Behind Paper Fans and Tea Ceremonies

Enter! Uchiha Sasuke!

AN: My first foray into writing Naruto - mystery and Detective Conan were so much more familiar! But...here I am, giving this a try cause I've become hooked and I want you guys to give this a read! And criticisms! And reviews, yes, that too! :)

Enjoy~

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"Dialogues"

'Thoughts'

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Notes: AU! Point of divergence will be explained later. No war looms. Mostly peaceful. Only small skirmishes and problems to be worried about.

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Chapter 1: Enter! Uchiha Sasuke! Er...and also the blonde civilian

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It had been a simple rescue mission.

It should have been a simple rescue mission.

The Fire Daimyo's third son had been kidnapped and they had to get him back. Sasuke knew his team was equipped for this mission; they were only a bunch of fool-hardy nuke-nins who dreamed of making a bit of quick money by demanding ransom of the Daimyo. It should have been simple. Grab the Daimyo's son – Junichiro, his name was – capture the nuke-nins, return.

A team of four chunins – what could go wrong?

Apparently the mere involvement of the Daimyo's son's maid. Some blonde woman by the name of Mibuchi Naruto. What the hell kind of name was it anyway? Naruto? For a woman? But somehow she'd been captured along with the son and had been making herself a nuisance for the nuke-nins which had made them more suspicious and paranoid than usual and it ended up with Sasuke's team being captured.

Captured. His father was going to be furious.

Turning his thoughts away from his father, Sasuke grit his teeth as he finally got rid of his bindings. Seated in the same carriage, the blonde woman – Naruto, yes, Naruto, ugh, why did Sasuke even remember that name? – whimpered, eyes wide when one of the shinobi growled at her for his own amusement. Sasuke resisted the urge to scoff; all her earlier bravado of "don't hurt the young master" had gone right out the window when the ninjas had tied her up and thrown her into the carriage, away from Junichiro.

Hiding his now free wrists from his silent minder, Sasuke stretched his senses slowly to take note of the situation. The carriage seemed to have turned into a narrow and hilly road now and they were going up-hill – not ideal, they'd have to be quick in their escape – his three teammates, Yamanaka Ino, Kanijuro Mitsuri and Hoshiro Fuuka were likewise tied up and placed on top of the carriage under a rain-proof tarp to hide them from any other travellers. Sasuke had been given a special privilege in the hopes that seeing their second hostage in a dangerous situation would make him pause; clearly, they didn't know Uchiha Sasuke well.

The Daimyo's son was made to walk among the rest of the party along-side the carriage, disguised under a heavy cloak and pretending to be the nephew of one of the shinobi. There had been nary a sound from the child, Sasuke could sympathise slightly – Junichiro was barely eight. And a civilian on top of that.

'Which brings me back to the idiot blonde,' Sasuke scowled, 'I'd leave her as collateral, but the Hokage won't be pleased about that. And the Daimyo's son would be upset, which would make the Daimyo upset. Tch. To borrow a phrase from Nara, this is troublesome.'

As it turned out, being covered under a tarp gave the chunins an added advantage of being hidden and Ino used a clan technique to quickly inform Sasuke mentally that they were free from their bonds and awaiting his signal to attack.

Another whimper from the blonde as the shinobi inside the carriage sifted, his long-sword tilting precariously towards her from where it was perched on his shoulder. Sasuke tried to take in deep breath, praying for patience – goddammit, woman, stay quiet and let me think, will you?

Suddenly, the carriage lurched, a wheel sinking into a rut in the pathway as the hill turned steeper. Unconscious use of chakra to stick to surfaces, be they horizontal or vertical, ensured that the shinobi remained still in their positions. The civilian, on the other hand, yelped as she slid from her corner and right into the nuke-nin's lap.

For a second, both remained shocked still and then, too fast for Sasuke's eyes to capture, the blonde had crashed her head onto the ninja's. Still reeling from the head-butt, he couldn't stop the following kick to his groin that even made the usually stoic Uchiha wince. And before any of them could comprehend, she'd grabbed the long-sword from where it had fallen and rammed shoulder-first into the door of the carriage, sending it flying open and her tumbling down the slope.

Sasuke had not managed to signal his team, but they caught on quick enough what with all the ruckus the blonde had made inside the carriage. Junichiro, possibly spurred on by his maid's act of recklessness, had pulled away sharply from his minder in the ensuing chaos and run towards her. The ninja's path was quickly cut off by Ino before he could pursue the Daimyo's son and Sasuke systematically took down their opponents, fuelled by his annoyance regarding the way this whole mission had gone.

As he tied up the last of the nuke-nin with ninja wire, he turned to see the blonde hold the long-sword with unsteady fingers, poised as if to make sure none could harm the brat cowering behind her skirts.

Sasuke scoffed, "A weapon you do not know to use is more harmful to yourself than others. Put it down. And I hope you can at least recognise the symbol of your own village carved onto our hitai-ate."

"She's just scared, Sasuke-kun," Ino tried to pacify as Fuuka walked closer, hands up in a non-threating gesture and attempted to calm them down and explain the situation, "Besides," she whispered, "she must be new to the Daimyo's court. Give her some time, she's only a civvie."

The Uchiha grunted in vague acknowledgement, yet all the way back, something niggled his mind. For a mere civilian, she had been pretty quick to knock out the ninja inside the carriage. Especially since she'd seemed so terrified of him moments ago.

Was it simply adrenaline? No, adrenaline didn't act so quickly, not when she'd been so shocked to find herself on the shinobi's lap in the first place. Or was it due to her strong loyalty to her master? Hmm, should not be so, if Yamanaka thought her to be new in the Daimyo's court and Yamanaka's were rarely wrong in profiling a person.

Sasuke's eyes trailed to the blonde walking in the centre of the group. Junichiro was perched upon her back, clinging tightly to his "nee-chan" and absolutely refusing to let go even for a quick medical check-up. It resulted in Fuuka trailing behind them to keep an eye on the brat and make sure neither was injured.

Sasuke sighed, he really wanted to go home and take a nap. Or ask his brother about his missions. With Itachi having recently retired from ANBU and taking up the duties of a regular jounin, the Sandaime had been quick to saddle him with a genin team. It made for quite hilarious mission reports, certainly.

With a small smirk as he imagined Itachi's team returning from weeding out some old crone's garden, Sasuke pushed the blonde out of his mind. The civilian had occupied his mind too much already.