Gaia Online

Fanfiction of the week!(Yes Colleen / Tenten_fan41, I stole your idea >:3)
Summary: Naruto will need special training and a secret identity to perform an S-Class mission and spy on Kage-level ninja at the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival.

Chapter 4 - Special Training: End

Kurenai paused to check her reflection in her compact mirror.

“Iruka-kun, the noodles are ready!” Motoko shouted inside. Kurenai smiled a little at that, and knocked on the door.

It flew open almost immediately. “Come on in, Kurenai-sensei.” Motoko said, smiling.

“Motoko...” Kurenai looked over her student as Motoko closed the door. “Didn't you get cleaned up at all before you came here?”

“Nope!” Motoko said. “I spent the whole time practicing genjutsu with some Kage Bunshin. I lost track of time, so I had to rush over here to avoid being late!”

“I see.” Kurenai said. It made her a little proud to think her student was so dedicated.

Iruka chuckled as he came out from the kitchen. “If only you had been that dedicated to schoolwork, maybe you wouldn't have been in last place.”

“That's not fair, Iruka-sensei!” Motoko objected. “I'm the type that learns with their body, so naturally I won't get anything from a lecture.”

“Well,” Iruka said, “that's true, I guess.” Abruptly, he slapped his palm with his fist. “I almost forgot! Anko will be joining us tonight.”

Kurenai arched an eyebrow. “I didn't know that you knew Anko, Iruka.”

Iruka shrugged, and rubbed his nose while looking away. “Well, I only met her yesterday—well, not yesterday, I already knew her and she was unconscious then anyway—but she stayed the night last night and—“ He cut off abruptly as Kurenai delicately arched an eyebrow.

Motoko was less contained. “Ah!” She cried, holding her head, “All my senseis are incurable perverts!”

“All of them, Motoko?” Kurenai said pointedly, even as Iruka sputtered.

Motoko shrugged. “Well, you thought that same thing I did, and I thought, 'what would ero-sennin think,' so it was probably perverted.”

Iruka shrugged. “For some reason, she went drinking last night. She said something reminded her of Orochimaru.”

Kurenai felt her stomach drop out at that. She hadn't even considered how Anko would feel about looking after a genin team, considering her own experience as a genin.

“...Why would Anko think about Orochimaru?” Motoko said, frowning.

Kurenai had almost forgotten that Motoko was also Naruto—and was thus privy to only genin-level classified gossip. Practically everything surrounding Orochimaru's history was classified to at least chuunin level. It would be bad for business if the public thought too often that Orochimaru was a leaf nin.

“Orochimaru was Anko's jounin sensei.” Iruka informed Motoko.

Kurenai whipped her head around to look at Iruka. That was a serious breach of confidentiality to reveal classified personal information like that! Especially for a guy that worked in both the Academy, which trained the entire next generation, and the Office, which was familiar with the classified abilities of every ninja in the Village.

Iruka met her gaze and mouthed “I'll explain later.”

Kurenai kept her peace.

“Oh.” Motoko said, nonchalantly. Then her eyes widened. It made Kurenai apprehensive. “So that's why Anko can summon snakes!” Motoko nodded sagely. “That had kind of bothered me before, but now I get it.”

Well. That was a surprisingly low-key reaction, Kurenai thought.

“Anyway, she should be here—” Iruka was interrupted by the doorbell. “—about now.”

He stepped over to open the door.

Iruka blinked. “Um, hello Shizune-san.”

Shizune smiled brightly. “I hope I'm not interrupting, but I thought I'd stop by and talk about the mission a little bit.”

“Uh, certainly.” Iruka said. Then his 'polite' instincts kicked in as he closed the door behind the newest girl. “Would you like to stay for dinner?”

“Sure!” Shizune responded. Score! She'd hoped he'd ask. That way, she wouldn't be imposing, but she'd still get to eat something better than the Hospital cafeteria special.

An oven timer went off.

Iruka and Motoko both rushed into the kitchen to finish with dinner.

Shizune looked over at Kurenai, then blinked. “Kurenai,” she said, “are you wearing make-up?”

Kurenai turned to study the new girl that had rejoined the village with Tsunade. They had known each other as children, but that was a long time ago.

“I could turn your question back at you.” Kurenai coolly responded.

Shizune blushed. “Well, it's just that--”

The doorbell rang.

“Could you get that, please?” Iruka shouted from the kitchen. “We're both busy with something in here.”

Kurenai opened the door.

“Ohayo Iruka-kuuun!” Anko said. It somehow possessed the quality of both a sexy cooing sound and a shout. Anko flounced forward, and then blinked. “Kurenai! What are you doing here?”

“That's a little complicated.” Kurenai said.

“And Shizune!” Anko shouted with a finger jab. “When the hell did Iruka suddenly get popular with women?”

It was at that exact moment that Motoko bounced into the room. “Dinner is served!” She announced, waving her arm cutely.

Anko's eyebrow twitched.

