A Subtle Shift

6| The Attack

Danzo slammed his fists down onto the table, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He should have saw this coming from a mile away—Lady Hokage assigning the Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki to a team. It was clear she was trying to protect him from Danzo, making his job even more difficult.

But this also gave him the advantage.

His looked up at six of his ROOT members, his eyes wild with determination. "Team 7 is departing for a mission today. Your job is to capture Naruto Uzumaki, even if that means killing the other members of Team 7, but do not kill the Junchuriki. You got that?"

With Lady Tsunade assigning Naruto onto more and more missions, that gave Danzo more and more opportunities to strike, leaving the attacks anonymous. If his attacks were always within the village, it'd be clear someone on the inside was doing the dirty work.

But this—Lady Hokage had no idea what she had gotten herself into, and Danzo planned to exploit that as much as possible.

———

"Don't try anything reckless," Sasuke said to Sakura, walking alongside her as they made their way to Konoha's gates. He was lecturing her again, something he pretty much did before every mission they went on.

He only started doing so a year ago, when Sakura nearly died for the sake of the mission, throwing herself over the side of a cliff to retrieve a vital scroll. The twist, though, was that there were enemy ninja falling alongside her, managing to pierce her 20 times with shuriken and kunai before Kakashi was able to catch her before she crashed into a ravine.

Sakura let out an exasperated sigh. "Yeah, yeah, I know."

Sasuke dipped his head to look down at her. He narrowed his eyes slightly. "I'm serious, Sakura. I'm telling you this because I care about you." He rested his hand on her head. She shooed it off, crossing her arms.

"I'll only do it if it's our last option," she offered, and Sasuke was immediately shaking his head. Sakura frowned, turning away. "Stop treating me like a child. I can handle myself, you know."

It's not that she didn't appreciate the attention she got from Sasuke, it's just that she didn't always want him telling her what and what not to do. He was always worrying about her on missions, even though he knew about her capability and about her 100 Healings.

Sasuke stopped walking, making Sakura stop as he turned to face her.

"I know how capable you are," he said, resting a hand on her shoulder. He tilted his head slightly. "Still, that doesn't erase the fear I have in the moment of your recklessness. It'll always be there. I'm not treating you like I would a child. I'm treating you cautiously like this because you are my girlfriend, and I don't intend on letting you die any time soon." He leaned forward and planted a kiss on her forehead before taking her hand and tugging her forward. "Now come on."

———

It was hard to know what to prepare for since this was Naruto's very first mission. He was basically panicking on what to bring, almost entirely clueless. Still, he brought everything he felt was necessary, keeping his load light at the same time.

By the time he reached the gates of Konoha, Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato were already there, and Sasuke and Sakura were walking toward them, hand-in-hand (which Naruto guessed was the maximum amount of affection Sasuke allowed for other people to see). Naruto reached up and adjusted his headband as Yamato pulled out a map, rolling it open.

The six of them got in a circle, eyeing the map.

"We're here," Kakashi said, pointing to what Naruto assumed was Konoha. "Tenchi Bridge is here." He pointed to a place pretty far from Konoha. "The trip should take a little more than two days. If we leave now, we should arrive at least half a day before Kabuto and Sasori do, giving us time to prepare for battle."