"This mission, though it was meant for other parties," Kakashi said. "Is rather simple in nature and important. We are here to patrol the border between the Land of Fire and some of the northern lands."
He pointed towards the East and spread his finger westward, pointing north.
"The Hot Springs Country to the Rice Field Country," Kakashi said. "Our task is to look for and intercept any individual who appears to be entering the Land of Fire with hostile intent."
"Is this not obvious?" Shino asked. "I do believe it is. We are simply to intercept enemy ninja."
"Ahh, but that's where it gets tricky," Kakashi said. "Such as the potential for a foreign ninja to be passing through on duties that have nothing to do with us. Let's try to be careful not to misidentify a legal visitor as a hostile invader, shall we?"
Sakura nodded briefly as she listened to Kakashi explain the situation.
The four of them were walking along under the trees to head North and the area of their patrol. Kakashi was clearly taking a casual travel time and using the chance to explain the objectives and operations of the mission.
"Is the area broad?" Shino asked. "Yes, I do believe it is. How do we plan to cover such an area?"
"We're patrolling an area that we can reliably patrol over a course of a day," Kakashi said.
"So we'll be using a regular camp site?" Sakura asked.
"Not so much," Kakashi said. "It's best not to have predictable locations for this sort of thing. All of you have been trained in traps, correct?"
"That's certainly so," Sasuke said.
He'd needed the traps training for a quite a while to secure the Uchiha residence against some of the crazier fangirls.
"Of course," Sakura said confidently. "I received top marks in that subject."
Kakashi was sure that she had, but she had been getting increasingly fervent about reminding people of her marks in class, especially Sasuke. Unfortunately, that was having the reverse of the effect she wanted.
He sighed with that and looked to Shino who nodded before giving his own answer.
"It is a basic skill," the Aburame noted.
"Good," Kakashi said. "Then we'll take turns preparing the traps each day. Along with the other tasks. This should be rather routine, so don't expect too much in the way of excitement."
Sakura nodded pleasantly, but internally determined to excel at least at the trap-making. Even she couldn't do the other things, that should have been something she was easily capable of handling as well as, if not better, than either of her teammates.
Even Sasuke.
Trap-making was all about the planning and preparation, and that was where she excelled after all.
This wasn't going to be like one of those other missions at all.
It wasn't like with weeding the herb garden where she'd tried to prove how useful she could be by creating a list of the various herbs in the garden and what weeds would be most likely to interfere.
And Shino and Sasuke were finished by the time she got around to showing them her work.
Or the cat-mission, where she'd underestimated the animal and ended up getting scratched up by it until Sasuke pulled it off her.
It wasn't going to be like the time she'd tried to infiltrate Team 10 as Kiba and got found out because she actually gave Shikamaru a run for his money at shogi.
She had to admit that it was the first time she'd gotten the comment that she was being too smart.
Then there was the whole tea-house thing.
This time, at least one task was one that she couldn't really over think and get herself in trouble over.
Then she'd prove to Sasuke that she wasn't useless.
It was really aggravating, of the three girls in her class, she was the one that was getting regarded as the weakest. Actually, people were talking about Naruto as more effective than her somehow.
They'd all been doing D-Rank missions. How could Naruto, Hinata and Ino show off enough for people to put her down with Shikamaru?
"This time," she thought, "I'm not going to be a burden."
Kakashi sighed and shook his head, hoping that wasn't the death knell of Sakura's ability this mission. If she'd started over thinking things again....things would get...interesting.
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(Posted Sun, 29 May 2011 11:40)
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