Chapter 49: End of the Land of Waves
Kakashi watched Sakura walking ahead of him, his expression complicated.
He wanted to say something. He just didn't know how to start.
After all, what Sakura had done was reasoned entirely from the standpoint of the Land of Fire and Konoha.
"What's on your mind, Senpai?"
With no one else around, Sakura naturally dropped the sensei honorific.
"Sakura..."
The single black eye visible above his mask lowered slightly.
"Tazuna's getting on in years..."
Sakura's gaze fell on a small pond at the forest's edge, its calm surface mirroring the bright moon overhead — and reflecting her right back at herself.
"And that changes what?"
She looked at Kakashi, one fine pink eyebrow lifting.
"If we let Tazuna set this precedent, and word gets out — do you have any idea what happens?"
"It's not scarcity that breeds resentment. It's unfairness."
"Kakashi. You of all people understand this."
Kakashi went silent. He looked at the pink-ponytailed girl in front of him and tried, again, to speak — to salvage one life on Tazuna's behalf.
"As long as we have a clear talk with him and make him swear to keep his mouth shut, this never has to happen."
Sakura laughed — a short, mocking laugh.
She wasn't laughing at Kakashi. She was laughing at Tazuna, the absolute fool.
"And so?"
"Kakashi, are you genuinely asking me to trust the silence of a drunk who took the entire village's pooled-together payment money and poured it down his throat at bars?"
That shut Kakashi up cold.
By the time the two of them returned to Tazuna's house, everyone was already asleep. Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke had been put together in a single guest room — Naruto and Sasuke shared a bed, while Sakura, being the girl, got her own.
Sakura looked over at Sasuke, sleeping peacefully on his side of the bed, with Naruto basically welded to him like a barnacle. The corner of her mouth pulled into a deeply mischievous little smile.
If she had a camera on her right now, she would have absolutely immortalized this moment, framed two copies, and put one on each of their nightstands as ironclad photographic proof of the unbreakable bond between them~~~
The Next Morning
When the first ray of sunlight hit the black-haired boy's closed eyelids, Sasuke's lashes twitched.
He felt something heavy on his torso. Half-conscious, he rolled over.
The next instant, his eyes snapped wide open like he'd just been confronted with something out of a nightmare!
"NARUTO!!!"
Sasuke's face flushed crimson. With the offended dignity of a freshly-wronged bride, he yanked the arm currently wrapped firmly around his waist off of him and scrambled, half-rolling and half-falling, off the bed.
"Eh?"
"Who's calling me?"
The shriek had been so genuinely traumatized that the bleary-eyed blond gremlin sat upright in bed, rubbing his eyes.
"NARUTO!!"
"You absolute bastard!!!"
"You spent the whole night wrapped around me!!!"
Sasuke glared at the still-half-asleep blond, mortified.
"Eh?"
Naruto blinked, marginally more awake, eyelids drooping as he stared at this Sasuke who was visibly suppressing... something.
"No. Forget it. Nothing..."
Sasuke clenched his teeth and ultimately could not get the words out.
If nobody knows, then it didn't happen!
"You two... so loud..."
Sakura sat up in bed, her cherry-pink hair loose around her shoulders, giving the two boys — already showcasing the depth of their bond at this hour — a deeply unimpressed look.
"E-heh heh, Sakura-chan, morning..."
"It's all Sasuke's fault, getting up to nonsense first thing in the morning."
The instant Naruto saw Sakura sitting up, his eyes lit up and he scrambled over to tattle.
E-heh heh, Sakura-chan's just-woke-up face...
Sakura-chan with her hair down is so pretty~~~
"You blond gremlin, go bother your second pillar~~~"
Sakura pushed him back with one hand, eyelids still heavy.
Naruto blinked.
Blond gremlin?
Was that... him?
Over on the other side, Sasuke had also gone still.
Second pillar...?
Him?
Then who's thefirstpillar?
Two more days passed, and the Land of Waves bridge was complete. Team Seven's mission was officially a smashing success.
Naruto waved both arms goodbye to the assembled villagers and scrambled to catch up to Kakashi and the others, who'd already started off ahead.
Sakura turned her head and let those green eyes rest on Tazuna in the crowd for one beat. Then she turned back and took her first step onto the road home to Konoha.
Kakashi glanced at the perfectly composed Sakura, glanced at Tazuna behind them — beaming and waving the team off — then glanced at Naruto and Sasuke, both blissfully oblivious. He sighed inwardly.
In that moment, he thought of his father — the legendary White Fang of the Leaf.
What Sakura had done was correct.
No matter what — Konoha's interests could not be allowed to take damage...
And just like that, Kakashi unconsciously slipped right back into his lazy slacker persona, ready to not think about any of it...
"BWAHAHAHA!"
"His Lordship Naruto Uzumaki has returned!"
The blond gremlin caught sight of the familiar Konoha gates, let out a triumphant whoop, and made to charge straight in.
The eternal gate-keeper Kotetsu Hagane stepped right into his path with a hand out.
"Eh?"
Naruto blinked at the chūnin in front of him, briefly thrown.
Sakura, on pure reflex, started to reach for a kunai with her travel pass strapped to it — to throw it onto the gatehouse roof, the way ANBU operatives did. Her hand had already entered the tool pouch before she forced herself to stop.
Right. I'm not in ANBU anymore...
Kakashi caught the small arrested motion — having spent ten years in ANBU himself, how could he not recognize the unit's old proud little tradition? He drifted up to Kotetsu with his lazy smile and handed over the team's pass.
"Oh, Kakashi-senpai. This mission took quite a while, didn't it?"
Kotetsu clearly knew Kakashi. He glanced at the pass, laughed, and waved them through.
"Tch, what's with the attitude. Just like Sasuke."
Naruto pulled a face at Kotetsu on his way past.
"Naruto, manners."
"Kotetsu's just doing his job."
Kakashi smacked him lightly on the head.
"Tch, idiot."
Sasuke shot the blond gremlin a sidelong eye-roll. He had a sneaking suspicion that ever since being put on a team with Naruto, his daily eye-roll count had been steadily climbing — at this rate he was going to develop the Hyūga family's Byakugan from sheer overuse.
Kakashi looked at the Hokage Monument in the distance and pressed his lips together.
The Land of Waves trip was now officially behind them. Which meant the Chūnin Exams were right around the corner.
This Chūnin Exam was a joint event with the Hidden Stone in the Land of Earth and the Hidden Sand in the Land of Wind — an unprecedented arrangement in the history of the shinobi world.
The Sand was one thing — they were nominally allies. But the Stone had only joined in because of the resources angle...
That alone gave Kakashi plenty to think about.
Then he glanced at the pink-haired girl beside him and found his nerves settling. With this one around, Naruto and Sasuke were, at minimum, perfectly safe...