about the Will of Fire, even though the propaganda was insidious, it just worked.
Even so, Sakura wasn't quite ready to lay down her life for the next generation of villagers just yet… but as long as she kept growing stronger, she might never have to make that hardest of choices in her lifetime.
Yamato shifted his gaze to Sasuke.
"Uchiha Sasuke," he said, glancing briefly at Sakura. "What I want most… is to rebuild the Uchiha clan."
Sakura let out a small gasp, and Yamato's eyes widened slightly.
"All right, now that that's done, let me explain the mission," said Yamato. "The four of us will head to Tenchi Bridge in Kusagakure, capture the spy the Akatsuki planted under Orochimaru, and bring him— or her— back to the village."
"I thought we were going to be bringing the fight to Orochimaru," said Sakura in confusion, raising her hand as if she were still a student. "To confirm, this is just an extraction mission?"
From the anime, she vaguely recalled watching Naruto lose control of the Nine-Tails and smash Orochimaru's face in… and the original Sakura constantly needing to be rescued like a damsel in distress. So, the goal had never been to fight in the first place!?
"Correct, so don't get any funny ideas," said Yamato, his eyes narrowing. "The goal here is to gain intelligence on Orochimaru and Hyūga Neji— information we can then use to plot Neji's retrieval and Orochimaru's assassination."
And with that, Yamato dismissed Team 7. They were to regroup presently at the main gate, once they had packed their bags and replenished their supplies — throwing weapons, military rations, and the like.
"Whaddya think of our new team leader?" Naruto asked, sneaking a sidelong peek at Sakura's bouncing breasts as they strolled along back to their respective homes. "He looks a bit more dependable than Kakashi-sensei, dontcha think? You know?"
"That's hardly setting the bar high," Sasuke sniggered. "Take for example those brats, who think we can't see them hiding behind that rubbish bin over there, any one of them would be more reliable than Kakashi."
Konohamaru burst out from behind his hiding place, his two followers scrambling after him.
"I was not hiding, kore!" Konohamaru bristled. "I was, er…"
"Spying on Sakura-nee-san," said Moegi dully.
"That's not it, kore!" Konohamaru shouted, his face flushing bright red. "That was a tactical use of urban camouflage to sneak up on this stupid cat we're supposed to find!"
He rummaged in his pockets before triumphantly producing what appeared to be a blank sheet of paper. Then, with a slight frown of realisation, he flipped it the right way around and held it up. It was a photograph of a black‑striped, battle‑scarred cat, with a bow tie on one ear.
"That's the Fire Daimyō's wife's cat, isn't it?" Sakura remarked. "Tora, I think."
Team Ebisu had graduated from the academy only a few months ago, in late spring. Every so often, Sakura would spot the three children and their Jōnin-sensei running around the village, dashing from one odd job to the next and, more often than not, in hot pursuit of the same elusive cat. By now, after being captured so many times, Tora had grown rather adept at vanishing in plain sight.
"Do you have any advice, Naruto-nii-san?" said Udon, the snot-nosed member of Team Ebisu. "We used to be able to find it easily, but lately it's been wandering farther and farther away…"
Naruto folded his arms and let out a confident laugh.
"'Course I do!" he said boisterously, recalling the many times Team Kakashi had located lost pets. "I lost count of the number of times I caught that ugly old cat!"
Naruto opened his mouth to offer some advice… but nothing came to mind, so he was left opening and closing it like a goldfish. Come to think of it, it had always been Sasuke or Kakashi who had picked up Tora's trail with their sharp eyesight… but he couldn't very well say that out loud, could he?
Luckily, Sasuke unwittingly came to his rescue.
"In case it's slipped your mind, we've a mission to be getting on with," he drawled. "We haven't the time to go around chasing cats across the village."
"Sorry, we've got an urgent S-rank mission to handle," said Naruto, inwardly sighing in relief. "Can't be helped. Maybe next time, ya know."
The three children looked up at Naruto with wide-eyed admiration, stirring bittersweet feelings deep inside him.