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A Nameless Fear

Chapter 9: Fortune

Kakashi timed his moment carefully, stepping out into the training field just as Kurenai called a halt to their work out, she, Shikamaru and Mirai all stepped back from each other and breathed a sigh of relief. The young Chuunin wiped the sweat from her forehead and reached into her pouch for a drink of water.

"Ohayo, doing some morning training?" Kakashi asked, from behind his book as he approached,

"Ohayo Kakashi-sama," Mirai was quick to bow her head slightly as Shikamaru offered a nod of his own head in a polite 'hello',

"Are you about to start training yourself?" The Nara asked as he walked up to Kakashi,

"Ah, I though I probably should, I've been slacking off a little this week, though I certainly wouldn't mind a little bit of help, unless you guys are too busy?"

"Whoa! Really?" Mirai almost shouted, though she was quickly shushed by her mother,

"Mou, Mirai-chan you don't think I'm too old to train with you, do you?"

"N-No, of course not, Kakashi-sama,"

"Excellent! In that case," Kakashi moved a small slip of paper from the back of his book to his current open page, sharing a swift and meaningful glance with Shikamaru as he did so,

"Since when do you need a bookmark, Kakashi?" Kurenai laughed, though her voice was kept to a low pitch,

"Well, I guess I am getting on a bit, I might as well save myself the trouble of remembering my page numbers," He genially responded as Kurenai merely rolled her eyes,

"What sort of training did you have in mind?"

"Well, I was hoping to work on my agility, with the help of your clan jutsus, Shikamaru,"

"Of course,"

"Kurenai, if you wouldn't mind hitting me with a few of your genjutsus?"

"No problem,"

"Mirai-chan, I think it would be better if you just observed for now,"

"Hai, Kakashi-sama," The youngest nin nodded and jumped away, Kakashi himself made a point of turning his back to the other two as he slid his book into his pouch as he walked a few steps away, turning back to them.

"Okay, both of you against me, but feel free to fight amongst yourselves if your start treading on each other's toes," He offered with a cheeky grin before he gathered his chakra, threw three shuriken towards Kurenai and Shikamaru before he darted away into the nearby treeline. Shikamaru wasn't slow to react, as Kakashi was forced to keep dodging the fast, almost sentient vines of shadow which chased at his heels.

He was careful to draw the fight out as best he could, before allowing one of the vines close enough, which trapped his heels flat to a branch whilst another snaked up, snuck into his pouch and stole the hand-made envelope. Kakashi could see out of the corner of his eye as the scrap of white was pulled from his pouch and almost instantaneously swallowed by the mass of shadow, hopefully kept safe and hidden until Shikamaru could retrieve it. At the same moment, the hold on his legs weakened and Kakashi managed to break free; now that the real purpose had been safely passed on, it was time to have some fun. He created a kage bunshin just as he darted behind a tree and sent it off in the opposite direction.

Naruto didn't even bother to knock before he barged into Sasuke's office,

"You're supposed to knock first, Naruto," The Hokage spat at him,

"You're supposed to knock for entering the office of someone you respect," Sasuke's eyes flashed red and cast Naruto in a genjutsu, this had been their typical parry for a long time, so much so that Naruto didn't bother to get stressed as he felt himself engulfed by an enormous fraudulent goukkakyuu. Naruto merely sighed and asked why Sasuke would think it sensible to attempt to injure his shinobi before sending them out on missions; the illusion quickly faded.

"I thought you respected the title of the Hokage, Naruto,"

"I've respected the previous Kages, you've done nothing but destroy that good name," Naruto's words were calm, but the truth in them was unmistakable,

"Konoha right now, is tactically stronger than it ever has been before; the fact we had to upset a few stupid civilians to do it is the least of my concerns. Your opinion is irrelevant, Naruto, go outside and get mission 47-T, you are to take Kakashi; you have two weeks to be back here. Dismissed."

Naruto scowled as he stomped out of the office and up to Kotetsu, the elder shinobi offered a sombre smile as he handed him the mission scroll,

Outline: Obtain as many samples of the plant commonly known as 'Black Tooth'.