-----

Dinner was, mildly speaking, tense. Shizune, Iruka, and Kurenai couldn't discuss the upcoming mission in front of Anko. It was a “need-to-know” basis and, frankly, Anko didn't need to know.

Motoko was too distracted by the stir-fry to think about either the mission or that Anko couldn't know about it.

This left Kurenai and Shizune with no real excuse explaining why they where there.

After fifteen minutes of mumbled conversation that entirely dodged the issue and didn't stray far from the weather, Anko finally stood up. It coincided with when she had finished eating.

“Screw this beating around the bush crap!” She said. She pointed a finger. “Just when I finally find an interesting guy—I won't lose Iruka to any of you!”

“W-w-what?” Iruka said, choking on some green pepper.

“That's assuming an awful lot. Anko-kun.” Kurenai said frostily.

Shizune just blushed. Then, she hurriedly helped dislodge the green pepper from Iruka's throat when he started turning blue.

Motoko frowned. “Well, you're a little perverted, but I approve!”

Anko stared. “...what?”

Motoko bobbed her head and smiled cutely. “Yeah! Iruka's like my family, and I think you'd be good for him.” She frowned. “Just, don't get too kinky with him, okay?”

Anko smirked. “It's arrogant of you to tell me something like that, girl. I'm not gonna let someone else tell me what to do!”

Motoko smirked. “Fine! Then Kurenai-sensei can be his girlfriend!”

“Motoko.” Kurenai said, her voice chilling. “I. Don't. Need. Your. Approval.” It only occurred to her after she said it that she had just implied she was interested. Now that Kurenai thought about it, though... was she? She would need to consider it more.

Iruka was a nice guy. That pretty much summed him up... he was the sort of person that always got overlooked in the dating pool. Once she got to know him a little better, though, he was surprisingly wise and deep. He deserved a closer look.

Shizune, meanwhile, was sitting off to the side, forgotten and pondering. She'd worked with Iruka a lot more than the other two had, and was more familiar with him professionally. He had been a huge help getting Tsunade acclimated to her new job, and had even run the mission office practically by himself after Sandaime had died.

He was nice, but boring. After a childhood on the road with Tsunade, and Tsunade's shenanigans, “nice but boring” was exactly what the doctor ordered. Maybe Anko was onto something...

Anko's thoughts were much more straight-forward. They went something like this: 1) He was cute. 2) He wasn't creeped out by her. 3) He didn't care about Orochimaru. 4) He was nice. Conclusion: Get him.

“Hey!” Iruka protested. “Don't I get any say in this?”

All three jounin-level kunoichi whipped their eyes around to stare at him.

Iruka flinched. Things went downhill from there.

-----

“Ohayo, Kurenai-sensei!” Motoko said cheerfully. “I finished learning this last jutsu from your scroll!”

“Alright, then, Motoko, please demonstrate it.” Kurenai requested.

The ground began to waver, and then there was an indistinct sputtering sound as tree roots erupted from the ground and enveloped Kurenai. They had the perfect shape for a tree, but they were a monochrome, dull green.

Kurenai closed her eyes. Also, the illusion had the texture of cardboard. She broke it easily. “Good attempt, Motoko-chan.”

Motoko grumped, and kicked dust disconsolately when her sensei broke the jutsu so easily.

Kurenai sighed. Truth be told, Naruto's attention was just too scattered to really produce good genjutsu. It wasn't that he lacked the mindpower, exactly, he just lacked the ability to really put everything together. He could get one element of a genjutsu perfect, but combining them... was beyond him. Anything with more complexity than a D or C rank was too easy to break by simply focusing on a weak element.

She'd learned all the jutsu from Kurenai's scrolls within a week. She knew the seals and what effects to visualize, the key ideas. She had learned all the jutsu Kurenai had been willing to teach her with surprising speed, absorbing them quickly once she got her head wrapped around the idea of genjutsu.

But, mastery, on the other hand...

“It still needs work.” Kurenai said. Then she frowned. “Motoko, getting frustrated won't accomplish anything. Just calm down, and try again.”

Motoko sighed. Sensei was right. Still, it was infuriating. It felt exactly like Rasengan training had, right between the second and third stage—like he was missing something that would be obvious in retrospect.

“Okay, Sensei.” Motoko said, with a calming breath. She formed the hand seals, again.

-----

Anko cackled. “Faster! Better!” She shouted.

“Crack the whip a little harder, you bi—OWW!” Kiba's muttering ended with an abrupt yelp.

Anko cracked her whip again. It was made out of rawhide.

Shino wondered where she had kept that thing all along. Also, he wondered if she had kept it in reserve, just waiting for Kiba to say that, so she could make that terrible pun.

“Crazy witch!” Kiba shouted, pointing.

“Shut up and train, grub!” Anko screamed back at him.

“Bi—OWW!” Kiba snarled, jumping up, involuntarily clutching his butt as he hopped skyward again. “Stop that, dammit!”

