Cap19:)

I snorted. "So ANBU." There was a loud crash, and I didn't even have to turn to realize that whoever Kakashi-sensei had stolen the hat from had collided with the person he had disposed of it on.

Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "Yes and no. We generally don't assign assassination missions to kids under eighteen, unless you're a special case like Itachi Uchiha, and of course look where that got us. Still, remember that you're all trained killers. If you can hit a target with a kunai, then you can hit a person, too."

Ino paled. "But…what if I'm not that type of person? What if I'm more of a spying shinobi instead of a killing shinobi?"

"Well, then, one day you might make a mistake, and someone will catch you. At that point, you can either slit his throat before he raises the alarm, or get your throat slit because you knew how to use a knife but was too squeamish to do it," Kakashi-sensei remarked flippantly.

Ino didn't say much after that.

"…Do they really hate us that much?" Naruto asked, watching a mother push her child over to her other side as she kept an eye on the four of us warily.

"Hate? Not really. They simply don't understand us. And what people don't understand, people fear. Very few people have knowledge of what we can really do. They only hear exaggerated tales from the grapevine, further amplified and darkened by the aura of mystery that surrounds us. Which, as you know, is completely unfounded, because literally anyone can walk into the Academy on a sunny summer day and sign up their kid for next year's class."

"I don't like being judged," Naruto said moodily, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Well, get used to it, because that's the way the world spins. You might as well use it to your advantage. Besides, don't take it personally. Look at all the people in this city. You're one out of a million. People really won't care enough to remember you for a bad reason unless you give them a good reason to." At this, he tapped the right shoulder of a man who had been unfortunate enough to walk in front of us, and quickly sidestepped to his left when the man turned his head. There was a muffled thump and some indignant yelling; evidently, the man he had tricked had accidentally run into a display case while he hadn't been looking forward, if the trinkets strewn about the street were any indication.

"But we already have a reason, don't we?" Naruto asked. "We're ninja."

"Just because you're a ninja doesn't automatically mean that people will care. And if they do, then it's certainly not about you as a person," said Kakashi-sensei. "You do realize that no one here evencares that the Shinobi World Wars even happened, right?"

Naruto was flabbergasted. "But…even I know that. And I ditched half the days at the Academy, at least."

Kakashi-sensei shrugged. "It's amazing, isn't it? How little people know about things that don't affect them directly? You look at all those names carved into the Memorial Stone, and think of how many more were left widowed, orphaned, and friendless, and all for what? It doesn't matter to any of these people. All of the fighting in those secret wars took place on rough terrain far from these urban centers. It was always our sphere. Never theirs. Oh, thank you."

"What?"

Kakashi-sensei shrugged, holding up a misshapen package wrapped in brown tissue paper. "Someone just gave this to me."

"Did they actually hand it to you, or did it merely 'exchange hands' when you bumped into that person?" Ino asked, hands on her hips.

Kakashi-sensei folded back the corner of the paper to peek inside. From my angle, I couldn't see very clearly, but it looked like some kind of cloth, light blue in color with leafy flower patterns. "It was just an accident. I'll be giving this back."

"I suppose you would have said 'they gave it to me' had it been the latest copy of that book you always read?" Ino asked.

"Now, would I ever do something like that?"

"Yes," the three of us answered simultaneously.

"Youngsters are so disrespectful nowadays," Kakashi-sensei sighed.

"How are we going to survive here for the whole week again?" Ino mouthed to me.

I shrugged. "Just close your eyes and pretend it's all a bad dream."

"Yeah, one called REALITY," she sniffed.

"What was that?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

"Nothing," she said quickly.

"It sure sounded like something."

"It was nothing. Honestly."

He stopped in the middle of major intersection, completely ignorant of the fact that he was now blocking traffic in the busiest square in Tanyu, to level Ino with a deadpan stare. "You're a very bad liar, Ino. We'll have to fix that."

Ino wrinkled her nose defiantly. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Better. But you have to sound more dismissive of others' opinions when you lie. That way they not only start questioning your dishonesty, but also their own version of the truth," he said, flipping his book back open – and, without changing his walking pace, also blindsiding two horse-drawn carts at once so that they ended up swerving and barely missing each other.

"Did he actually plan that or was it just an accident?" Naruto whispered.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Chaos was a physical entity strapped to the bottom of his sandals," said Ino, giggling.

Strangely enough, while Kakashi-sensei was completely deaf to the earth-shattering curses that the cart drivers were throwing in our direction, he managed to hear our whispers among the cacophonous crowd perfectly fine, because about two minutes later he had his revenge by disappearing off into thin air and leaving us stranded in the middle of an unfamiliar metropolis with nothing but our backpacks and the man we were supposed to guard.

Luckily, he had done this before, when we were on that mission tracking Tora down in Konoha's slums, so we were prepared to do our own navigation. And while we were extremely annoyed at Kakashi-sensei's antics (who wouldn't be?), we also remembered our lesson. When we had gotten news of the C-rank the previous week, we had also gotten mission parameters dictating that we would be spending several days in areas that were very easy to get lost – or temporarily abandoned – in. As soon as that meeting had ended, the three of us had gone straight to the map corner of the library to research the most recently updated diagrams of Suna and Tanyu, and the trails connecting them to each other and to Konoha.

"…Where's the Jonin?" the merchant suddenly asked, looking around.

Ino smiled cheerfully and pointed off in a random direction where Gyoza-san's nearsighted eyes couldn't follow. "He's right there, sir." (No, he wasn't.) "It's a standard scouting procedure." (No, it wasn't.) "He'll be back soon enough." (No, he wouldn't.)

"Oh. All right. You kids – er," the man cleared his throat uncomfortably, "you people – do you know your way around this city?"

"I have the road plans memorized, sir," I told him smoothly. This wasn't a lie, at least. "You and your goods are safe with us. Right, Naruto?"

"Mmm-hmmm!" Naruto grinned foxily. "No one's going to be robbing you while we're around; believe it!"

At our confidence-inspiring speeches, our client relaxed visibly. "All right. If you say so."

"Did we just lie to our own client?" Ino whispered.

"Excuse me, but it is called 'bluffing', my cute students," Naruto whispered back, imitating Kakashi-sensei. "There's a difference."

"Bullshit," I called.

Ino turned her giggle into a cough.

Eventually, despite Kakashi-sensei's absence – or rather, because of it, since he was no longer around to congest traffic – we managed to deliver the client to his hotel on schedule. When we carried his bags up to his room, however, Kakashi-sensei was already there waiting for us –

Just kidding. It was a scarecrow. There was a note tacked to its front. Naruto snatched it off.

"My cute students," he read slowly, "I am afraid that I have gotten lost on the road of life again. Please find me before the end of the week, as the Fire Daimyo will be throwing a festival to honor his late father and movement through the streets will be close to impossible."

"WHAT?" Ino yelled, grabbing the paper from Naruto and rereading it carefully. "That JERK! Why here, of all places? This is the largest city in all of the Elemental Nations! It'll be impossible to find him even with a time limit of a week!"

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