Blue Sharingan

Chapter 2

As the group set out on their journey, Meeka kept to herself to observe everyone. From just the little bit of time, she could see a few things already. For one, Sakura was head over heels in love with Sasuke. However, Sasuke was just ignoring her and seemed to be annoyed by the whole group. Naruto was rambunctious and all over the place. Plus, he was a loud mouth and not very good at observing his surroundings. Kakashi was constantly keeping an eye out. No wonder he was a Jounin.

Although, she couldn't seem to get a read on Tazuna, as she had come late into the mission, Meeka felt as if he was hiding some bit of information. Usually, she was right on target with this kind of thing. She trusted her guts and instincts. As they continued down the road towards the Land of Waves, she noticed a puddle on the ground as they passed by.

'Hmm...it hasn't rained in a while. There shouldn't be any puddles near here.' Getting a bad feeling, Meeka quickly but secretly drew her kunai knife. Looking at Kakashi, she saw him give a very subtle nod towards the puddle.

'So he noticed too,' she thought to herself. 'Doesn't seem like anyone else has though.' Frowning to herself, she wondered if this group would survive to become Chuunin. They continued walking on when two enemy Chuunin ninjas appeared. One had come from the puddle and another from the trees.

"Here they come!" Meeka growled under her breathe. As she went to attack one of the ninja, Naruto was struck by one of the Chuunin's poisoned metal gauntlet. Quickly getting into formation, Sakura got to Tazuna's side while the newest member went to Naruto's.  Meeka watched as Sasuke and Kakashi finished up the enemy.

"Naruto. Are you ok?" Meeka asked him once the battle was over.

"Yeah Naruto, are you ok...you scaredy-cat?" Sasuke asked mockingly while Kakashi restrained the ninjas. Meeka could feel the shame radiating off of Naruto. Anger bubbled up inside of her from deep down in the pit of her stomach. Walking over to Sasuke, Meeka just smiled at him and slapped him upside the back of his head. The smiles quickly disappeared from both faces as she stood staring down at him.

"How dare you treat your teammate like that?" Meeka said as she glared at Sasuke. Before either could say another word, Naruto yelled out. He quickly took out his kunai knife and stabbed at his hand where the wound was. As he bled out the poison, Naruto looked at everyone then back at his hand.

"I swear to never to freeze up and leave my friends to fend for themselves ever again." Naruto stated. 

Shaking her head, Meeka walked back to Naruto to tend to his wound. Kneeling before him, she gently cleaned his hand to notice that the wound was already gone. At first she was surprised until she realized the secret that a few knew about. None were ever to speak of it either. She smiled up at him and continued to wrap his hand. While Kakashi questioned Tazuna about what was really going on, Meeka stood up and slapped Naruto upside the back of his head like she had done earlier to Sasuke.

"Hey what was that for?" Naruto grumbled as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You moron. You shouldn't go stabbing your hand when you have been poisoned." Meeka chastised gently. Turning towards Kakashi, she could see that he was nicely interrogating the bridge builder still. Once Naruto's hand was taken care of, the two of them walked over to listen to what the bridge builder had to say.

Tazuna explained that the Land of Waves had been taken over by a shipping magnate called Gatō, who had effectively bankrupted all the people of the country.

"The only way to revitalize the economy was by building a bridge to the mainland that could render Gatō's shipping monopoly useless." Tazuna told the group as he glanced towards the ground.

"He uses a bunch of thugs to do his dirty work."

Feeling all eyes on him, Tazuna said "The real mission was to support and protect the bridge-building efforts. We just have no money to ask for the higher level of protection."

Kakashi looked at the team of shinobi that he was in charge of. He had a tough decision to make.

"Kakashi Senpai." Meeka said calmly as she looked at the team leader.

"Hmm?" He said as his mind continued to run through the few options that lay before them. He already had an idea as to what the rest of the group was going to say. The members of this team were never ones to back down from a mission. Especially since this is the type of mission Naruto had been dying to get. Kakashi waited for her to speak. Would she fit in here? What she had to say would determine that much. 

"I think we need to finish this mission." Meeka said to everyone's surprise. As a newer Chuunin, the group had expected her to be one to abide by the rules.

"Ohh. And why do you think that?" Kakashi asked with one eyebrow raised in question. However, he knew what she would say already. It is what their knucklehead ninja would say too. 

"Even though we gave our word to protect him based on wrong information, we still gave our word. We should see this mission to the end." She could feel his thoughts as if they were rolling over onto her. What would his answer be?

"I agree with you, Meeka." Kakashi said which surprised the group even further.

"Then let's keep going!" Naruto yelled out, full of enthusiasm.