-----

Motoko groaned, standing up. Kurenai had worked her to the bone with genjutsu practice earlier. As was her habit, Motoko stayed beyond extra time to keep practicing. Since she didn't have Kurenai to practice on any more, she was using a Kage Bunshin.

“Magen: Jubaku Satsu.” Motoko said, hands forming the seals as quickly as she could. It still wasn't fast enough, though, for Motoko's taste. Plus...

Kage-Motoko stood still, as the Tree Bind Death illusion erupted behind her. The tree grew, opened, and expanded forward to engulf Kage-Motoko. However, the effect was weak because the tree was quavery and indistinct, looking more like it was made from ectoplasm then wood.

“Your 'visualization' still isn't strong enough.” Kage-Motoko said.

“Dammit.” Motoko cursed, hitting the ground. “I don't get it! Why isn't this good enough yet?”

She sat down, legs crossed, to think. She was still pondering when Kage-Motoko sighed. “I'm bored.” The clone said plaintively. “Can I try it now?”

Motoko snorted. “Why? It's not like you'll do any better!”

Kage-Motoko pouted. “You don't have to be so mean!”

Motoko scowled. “You aren't contributing... 'You're not visualizing enough!' 'You're not trying hard enough!' I'm doing my best, damn it1”

Kage-Motoko scowled. “If you're going to be like that, I'm gonna leave!” The clone sulked a little more before canceling itself.

Motoko was frowning. There had to be a better way! She was putting everything she had into it, but it was still too focused!

“What the hell?” Motoko shouted, throwing her head back, and finally collapsing onto the ground. She looked up at the moon.

When she had gotten stuck in the Rasengan, at least she had had that cat to give her a clue, to spin the chakra in different directions. Of course, she'd needed a Kage Bunshin to help with the control, since the chakra had to be going so many different directions.

Wait...

Motoko sat up with a grin. “I have it!” She smugly formed the seal and created some Kage Bunshin. “Oh, I'm a genius!” Three Kage Bunshin popped into existence.

Motoko barked out orders, and two stood next to her while the last stood across from them. Simultaneously, Motoko and her two Bunshins linked hands, each doing one half of their own seals while doing a fourth of someone else's.

The fourth Kage Motoko gulped as the Illusion Tree Death erupted out of the ground and confined her. “Success!” She called out, in a joyous cheer. “Now, let me go!”

“Ha ha ha!” Motoko laughed, “I'm so awesome!”

“I certainly am!” One of the Kage Motoko agreed.

“...Wanna do it again?” Said the third.

“You bet!” Motoko chorused.

-----

Iruka was frowning, shuffling through mission assignments and organizing reports during the afternoon lull, after the batch of afternoon missions was assigned but before the night-shift missions were distributed.

Shizune set a pot of coffee down and joined him at the table.

“Huh? Oh, thanks, Shizune.” Iruka said with a smile.

“You're welcome.” Shizune said, smiling back. Iruka didn't quite notice that she was blushing slightly.

“I, uh, wanted to say that I really appreciate all the work you do around here.” Shizune said.

Iruka looked up, surprised for a moment. Then he grinned, embarrassed.

'Cute!' Shizune thought.

“Well, it's an important task for the sake of the Village, so I don't mind.” Iruka said, somewhat flustered. “Besides, you do some pretty incredible work at the hospital, yourself.”

“T-thank you.” Shizune said.

The afternoon flew by for Shizune.

-----

Motoko collapsed to the ground, panting. The moon had long since set, and only Naruto's somewhat acute night-vision kept Motoko from stumbling around in the dark.

“I'm almost out of chakra.” One Kage-Motoko said. “So, I'm gonna cancel myself.”

“Me too.” Said the other one as the first bamfed into ninja smoke.

“Well, I'm still fresh!” bragged the one that had just been the test dummy. A glare from the real Motoko convinced her it would be prudent to cancel herself, as well.

Motoko grunted as she stared up at the sky. It was a beautiful night, not a cloud in the sky between her and the stars.

She chuckled, indulging in some well-earned gloating. She'd sure made good progress, focusing only on the “shape” while she focused only on the “texture” and “color.” It had looked so awesome and real when she was under it.

Wait. She'd only done one of those things. Maybe it would have been better to switch roles, but she'd only focused on doing “shape.” But she could also remember doing the other parts, too, while being under the genjutsu.

It was like she could remember what the Kage Bunshin had done, too!

No way... Kakashi would have told her if her best jutsu had such an awesome feature.

Well, there was one way to find out.

Motoko created a clone. “Think of a number!” She barked, pointing at it.

“Five!” It responded, somewhat surprised.

“...” Motoko frowned. “Uh, don't you know what I'm trying to do?”

“Oh!” The Kage Bunshin said. “Okay! You should turn around, then!”

Motoko blinked. “Why?”

Kage-Motoko smirked cutely. “Because I had a better idea!”

