Konoha's Maelstrom

12

When Team 7 arrived back in the village, all four got A-Rank pay for the mission.

They went on several D-rank and three C-rank missions after that.

The first C-rank after the Land of Waves mission was two weeks after. That mission consisted of Team 7 escorting a merchant to Sunagakure. The second one was some bandits causing trouble on a road and Team 7 were sent to deal with them. The third C-rank mission was an escort mission to the village from the Land of Tea and that C-rank became a B-rank due to some B-rank missing-nin trying to ambush them.

All in all, very simple. So, May and June passed pretty easily for Team 7, and soon July arrived.

Meiko and Sasuke never exactly spoke about what happened in the ice dome either, but they seemed to be working together a lot better and maybe even communicating without immediately glaring at each other, well most times. Sometimes, those two just glanced at each other and then turned away without acknowledging each other's presence.

Kakashi was beginning to think there was no hope in a friendship between them because, just ast the two worked better together, they immediately shoved each other far away (mentally and physically).

It was similar on these D-rank missions, where Sauske or Meiko might make a tiny competition and they'd have fun, and then Meiko and Sasuke would go back to saying insults to each other non-stop. If Kakashi didn't know any better, he'd say they had crushes on each other, but he did know better, and he knew something happened in that ice dome—the one where Meiko let the Kyuubi chakra out—and it had changed something between the two.

Kakashi arrived late to the meeting point of Team 7 and kind of just listened as Sakura shouted that he was late again. Meiko kind of gave him an unimpressed look and Sasuke didn't even bother sparing him a look.

They went on some D-rank missions, and then Kakashi turned away to file his reports about the missions. As long as his students performed well and trained fine, drama between them was not his problem unless it hindered their field work, which it didn't.

鳴戸

Kakashi had quickly left after their missions were over. Meiko and Sasuke had had a competition and Meiko had won, Sasuke was being a sore loser.

"You really are just one big loser," Sasuke said.

"Oh yeah? I saved your damn life."

"I saved yours!"

Meiko laughed. "My save was cooler, but you were unconscious and didn't see it."

Sakura glared at Meiko. "Enough! One more word out of your mouth, Meiko, and I will end you!" She looked like she was about to hit Meiko.

Meiko spared Sakura a glance, giving her the Namikaze-look, asking if she really could fight Meiko and win. The thing was, when the teams had been chosen, Sakura could have confidently said yes, she could defeat Meiko. Now? All Sakura knew was that Meiko had been acknowledged by an A-rank missing-nin and she hadn't.

Meiko returned her gaze to Sasuke and grinned.

"Hn," Sasuke, ever the Uchiha, said. He then turned away and left, refusing to reply.

Sakura shot Meiko one last look before looking at Sasuke's retreating figure. "Oh, hey! Sasuke-kun, wait for me!" Sakura shouted, running after him.

She soon caught up because he had stopped walking.

"Hey, how about... Why don't you and...," Sakura blushed. "Why don't we work on improving our teamwork together?" she asked, with her hands clasped and blushing.