IT'S ALL FOR THE MISSION (Sasuke x Naruto)

Prologue

Amegakure, the land where the rain never stopped. Lightning flashed every now and then, lighting up his face..the piercing Rinnegan in his eyes made him look less like a man and more like some kind of god. At least, that's what he believed.

Behind him, Konan shuffled her paper crafting another intricate crane. The soft rustle of her origami was the only sound that broke the silence.

"The Land of Waves," she said, her tone calm like she wasn't suggesting something outrageous. "It's out of the way, isolated. Nobody bothers with it."

Pain didn't look at her. His eyes stayed fixed on the storm outside, like he could see something in the rain that wasn't there. "It's more than just a hideout"

Konan nodded slightly, her gaze drifting to the horizon. "The leader there, Gato. He's got a reputation. Greedy and Money hungry. He won't comply easily."

From the dark, a low sinister chuckle escaped through the room, "He won't need to," said a voice that carried both amusement and malice.

Konan's head tilted, and Pain finally turned. A figure stepped out from the darkness, his cloak brushing the ground and his one eye glowing red with the Sharingan.

....

 Inside Hokage tower, Tsunade was pissed off for reasons she didn't care to recount at this point. Being trapped in her office  on a hot summer day wasn't anyone's idea of fun, and it certainly wasn't hers. Her golden locks stuck to the back of her neck, and the lack of a decent cooling system in the entire village only made things hard.

To make it worse, she was drowning in an ocean of paperwork that had been piling up for days. Shizune, her ever diligent assistant had added insult to injury by confiscating her sake to ensure the overdue documents were finally completed. It was a personal betrayal, and Tsunade could already feel her sanity slipping.

The sound of hurried footsteps broke her train of thought, followed by the door slamming open and hitting the wall with a dull crack.

"Hokage-sama, Team Eight is already back!" That was Shizune's announcement as she rushed in through the door.

Tsunade groaned inwardly. What now? Can I get one fucking break in this damn village? Her honey-brown eyes glanced at the crack in the wall before flicking back to Shizune. "Send them in," she ordered tiredly.

They look fine, but what's the matter? They're my best team when it comes to tracking enemies, at least out of all the Chūnin, she thought and studied them from head to toe.

The three ninjas were sent to The Land of Waves to locate and capture a group of rogue civilians. There wasn't enough information about them, and Team Eight's tracking abilities came in handy for this kind of mission. Their last report mentioned that the group were heading to a civilian village located in the land of waves. It was two weeks ago, so what had exactly happened since then? The mission had been assigned to last for over ten months.

"Hokage-sama?" This brought Tsunade's attention to Shino, the captain of Team Eight for this mission

The mission she had assigned them was A-ranked, with the collaboration of the Mist village and the leaf village. Other Great Nations are involved in this mess but they have yet to make a move. 

Kiba started, looking both embarrassed and frustrated. "We were able to track the group to a civilian village, but things got... complicated. They weren't exactly welcoming to outsiders, especially ninja."

Shino nodded in agreement. "The village is highly guarded, with strict policies against ninja entering their borders. It was immediately clear that their distrust wasn't just cultural—it was tactical. They're hiding something, Hokage-sama."