Motoko frowned. “Well, what is it?”

“Ah ah ah!” Kage-Motoko chided. “You should trust yourself more!”

Thoroughly convinced, Motoko turned around. A short time later, the Kage Bunshin disappeared with a “bampf” of ninja smoke.

“Ah!” Motoko said. “The shadow me wrote a number on the ground!” She grinned. “I can surprise even myself sometimes. Now.. that number is...”

She turned around, and cheered. “It really was six and three-eights!”

Motoko smiled broadly. “Now, how can I use this to my advantage...” Ignoring her tired body, ignoring her exhaustion, Motoko launched herself back into training, too psyched to stop and rest.

-----

Motoko had stumbled home near dawn, slept, and then headed out to meet Kurenai for another training session around noon. They had covered behavior and etiquette for the Women's side of a hot spring.

Motoko was determinedly compartmentalizing that information so she wouldn't turn into a pervert once she was Naruto full-time again.

But the day was nearly done, and the sun was setting, and Motoko was looking forward to turning in a little earlier than usual.

“Yo.”

Motoko grunted, turning to face the pair behind her. Kakashi had barely glanced up from his book, and Sasuke was glaring at him.

“What do you want, pervert?” Motoko flatly said.

“Maa, maa,” Kakashi said, “I just thought it would be impolite if your friends didn't say hi to you in the street.”

Motoko raised an eyebrow. It stung, a little bit, that Kakashi would call Motoko a friend when he wouldn't do the same for Naruto, his own student. “Whatever.” Motoko said sourly, turning to walk away.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “Well, see you tomorrow, Sasuke.” he vanished.

Sasuke grunted, and turned to catch up with Motoko. “Hey.” He said. “That was kinda rude, don't you think?”

Motoko grunted. “That guy... he reminds me of my own jounin-sensei. I respect him as a ninja, but... I resent him for not training me as much as I'd like.”

Sasuke grunted. “Well, Kakashi isn't that guy.”

Motoko just hmned, not quite willing to respond to that.

Sasuke sighed, suddenly. Motoko shot him a surprised look. Naruto had never seen Sasuke looking quite so... forlorn.

“It's tough to be a symbol...” Sasuke said. “Everyone sees me and expects me to act a certain way, or something, because I'm an Uchiha. Usually I don't care, but sometimes, it kinda pisses me off.”

Motoko just nodded. Inwardly, Naruto was churning. Did Sasuke really feel that way? He'd never said anything before... he'd only expressed pride at being an Uchiha.

Maybe there was more to Sasuke than Naruto had given him credit for.

“So.” Sasuke said, looking away. He was blushing. “You want... to go get something to eat?”

Motoko smiled. It was Naruto's wide-faced grin, happiness that the one who called him his 'best friend' wanted to spend time with him. It had been really tense...

“Yeah.” Motoko said, still smiling brilliantly. “Let's go.”

-----

When Kurenai came to meet Motoko two days later, she was greeted with an even more bizarre sight than was usual.

“Motoko.” Kurenai said.

All three hundred clones turned to face her. At least, the ones not writhing under the effects of genjutsu.

“The real Motoko.”

“That's me!” Fourteen of them said in stereo.

“...” Kurenai had no response.

“Maybe we should just cancel the jutsu.” One of them suggested.

“Okay.” The others chorused, and before Kurenai could finish her “Naruto! Don't!” they all vanished into a puff of smoke.

The last remaining Motoko collapsed, dizzy, onto the ground.

“Oh no.” Kurenai moaned, moving as quickly as she could to Motoko's side, pulling her student's head onto her lap. “Naruto! Oh gods, Naruto, can you hear me?”

Abruptly, Motoko blinked, and her eyes unclouded and swam back into focus. “Kurenai-sensei? What's the big deal?”

Kurenai just stared. “Naruto, did you just cancel hundreds of Kage Bunshin and absorb all their memories?”

Motoko frowned. Wasn't it obvious? “Yes?” Motoko finally hazarded.

“Without overloading and fracturing your brain?” Kurenai added, nearly screeching.

Motoko frowned, and thought as hard as she could. “I'm fine.” She said. “Why?”

“Naru—no, Motoko.” Kurenai said, holding her forehead, “Do you know why Kage Bunshin is a kinjutsu?” From the blank look, the answer was obviously 'no.' Kurenai kept going. “Motoko,” she hissed, “didn't you ever wonder why Kage Bunshin is a forbidden technique?” Another telling blank look. “Didn't Kakashi say anything to you?” This blank look was at least also perplexed.

“I don't get what the big deal is.” Motoko complained. “Also, can you let go of me? I'd like to stand up.” The jounin-sensei hastily complied.

Kurenai sighed, and rubbed her forehead. “Absorbing the memories of a Kage Bunshin puts a powerful stress on your mind, Motoko. The brain simply isn't wired to suddenly acquire all that information. Too much, and you give yourself an aneurism.”