Rank: D

Location: Snow Country

Team Strength: 2

"What the hell?" Naruto shouted as he read the scroll outline, he was being sent on some crappy D rank mission? Kakashi, too? He knew pointless busy work when he saw it, but the audacity of Sasuke to send him, the saviour of the whole world, dammit, on some stupid waste of time was enough to make him want to rush in and punch the Uchiha on the nose. Naruto growled in feral frustration before running off to try and find his teammate.

"Kakashi!" He finally found him at the training grounds, "Oi, Kakashi!" He skidded to a halt beside his former sensei, his face flushed with the irritation which he'd had no opportunity to quell in well over the past hour was finally getting to him.

"Hey, Naruto, where's the fire?"

"In Sasuke's office, if he's not careful, we have a mission," Naruto made sure to emphasis the word with as much childish fervour as he could muster before thrusting the scroll at Kakashi; he flipped it open and scanned the contents quickly,

"J-just you and I on this mission, Naruto, are you sure?"

"Yea,"

"To Snow country?"

"Yes!" He snapped back, taking in the cautiously excited grins on Kurenai, Shikamaru and Kakashi, "What? You think it's funny we're getting sent on a D rank?"

"No, Naruto, but think about it, this will be the first time that you or Kakashi have been sent out of the village without a ROOT babysitter," Shikamaru calmly offered, "Whatever you did to piss him off enough to give you a mission like this, keep doing it!"

"O-oh!" Realisation finally dawned on the blond,

"Naruto, we'll leave in two hours, meet me at the main gates at six-thirty, have your stuff ready - we don't need to travel too lightly,"

"Okay,"

"And still act like you're pissed off at getting lumbered with a pointless D-rank mission, okay? If we're too happy about it, Sasuke will be suspicious and maybe have us followed," Kakashi ordered again as Naruto nodded, fixed his face into an expression of absolute frustration and stalked away. "Well, sorry to have to cut the training session short, but thanks for your help," He offered with a small smile before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Shikamaru had made certain to meander on his way home, keeping his pace to his typical disinterested manner, but the note he'd received from Kakashi had been burning a hole in his pocket so badly he thought his trousers were about to catch fire. Not to mention, he was beyond excited at the prospect things might finally be starting to happen, that Kakashi had finally healed enough to begin rallying the village to stop Sasuke. He talked often with Kurenai and she had told him that Sakura was, in fact, alive; it had genuinely surprised Shikamaru at just how hopeful the news had made him, whist he'd never been terribly friendly with Sakura, she was a good kuniochi and more than determined enough to make her an invaluable addition — especially with her hidden under the radar.

It was another key piece in figuring out the game of shogi against the Uchiha.

Eventually he'd made it home and made sure to lock his door and cover his windows as if preparing for a mid-afternoon nap, which he still did as often as could be afforded, and withdrew the note. It was little more than a carefully folded piece of paper, stuck with a small measure of sticky-tape. As he flipped up the first corner, Kakashi's writing drew his attention,

Shikamaru,

Destroy this note as soon as you have memorised the information fully. During my mission to Suna, to kidnap Maki, I encountered these chakra tags, they very quickly and effectively deplete chakra, even through clothing. Maki was skilled in making these, they appear to have the ability to be thrown or aimed at a specific target, it only drains chakra when in direct, physical contact. What interested me the most was that Temari, who'd arrived later as support for Maki, also threw a large number of these at my mission partner and I; they stick very strongly to whatever they come into contact with. I managed to save one, but I'd really like better understand it, does it store chakra? Does it respond to specific chakra? Can anyone use or make the tag or is it definitely one of Maki's?

Please find out everything you can from the intel devision and understand as fully as you can everything about this tag. Pass a message through Kurenai for us to meet when you're ready to tell me what you know.

Kakashi.

He opened up the last of the make-shift envelope and looked at the decidedly plain looking square of paper, as with many things, it was clearly more than what it appeared. Shikamaru touched his finger to the corner of the paper and immediately felt the strong tug on his chakra. He pulled back and felt suddenly aware of his own breathing; if this tag had been taken from Kakashi's mission, not more than four days ago, then it was of high quality to still be so vigorous.

A good tag such as this would definitely give them an edge in fighting Sasuke, even the strongest shinobi was powerless without chakra.

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