♥︎|𝕮𝖍𝖆𝖘𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖋𝖙𝖊𝖗 𝖞𝖔𝖚|♥︎𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐮|𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝

第3章

chapter 3: watch you slip through my hands

Sometimes, Haruno Sakura wondered how she managed to stay sane when she was surrounded by complete and total maniacs.

They'd been on the road for just over two days now and, while every member of Team 7 knew what this mission was really about, none of them were very worried. After facing down Obito and the Akatsuki, some Iwa-nin with a grudge just weren't all that scary. It helped, of course, that none of the three of them were truly genin.

Kanasake Senzo treated them like the teenagers they were, underestimating Sakura and Naruto because of their gender and ages. Itachi was a name feared throughout the Elemental Nations and Sasuke, by virtue of also being an Uchiha, was afforded the same respect. Sakura and Naruto, though, that was a totally different matter. Naruto, with the way she'd grown up, had no problem letting Kanasake's attitude roll off of her but Sakura just couldn't do the same. Unfortunately for Kanasake, he was as foolish as he was easily bought.

"Oi! Blondie!" Kanasake hollered, "Fetch me more stew."

"Fetch it yourself," Naruto retorted without even turning around from where she was talking to Sakura.

"You're my guard, you're being paid to see to my needs." The civilian didn't suppress a leer and his eyes lingered on Naruto's ass.

"I'm being paid to save your life if or when it's threatened. Nothing more, nothing less." Naruto said, then a smirk twisted her lips before she continued, "If you're that eager for more stew, though," moving so fast that she was little more than a blur of golden hair, Naruto grabbed the almost empty pot of food and upended it over Kanasake's head.

Itachi and Sasuke had to turn away to hide their smirks as their client practically exploded with rage and tried to get his hands around Naruto's neck. Needless to say, he wasn't having much luck. Sakura, meanwhile, wasn't bothering to contain her satisfaction at seeing their aggravating charge being brought down a peg or two. Itachi was about to intervene when the clearing was flooded with killing intent and the ninja's snapped to attention. They all noticed Kanasake scurry towards his tent to get out of the range of fighting but they ignored him, concentrating instead on the half dozen Iwa nin that suddenly surrounded them, all eyes on Naruto.

"Namikaze!" One of them growled and Naruto cursed under her breath.

Suddenly, a lot of things started to make more sense. Then there was no more time for thinking because the Iwa nin were attacking. It wasn't a long battle. Kanasake had informed the people paying him that he was being escorted by Kakashi's genin team with Uchiha Itachi filling in as leader. As such, the Iwa ambush was composed of two ANBU and four jōnin level ninja. It was almost child's play. Itachi didn't even activate his sharingan, choosing instead to give his kenjutsu a workout while Sasuke showed them why the Uchiha were renowned for their fire jutsu and Sakura let her fists do the talking. If she also took the opportunity to vent her frustrations and ended up remodelling the landscape in the process, well, nobody from Konoha was brave enough to comment on it. Naruto, for her part, had definitely inherited her father's innate speed. She might not have the the Flying Thunder God Technique in her repertoire yet, but Kurama augmented her reaction times making her far faster than the average ninja. Her hair flew around her as she twirled and slashed her way through the Iwa ninja, leaving a short-lived but unmistakable trail of yellow that fueled the Iwa ninja's anger and made them sloppy. In the end, the backup ANBU team that Tsunade had assigned wasn't even needed and ended up watching from the sidelines, slightly disappointed, as the Iwa nin were defeated, bound and gagged in mere minutes.

"So," Sasuke said once the Iwa nin had been carted off back to Konoha along with a snivelling Kanasake. "Namikaze?"

Naruto rolled her eyes.