Motoko frowned, then grinned. “Well, it doesn't matter to me, because I heal so well!”

Kurenai frowned. “Dammit, Motoko, stop gambling with your life! It's not like you can just regrow your inner coils or your brain or your organs!”

“...But I can.” Motoko whispered. Naruto had first understood that the Kyuubi could heal him after their mission to Wave Country, but it wasn't until the Battle at the Valley of the End, when Sasuke had rammed his chidori through his chest, that Naruto could understand what his body was capable of.

He still had dreams of that time, when he'd pulled out first one, and then two tails of the Kyuubi's power, and overwhelmed Sasuke.

“What?” It was the only response Kurenai could make.

“I... really can regrow organs and stuff.” Motoko said slowly. “It's because... of...” and her gaze drifted down to the hand she had clutching her stomach, her fingers digging into the muscle.

It clicked in Kurenai's head. “I see.” she said quietly. “Well.” It was one thing to know that Naruto could call out some portion of the Fox's power during battle. That it was constantly synchronizing with his own chakra, constantly mingling, that was something else. Something horrible.

She swallowed the bile. “Well, then.” Kurenai said, forcing those thoughts away. It wasn't like Naruto had been twisted into evil so far, so it should be fine. “When did you get here?”

Motoko watched her, with wide, liquid eyes, and then smiled the wider than Kurenai had ever seen. She almost seemed to glow with happiness, even as she shrugged in embarrassment. “I, ah, kinda never left.”

Kurenai blinked. “What? You pulled another all-nighter?”

Motoko frowned and retaliated. “Hey! I hafeta leave in only three days! These last few weeks have been good training, but am I really ready?”

Kurenai sighed. Motoko had run up against a wall. She simply couldn't split her attention and juggle all the different elements of an illusion to dynamically maintain a genjutsu. She'd made amazing progress in her first week and then gone nowhere.

“Just, show me what you've got.” Kurenai said, gently encouraging. Kurenai had been focusing on the other aspects of the mission over the last two weeks, getting all the necessary details and minutiae out of the way.

“Well, okay.” Motoko said. Her hands flashed through seals. Kurenai's eyes widened.

That was dramatically faster!

“Magen: Jibaku Satsu!” Motoko announced.

Kurenai watched, somewhat amazed, as a tree abruptly sprouted out of nowhere and wrapped around her. She channeled chakra to break it, but it didn't work. She tugged gently, trying to break the “touch” element, and was surprised as the rough bark didn't give at all.

She could even smell the tree, now that she thought about it.

She couldn't break it with her chakra. She couldn't disrupt the illusion!

Grudgingly, she bit her lip, and focused on the pain to snap her free. It was a crude method, but it worked against any illusion of less than A rank. This was only a B-rank technique.

“Motoko,” Kurenai said, “just how were you training, exactly?”

“Well.” Motoko said, disappointed that Kurenai could break free so quickly. “With the first batch of Kage Bunshin, I had each one focus on getting one element perfect. One worked on shape, one on color, one on texture, one on sound, one on seal-making speed, and so one. Then, the second batch combined two or three elements from the previous batch. With the third batch, I worked on combining all the elements together.”

“So, was that the fourth batch you just finished with?” Kurenai said.

Motoko shook her head. “The eighth. It didn't work out quite right, so I actually started over again.” She shrugged. “Also, I was working on a bunch of genjutsu with the second set on, instead of just that one.”

Kurenai stared. It was quite possibly the only time she'd ever heard of anyone learning genjutsu by brute force, by practicing discrete elements a hundred times and putting them together. It was so counterintuitive, so against the accepted theory of 'dynamic' or 'spontaneous' genjutsu that she'd learned. It was against the accepted wisdom of over a century of tradition!

Oh, right. With Naruto, it was in one ear and out the other.

“Well.” Kurenai finally said. “I guess you've advanced a lot in the last few hours.”

Motoko chuckled, rubbing her head. “Looking back, this one night feels longer than the whole last month.”

From her subjective perspective, it probably was, Kurenai mused.

“Frankly, I'd planned on spending today improving your genjutsu, but... you've already done that.” Kurenai sighed. “The Hokage had an hour free at five this evening, so she scheduled a meeting with you, Iruka, and myself to strategize about your mission. Until then, get some rest.”

“Can do!” Motoko cheerfully said. Incongruously, there were bags under her eyes.

Kurenai disappeared in a swirl of leaves as Motoko yawned hugely.

“I guess I'll get something to eat, first.” She said. She smacked her lips. She wanted to eat while she still had some energy to do so.

-----

“Hi Iruka!” Anko sang out, pouncing on the chuunin instructor from behind.

“A-anko!” Iruka said. “What, ah, do you want?” He was just packing up his teaching supplies and was getting ready to head over to the mission office.

Anko, smirking, leaned forward and whispered in his ear. When she was done, she licked the outer shell of his ear.

Iruka's eyes rolled back in his head as blood exploded out his nose.

