Haruno's Determination

Chapter 3

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The moment Naruto arrived, the teams set off in a steady pace as Kakashi explained the details of the mission. Turns out, their mission is to assassinate the leader of a group named Genbu. He's a rogue-nin from Konoha from the days of the Third Hokage.

"Harugakure is our destination. It's located near the Land of Sand. With our current speed, it'll take five days at most to arrive there. As for our formation, I'll take the front, Guy at the back, Lee at the right, Sasuke at the left, and as ordered, Sakura will take the role as the medic. If worse comes to worst, Neji, I trust you to be with Sakura. We'll stop and camp when I say so. Any questions?" Kakashi asked after his brief explanation.

For once, Naruto actually shook his head 'no' at the question and nodded understandingly. And although Sakura actually twitched at the fact that Kakashi assigned someone to protect her, she came to accept that because it's true that she's in no position to openly fight right now. Eight months of training under Lady Tsunade proves to be worth it. Her stamina and chakra reserves increased considerably. Her shishou even deemed her reserves to be that of a normal chunin, which delighted her since before that her chakra is lower than even an average genin. Though not even close to the powerhouses in her team, she can at least defend herself with basic Earth and Water Release, chakra-enhanced taijutsu, and not to mention her immunity toward most genjutsu. Her healing abilities also is enough to heal broken bones and burns, deep wounds, and even extract poison, which is why Tsunade is confident enough to send only one medic-nin in this high-ranked mission. But, to top it all, she is still a medic in this team. And as one, she needs to keep her team safe and of course be the last one to die if worse comes to worst.

"I've never heard of that village," Tenten pointed out, earning multiple nods of agreement.

"It's not popular," Sakura started, gaining complete attention from all of them.

"Naruto, Sasuke, what I'm about to tell you is what you've been questioning from before. The day my parents are... Killed-- she halted a few seconds and noticed a few of them winced-- the killer addressed me as an heiress. Of course, that took me off guard. Not by the fact that I'm an heir, but the fact that my surname is a clan. Kakashi-sensei told me that he happened to hear about the rumors of my clan in Harugakure. Anyway, this mission have nothing to do with me finding whether or not the rumors are true. But, since shishou gave me this chance anyway, I'll be more than glad to take the offer."

"Hitting two birds with one stone," Neji commented to which Sakura merely nodded.

A few hours after, near the Land of Rivers which connected the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind, before their minds can even register, their bodies moved out of instinct. Deflecting, dodging, and rolling out of the barrages of kunai, shuriken, and paper bombs, they readied themselves into a fighting stance-- each and every of them alerted.

Should've expected things are never easy in an S-ranked mission.

Kakashi took time to scan his comrades and mentally sighed in relief to see all of them in one piece. He looked forward to assess the enemy. Geared in a shinobi attire accompanied with slashed headbands. Rogue ninjas.

"Well, what do we have here? The Copy Ninja, huh? Seems like we have a huge bounty here," the leader of the group stated with a smirk so smug that Sakura swore to slap it out of his face.