Pine needles and sea air
“Your genin.” Tsunade said as she fixed Kakashi with an utterly unimpressed glare, “Are a headache.” Kakashi raised an eyebrow, but didn’t interrupt as she continued talking. “Between Akatsuki’s unfortunate interest in Naruto, and Orochimaru’s disturbing interest in Sasuke, and the fact that Sasuke’s brother is a bloody member of Akatsuki, you’re all a walking target. Short of keeping your whole team under Anbu guard, which is not an effective use of resources, I’m really not sure what to do about it. I promised I’d keep your team together, at your request no less, so please, some suggestions would be good.”
She had a point. It was a worrying situation, and the village really couldn’t afford to waste resources driving S rank missing nin away from a team of helpless genin. Luckily he had a solution. It would probably be good for him to get out of the village for a while anyway, while he waited for certain parties to calm down about his part in making Tsunade Hokage.
“There’s a mission to snow country on the books. Estimated minimum time for completion three months, and it’s out of both the Akatsuki’s and Orochimaru’s spheres of influence. As long as they don’t know we’re going there, it would be a good way to lie low for a bit while still bringing in revenue and gaining experience.” Tsunade looked thoughtful.
“That mission is a B rank.” She pointed out. “Technically your genin aren’t high ranked enough for it.”
“Yes but it’s a low B. In fact it’s only ranked that high because Konoha basic survival training doesn’t focus much on cold weather survival. I’m from Kiri, I know how to deal with snow, and I can make sure they can handle it too.” And the fact that it wasn’t supposed to be assigned to genin would make it less likely anyone would suspect that was where they’d been sent. He knew Tsunade understood that, even if they didn’t say it out loud. She nodded, reluctantly.
“Alright. But I’m not sending a team of genin on a long term B rank alone. If somehow Orochimaru or the Akatsuki does figure out where you went, or even if something else goes wrong, it’s a long way from Konoha and you’ll need some proper backup.” Kakashi tilted his head in curiosity.
“What did you have in mind?”
“You work well with Gai don’t you?” He nodded, reluctantly. It wasn’t good to make it too obvious who your friends were, not unless you wanted to make them targets. “I’ll send team Gai with you. That way you’ll have some jounin level backup, and the kids will have someone besides each other to socialise with over the next few months.” She smiled slightly wistfully, the voice of old experience. “Three months alone in each other’s company and they’d probably be ready to murder each other, and they’d definitely be prepared to murder you. If you didn’t strangle the lot of them first. It’s good to have other people there to provide a buffer.”
It wasn’t a bad plan, her points were all solid. And it would be good to have some actual adult company on the trip. It looked like supporting Tsunade as Hokage had been a better decision than he thought. She might be compromised as a medic and an active ninja, but she had the mind for leadership. He nodded in acceptance and she smiled.
“Good. I’ll send you out separately and you can rendezvous in the port of Taku, after they get off the ship. You can take the overland route. Try not to get into too much trouble on the way hmm.” Kakashi gave her his best look of wounded innocence, and she laughed as she dismissed him. He could almost imagine himself coming to like this new Hokage.
…
“You know, your teammates are very interesting people.” Shikamaru said calmly as he moved his bishop. “There are a rather troublesome number of eyes on them.” Sakura considered her possible moves. This game had already lasted three moves longer than any of her previous matches against Shikamaru, but she didn’t think there would be many more. Still it was proof she was improving. Maybe by the time she was old and grey she would actually manage to beat him.
“That, is very unpleasantly true. Kakashi sensei has decided to take us on a long term mission.” She dropped a rook with an unobtrusive click. “He told us to pack for cold weather.” They were in the middle of training ground fifty three, notable mainly for being the most utterly boring training ground in the village. It was effectively, a large empty field, which made it good for improving long range ninjutsu, and also for holding conversations that were best not overheard. Nowhere for unwanted listeners to conceal themselves. She and Shikamaru had sparred for a while, before settling down to a game of shougi. Partly because it was good practice, partly to make it less obvious they were having clandestine conversations.
“Troublesome.” Shikamaru slid his gold general to one side. “But probably wise. I assume he’s trying to avoid your teammate’s fans. It is a shame though, after all it’s hard to play shougi when you’re out of contact. Is anyone going with you?”
“A team from the year above us. They were in the chuunin exams. Team Gai.” She bit her nail for a moment before shifting her pawn. Shikamaru responded with his knight.
“Hmm. According to my father, Maito Gai is Kakashi sensei’s closest friend in the village. Taijutsu expert, very skilled. Akatsuki work in pairs, they probably don’t want to send your team out without the extra jounin backup.” He paused before adding. “His kunoichi student Tenten, is more skilled than she allows herself to seem. It might be interesting to trade tips with her” She nodded in gratitude for the information, and the recommendation. It was always good to make new contacts.