-----

Sakura sighed, disconsolately stirring her bowl of Ramen. Sasuke and Kakashi were late.

Again. The annoying part was that Kakashi wasn't even consistently late; he'd show up anywhere between five and forty minutes after the scheduled time, so it's not like she could show up a little before him.

Kakashi had being late down to an art form. It kinda pissed her off.

Her training with Tsunade was going nicely. That sort of focused one-on-one training was producing amazing results. She already grasped the basics of medical jutsu. Before long, she'd be learning the field skills.

In other words, she was fulfilling her promise of not just following Sasuke and Naruto.

But those two... Sasuke was spending all his time with Kakashi, practically, or doing exercises Kakashi had given him while Kakashi was on a mission. After his failed attempt to join Orochimaru, it seemed that Kakashi had decided the only way to keep Sasuke here was to train him really hard.

And Naruto was off training with Jiraiya. Part of Sakura felt sorry for him—after years of being basically alone at the Academy, he finally makes friends and gains the recognition of his peers... only to spend all his time out in the wilderness, away from them.

The more vocal part of her Inner Self, however, was pissed. 'Dammit! Those two... can't they give it a rest!'

But who was she to criticize? It was very confusing.

She sighed again. Sometimes, she felt like a different kind of person than the other members of her team.

“Hey hey, Old Man! Gimme a Mega Deluxe Miso!” Called a cheery voice.

Sakura turned with a raised eyebrow. She didn't know how often she'd heard those words from Naruto, and here was someone else saying them.

Sakura's other eyebrow went up when she realized that it was a cute chuunin kunoichi several years older than her.

The girl plopped down two seats to her right, as the chef cheerfully made up her ramen.

“Ano...” Sakura said, in Shy But Cute Mode.

“Eh?” The girl said, turning to look at the girl.

“Um... my name's Haruno Sakura.” Sakura said.

“Eh!” Motoko replied. “Well, my name's Motoko.” That was all Naruto could come up with.. he didn't know what to say.

“This is my first time seeing you here, Motoko-sempai.” Sakura said.

“Er, really?” Motoko said. Inside, Naruto wanted to kick himself. Dammit! He had a part to play... how could he expect to fool Super Kunoichi from other villages if he couldn't even keep his wits about himself with Sakura-chan?

This was a challenge!

Motoko grinned. “Well, I guess we've been on different schedules, Sakura-chan!”

Sakura smiled back. “I suppose that could be true, sempai.”

The chef set the bowl down and Motoko broke her chopsticks apart with a happy cry and began to eat the noodles. Slowly, by single mouthfuls—Kurenai had spent two whole days covering the ways girls eat, and told Naruto to practice that at every meal. For the sake of his S-Class mission, Naruto had cheerfully complied.

“Ano...” Sakura said.

Motoko shifted to look at her, pausing between mouthfuls. “Yeah?”

“It's good to meet you. I don't know very many chuunin in the village.” Sakura finally said.

Motoko chuckled lightly. “Well, I'm a new chuunin myself... just passed the exam before that last one.” The one that had been interrupted by the Invasion.

“Actually... I participated in that one, but I didn't make it to the Tournament.” Sakura admitted.

“Ah, that's still really good!” Motoko said with a smile. “Next time you'll definitely win your qualifying match, right?”

Sakura frowned. “But... I don't think I mentioned that part...”

Motoko froze for a moment. Damn! Better make something up. “Well, it's like this... you said, 'I didn't make it into the Tournament,' not 'We didn't get through the Forest of Death.' Also, it was all over the place that they had to run qualifying matches this year, so I just went from there!” Motoko finished, with a cocky grin. 'Yeah, that's the ticket!' Naruto thought to himself. 'I'm so awesome!' Now for the kill. “Genjutsu types like me should notice these things!”

“Sugoi!” Sakura said with a smile. Such deductive abilities really impressed Sakura's brainy nature. And a genjutsu type, just like Kakashi had called her. “Motoko-sempai! Do you think you could teach me some genjutsu?”

Motoko laughed nervously. “Uh, I dunno... oh look!” Motoko pointed. “Sasuke's here!”

Sasuke merely raised an eyebrow as he pushed aside the curtain and stepped into the stand.

“Ohayo Sasuke-kun!” Sakura said.

“Sakura.” He nodded to his teammate. “Motoko-chan.” He greeted the chuunin.

'What's with that Chan?' Inner Sakura demanded. “Um, do you two know each other?”

“Yeah.” Motoko said absently before turning to Sasuke. “Hey, lemme buy you a ramen, eh?” Motoko turned back to the counter. “Oye! Old man... two more Deluxe, one for me and another for ol' scowley-puss here!”

“I'll get it, you don't have to buy my food.” Sasuke said patiently.

Motoko frowned. “Hey, you paid last time, so it's my turn.”

'LAST TIME?' Inner Sakura exploded.

“Che, the guy's supposed to pay.” Sasuke said.

