Pulling My Weight

Chapter 12 || Problems

Two weeks passed since the confrontation with the chunin in the Jounin HQ; two incredibly busy, stimulating yet exhausting weeks. Between T&I, shifts at the hospital and working with Genma, Sakura had her hands full almost non-stop. She was also frustrated, because she kept running into the same problem over and over and over again at the hospital - she couldn't figure out how to sync up her chakra wavelength to that of her patient, so she kept ending up with fish with boiled internal organs or birds with fried nervous systems. Overall, she was tired, frustrated, and overworked, and the moment she got home, she would curl up on the sofa and either chat with Genma or, if he was on a mission, fall straight asleep.

So it was with no small amount of surprise when, one day, she greeted Anko at her doorstep when the woman popped by her house in evening, a maniac grin on her face.

"Back your bags, pinky, the old man gave us a mission!" she announced, almost bouncing on the spot. Over time, the rosette had realized that Anko had absolutely no respect for authority when not looking them in the eye, and had rather creative insults and nicknames for each of them. This particular one was code for Morino Ibiki, and Sakura, knowing the sort of mission the man was renowned for assigning, wondered why exactly her senpai was so excited. Then, she clued in to the fact that just as she had not been out of the Village since starting her studies under Tsunade, Anko had also been Village-bound since the rosette had been assigned as her student. Suddenly, her excitement was no longer all that surprising.

Still, something bugged her and she frowned. "I'm not allowed to leave the Village for another two months." She reminded her senpai, getting a careless shrug in response.

"'Cause it's a part of your apprenticeship, the Godaime gave it the green light." She divulged, then poked Sakura's cheek. "Now c'mon, be more enthusiastic! Your amazing senpai got you a ticket out of the Village!"

Rubbing her cheek in annoyance – Anko had used chakra in the poke and it stung – Sakura offered the woman a glare. "Why, thank you, oh amazing one." She snarked, getting a smack to the back of her head in response which she was too slow to dodge. "When are we leaving?" she asked instead, trying to dial back her attitude (she was tired, damn it, and this whole ordeal was taking precious seconds out of the small period of time a day she had to just relax.)

"Tomorrow morning! I expect you at the Gates by 6 o'clock sharp! Pack for at least a week!" and then Anko was off, and Sakura was left staring at the place the jounin had stood in wonder, before she snorted and shut the door.

Not thinking much beyond setting an alarm for five o'clock the next day, she bid Genma goodnight and collapsed in bed. She was out in a matter of seconds.

Once the shrill call of her alarm forced her to get out of bed, she packed her bags, made sure her scrolls and medical kit were in place, grabbed a breakfast bar and was almost out the door before she stopped to scribble Genma a quick note – 'Mission with Anko, don't know when I'll be back. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone.' She topped it off with a cute doodle and then she was off.

When she arrived at the Gates, a whole fifteen minutes before she was supposed to, she found Anko already there, along with a tall, unfamiliar blond who waited behind her.

"Morning, senpai." She greeted hesitantly, then asked something that had been bothering her ever since she woke up. "What actually is our mission, by the way?" she noted the mysterious blond stiffened in surprise at her words, but Sakura had long gotten used to following the 'obey and ask questions later' work ethic wherever Anko was concerned. The woman in question merely grinned.

"One of the subjects we interrogated revealed that there was an Iwagakure base near the border between Iwa and Kusa. He also said that it's the one that their resistance movement used, so Ibiki reasoned that we can find info about Iwagakure's future movement in regards to Konoha there." She explained, and Sakura nodded, accepting the reasoning. It made sense, although she did wander what strings Anko must've pulled to get her to tag along on this mission.