“According to Kakashi sensei, there are elements on the council not happy with Tsunade’s election.” Sakura offered in return. She clicked her silver general into place, and waited. Shikamaru looked at her, uncharacteristically alert.
“Doubt or ambition?” He spoke quietly as he moved his general again, in a tone that was unlikely to carry. “My father doesn’t like to discuss those who outrank him.”
“Those who have power, are used to getting what they want.” Sakura quoted Kakashi sensei. “They expect certain things as their due.” She moved her king back. Shikamaru nodded as he checkmated her.
“Then I suppose we will both have to be careful. It would be troublesome to cut our games short. Good players are hard to find.” They shared a moment of silent understanding before they parted.
…
Kakashi breathed in deeply, appreciating the clean scent of pine needles, and the trace of a sea breeze. It had been three weeks since they’d left the village and the oppressive heat of fire country summers had given way to bright days, with a biting chill to the air that never quite faded, and snow on the ground that never quite melted, even in summer.
The kids had never seen so much snow before. Naruto had wasted no time in starting a massive shadow clone fuelled snowball fight that ended with an uncooperative Sasuke getting dumped headfirst into a snow drift. Kakashi smiled softly behind his mask, and pretended to ignore them. It was warm enough that a little play wouldn’t freeze them, as long as they took care to change into dry clothes before the sun set.
They had made good time, barring unforeseen accidents they would arrive in Taku in a couple of days, and they had a week yet before they were due to rendezvous with Gai. It had taken an almost visible weight off all their shoulders, being out of the village, away from the overwhelming forces that lay in waiting to pounce on his students. This trip had been a good decision.
“Hey Kakashi sensei.” Naruto spoke up, eyes still bright from his earlier games. “What exactly are we doing in snow country anyway?”
“Technically we’re spying on them.” Kakashi replied indulgently.
“Cool”. That was Naruto, easily satisfied with a simple answer.
“Why only technically?” And that was Sakura. Always looking for the full explanation. They were both endearing in their own ways.
“Well, we are spying, but we’re not after military secrets, or tactical information, so it’s very low risk.” Kakashi answered.
“What are we looking for then?” And there was Sasuke, straight to the point, always wanted to know the target. He would not be happy if he realised how cute Kakashi found that.
“We are looking, for technology.” Kakashi declared grandly. The world was a hard place, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be an adventure. It was good to remind the kids of that, before they got too old and tied up in chains of duty and pride.
“Technology?” Naruto was obviously excited, and while the other two were better at masking it he could see their curiosity.
“Aa. Snow country’s technology is currently far ahead of any other country in the elemental nations. We’ve been ordered to investigate, and get hold of blueprints or samples of anything useful. We’ll mostly be infiltrating civilian manufacturing plants. Better to avoid clashing with Snow country nins if we don’t have to. They might not be one of the great nations but they have some nasty tricks up their sleeves.” His students were listening intently, and Kakashi allowed himself to feel a touch of pride, at the way they hung on his words. They trusted him, they believed in what he had to say. There was no world in which that didn’t feel good.
…
Kakashi sensei woke them quietly, in the middle of the first watch. Sasuke tensed at first, half panicked at the thought they must be under attack, but Kakashi sensei had just shaken his head and smiled before moving to wake the other two. Not a threat then. Maybe there was some kind of night fighting technique he wanted to show them. Although Kakashi sensei didn’t usually teach jutsu outside the village. Still it would become clear soon enough, so Sasuke didn’t make a fuss.
By some kind of unspoken agreement, no one was making noise, so Sasuke followed silently when Kakashi sensei led them up the tree. It felt subtly different, walking up these strange, rough barked, needle leaved trees, the flow of their chakra was different to the broad leaved ancient trees of Konoha. It didn’t have much of an effect on his tree walking, it was just, different.
Kakashi sensei stopped at the top of the tree and Sasuke was just about to ask why when his breath caught in his throat.
The sky was on fire.
Green, and pink, and purple, and blue, arcing across the sky in wild trails of light. Sasuke had never seen anything like it. He couldn’t even find words for it, so he just stood in silence, perched in the branches of the tree with his teammates by his side. He heard Sakura gasp at the sight of it, registered Naruto’s uncharacteristic stillness.
“The Northern Lights.” Kakashi sensei said softly, reverent in a way he never was. “No-one knows where they come from or what they mean. Some think they’re the souls of the dead, dancing in the sky, some say that they are a message from the spirit world, or the trail of the Sage’s tears as he looks down on all the darkness of the world. But no-one knows. I think maybe there is nothing to know. Some things are themselves entire, they don’t need to mean anything. They just are. They just exist, beautiful, and impossible, and utterly unlike anything else in the world, and that is enough.” They were all quiet for a long time after that.
“They’re beautiful.” Sasuke was startled to realise that it was him that had broken the silence. Kakashi just smiled in response, and looked back up at the sky.
“Aa, that they are.” None of them slept again that night. Too entranced by the sight of the sky burning. It was worth the next day’s exhaustion.