“Maybe so, but I'm a chuunin, Sasuke-kun.” Motoko said with a smirk. “So, I definitely make more money than you do.”

Sasuke scowled, but his heart wasn't in it. “Whatever, Motoko-sempai.”

“That's the spirit.” Motoko said with a chuckle.

“I, uh, how do you know Motoko-sempai, Sasuke-kun?” Sakura said, dazed.

“We met a couple weeks ago... oh.” Sasuke said. “Motoko, this is Sakura. She's my teammate. Sakura, this is my...friend, Motoko.”

Sakura smiled. It was pretty sickly, plus her eyebrow was twitching. Inside, Inner Sakura was raging. 'THAT SUSPCICIOUS PAUSE! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON BETWEEN THESE TWO?'

Sasuke took the seat between them, but he was turned towards Motoko.

“Hey, you're doing that 'oh, I'm so cool,' thing again, b*****d.” Motoko mocked. Then she flicked his nose.

“Stop that!” Sasuke said, covering his face with his hands. He was pouting. Sakura couldn't believe it.

“Not so cool now, eh, Sasuke-kun?” Motoko jeered, poking him in the ribs.

“Seriously, cut that out!” Sasuke said, squirming about. Sakura twitched. For Sasuke to just put up with someone touching him like that, when he got all pissy when anyone even got close to him... Sakura's eyebrow twitched.

“Well, since you asked so sweetly, Sasuke-kun.” Motoko said, fluttering her eyelashes. She turned back to her noodles as Sasuke grunted, looking down and away at the counter as he stirred his noodles.

Sakura could see his face. He was blushing. Over a girl.

“Well, that was good. I'll see you around. Sakura-chan. Sasuke-kun.” Motoko said, standing up and slapping some money down on the counter. She yawned. “I'm gonna take a nap.”

Sasuke watched her go, and continued to stare after her long after she'd left. Sakura's eyebrow was twitching uncontrollably.

'She's kind of annoying.' Sasuke thought. 'But... not in a bad way.' He grunted. He had an inner dilemma. She was an interesting girl, but...

Itachi.

He sighed, and turned back to his noodles. It would be best not to get involved.

“That love-lorn sigh...” Kakashi said with a drawl as he sat down next to his students. He smiled in that peculiar one-eyed way of his, before turning to Sakura. “I guess that means that you finally met Motoko-chan, eh, Sakura?”

Sakura snapped. She stomped out of the ramen stand and shook her fist at the sky. “MOTOKO! I WON'T LOSE SASUKE-KUN TO YOU, YOU HEAR ME?”

“What is she screaming about?” Sasuke griped. It didn't quite cover his blushing.

Kakashi just chuckled.

-----

A much refreshed Motoko flounced through the window at exactly five o'clock that evening.

“Motoko-chan,” Tsunade said, “I'm glad that you're here on time.” Behind her, Shizune stifled a giggle.

“Sure thing, Hokage-baachan!” Motoko responded, unphased. Naruto knew he'd been cutting it close, but he'd overslept. Still, he felt like a new person after that nap.

Iruka sighed. He'd given up on correcting Naruto's speech.

Kurenai walked thorough the door then. “Hokage-sama. Motoko. Shizune-san.” She paused, and smiled at the chuunin instructor. “Iruka-kun.”

“Kurenai-san.” Iruka responded, studiously ignoring Tsunade's eyebrow.

He stiffened as Kurenai sat down next to him. Right next to him. Almost on top of him next to him.

“So.” The Hokage said. “The goal of this meeting is to develop a method of inserting Naruto, as Motoko, into the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival that starts in three days. It's a two day trip, so he should leave tomorrow.”

Kurenai, now focused on business, frowned. “How difficult will infiltrating the festival be?”

Tsuande sighed. “Well, sneaking into the hot springs themselves won't be difficult. They're naturally occurring, from a geothermal uprising on the side of a mountain in the Snow Country. They're tiered, with the largest naturally occurring hot springs water fall in the world.”

“However,” Shizune said, “that's not the difficult part. The festival lasts ten days, and the Tsuchikage and Raikage's wife will both be there, officially on vacation.” Shizune paused. “It's an open secret that they will also be probing the Hidden Snow village over its loyalties.”

“They're currently aligned with us.” The Hokage confirmed, “but those two countries are closer and can exert more pressure on them.”

Shizune sighed. “We don't even know if those two are going to meet privately. No one's been able to find anything out. They have an official agenda, and on it, they go nowhere near each other.”

Kurenai hmmed. “That's not trustworthy at all.”

Iruka frowned, rubbing his scar. “So, Motoko's mission becomes not only infiltrating their meeting, but finding out where it's at, if it happens?”

“Right.” The hokage sighed. “Even Jiraiya's network couldn't crack what's really going to happen. There's a cohort of ANBU from either village, but they're just bodyguards.”

