Child of the Moon

Just in time

She hadn't pushed herself quite this hard in a very long time. She had to make up for the time that she'd spent preparing, and dealing with the nitty-gritty details for her teams, despite the fact that Kakashi wouldn't have been moving extraordinarily fast with an escort mission.

Still...

There was a lot of water to cross, and she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to run it.

So she found a boater, who'd just returned from the Land of Waves, in particular, the target island, and convinced him to take her across.

Looked like her and Naruto wouldn't be having quite as many take-outs until her next pay.

The mist was thick, and she sat in complete silence, one of the conditions for him to smuggle her in. From the sounds of things, there was a tyrant, and Tsukiko was sure that this particular bully was the one who hired the ninjas that had attacked Kakashi's band not far from the Village.

"Here we are," the man eventually said, dropping her off at a pier.

"Thanks, could I ask one more favour?" she smiled sweetly, as the old boater sighed.

"What is it?"

"Where does the bridge builder live? My comrades are escorting him right now, and I have reason to believe they're in terrible danger."

The old man scratched his chin, as his thoughts told her what he didn't actually want to.

"Sorry lady, no amount of money is gonna convince me you're here to help Tazuna," he said, turning his back on her and starting his engine.

But she already had the directions, and she could fill in the gaps with the thoughts of the locals.

"Aww," she pouted. "That's too bad. Well, see ya around, gramps."

"Tch," the old man started up his boat and disappeared into the mist again.

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Tsukiko had barely left the Village proper when she had a terrible feeling that something wasn't right.

That feeling was confirmed as a mass of water came exploding towards her.

Dammit! They'll flood the village!

Tsukiko quickly flew through the necessary handsigns, slamming her hands against the ground.

"Earth style: mud wall!" the ground shot up, creating a halfmoon shape to try and stop the water from barrelling past her. It crashed against the wall, some of it spilling past, but not enough to actually be a danger to the village, and she waited until the sound of the water died down. She jumped up onto the edge of the mud wall and saw the water slowly retreating.

"Geez," she sighed.

She jumped down, then realized she'd blocked off the road, so she created a hole in the wall to allow people to pass through, then hurried to find the actual fight.

I just hope I'm not too late!

When she reached them, she arrived in time to catch Kakashi as he fell.

"Wh-what happened!" Sakura yelled as the genin and bridge builder ran towards the two jonin.

"Tsk," Tsukiko glared at the unconscious ninja, adjusting him so she could support his weight better. "It's fine, Kakashi just overdid it a little. As he wasn't born with the sharingan, it tends to devour a lot of his chakra."

"Sis? What are you doing here?" Naruto questioned, blinking up at her.

"When I took those chunin back to the village, we learned some things that the Hokage decided meant this mission was too big for a group of genin," she said. "I was sent to tell Kakashi to send you guys back."

"But-"

"And Kakashi and I were to complete the mission," Tsukiko shifted Kakashi again. "Dammit, he's heavy. We need to deal with him first, then when he wakes up, he and I will have some words."

"But-"

"Naruto, you look dreadful," Tsukiko said, finally looking at him. "Were you fighting?"

Naruto looked away, angrily, but... proud too. "Yeah, Sasuke and I pulled off a pretty sweet technique that saved Kakashi-sensei, believe it!"

Tsukiko smiled, as Sakura vocally let Tsukiko know that it was true and that Sasuke had been amazing.

"I see," Tsukiko smiled. "But seriously, this guy is heavy."

"Let's get him to my house, where he can rest up," Tazuna said. "And I... can fill you in on what's happened."

"You all can," Tsukiko said, though she had a pretty good idea of it all anyway. "But first, I've been running like crazy to get here, and he's heavy."

"You've said that three times already," Sakura pointed out.

"And we're still talking about it, come on!" Tsukiko groaned as Tazuna went around the other side to help support some of the weight.

"It's this way, come on."