“It's another open secret,” Shizune chimed in, “that the real guards for both dignitaries are three other jounin level ninjas—so they each are part of an elite team.” She glanced to the side, and smiled. She'd forgotten how serious Naruto could be for a mission he was interested in. Usually he complained about how it wasn't cool enough. Now, though, he was quiet and attentive.

Tsuande sighed. “That's a common tactic when a high-level nin in political power travels—some ANBU to cut down chaff and the nin's own team to deal with anything elite.” It was an implicit assertion of the ninja dignitary's competence as much as a security tactic.

Iruka shrugged. “Well, the meeting has to involve both parties. So, if Naruto can definitely tail one the whole time, he'll be able to find the meeting.”

Motoko frowned. She was having trouble just keeping up, her head was spinning. She'd have to ask Iruka to sum up. “I don't get it.” She complained. “I mean, why am I infiltrating the festival, exactly?”

Tsunade growled. “Motoko, just showing up out of the blue is suspicious, you need to be circumspect. Showing up as a tourist is too obvious, you need to sneak in.”

Motoko stared. “But won't there be lots of tourists?” It was a festival, after all...

Oh. Yeah. Tsunade supposed that was true.

“So,” Iruka said, “Motoko will be a civilian attending the festival.”

Tsunade frowned. “How on earth would he disguise his chakra signature? Any ninja would be able to pick that up!”

“Ha!” Motoko crowled. “Witness my incredible jutsu!” She worked the seals Academy students used for the henge no jutsu, and was engulfed in a puff of ninja smoke. When it dissipated, she looked exactly the same.

“...” Tsunade stared blankly. “Motoko, nothing happened.”

“Watch this!” Motoko said. She walked up the wall using chakra. “Pretty cool, huh?”

Kurenai drew in a sharp breath. “Naruto, how long have you been able to do that?”

Motoko grinned. “It's part of my original Oiroke no Jutsu!”

“I don't get it.” Iruka confessed. “What's so special?”

“Check her chakra signature.” Kurenai said.

“It's still at a civilian's level...” Shizune said, catching on.

“Completely erasing someone's chakra with genjutsu isn't too difficult, but it's more obvious than doing nothing, in most situations.” Kurenai mused. “What you're doing is more subtle than that. You're making your chakra network feel as inarticulate and weak as a civilian's!”

“I got the idea when the ANBU caught me after I put glue in all the coffee makers.” Motoko explained. Iruka remembered that prank. Izumo and Kotetsu still complained about it, since the one in Lounge 3A still didn't percolate any more.

“Anyway, I used Oiroke to completely eliminate my chakra, and they caught me immediately. One of them made a snide remark about everyone having chakra, or something.” Motoko said. “So, the next time, I just illusioned myself a civilian body.”

“That's surprisingly subtle.” The Hokage admitted. “I wouldn't have thought Naruto capable of such a cunning move.”

“HEY!” Motoko protested.

“Anyway,” Iruka interrupted, “So, the point is, Motoko becomes one of the hundreds of civilians at the festival.” He ticked it off on one finger.

He ticked the second finger. “Then, he sticks to either of the two teams as closely as he can so he can learn their plans.”

Third finger. “If, probably when, they meet in secret, he tails them, and learns all the pertinent bits.”

Iruka ticked the last finger. “Finally, he has to do all this without being discovered. By anyone.”

“Put that way, I have a foreboding feeling.” Tsunade said. It was, after all, relying on Naruto's memory. “Ignoring that, however, I think Motoko should have a support team readily available if she needs it.”

“That begs the question of who.” Kurenai said.

Tsuande sighed. “We can't have them too close. Who else happens to be going up in that direction? We can't reassign a completely new team for this, either village has a good enough spy network that they'd find out.”

Shizune frowned. “Gai's team is patrolling the northern border on a fourteen-day tour staring yesterday. That's only a few hours away...” Shizune trailed off, thinking. “It's not out of radio range.” She finally admitted. “But, I don't think they'll really be able to do anything, should a problem develop.”

Iruka frowned. “I think...” He got up, and shuffled through the paperwork. “Aha!” He said, pulling out a scroll. “This is a C-class mission request that was filed earlier today.”

He handed it to Tsunade. She read it, and smiled. “This is a request for an escort to the Cute Polar Bear Hot Springs Festival.”

“Izumo mentioned it to me earlier. I think he was planning on giving it to one of the Genin cells from Naruto's class.” He frowned. “But, which team would be best?”

Tsunade grunted. “I'd like to have Kakashi there... of all the jounin-sensei, he's the deadliest, and the most familiar with that area.” She paused, musing. “Also, that mask of his stands out... they'd keep an eye on his team, and be satisfied that he wasn't a spy. That might convince the enemy we're unaware of their plans.” She didn't add that he'd also be the one most capable of bailing out Naruto.

“But, who would go in my place?” Motoko asked.

Tsunade smirked. “Let's just say he'd think it was troublesome.”

Motoko frowned. “I don't get it.”