Mission: Delivery!

Naruto’s brow furrowed, “But what are they?”

“It’s obviously not our job to know. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have kept it from us.” Sasuke didn’t like his answer, and judging by the look on Naruto’s face, he didn’t either.

“It just doesn’t make sense. Why make us tote around this cart instead of just having us deliver them ourselves?” Naruto motioned to the scrolls.

“Like I said, I doubt we were supposed to know about them at all,” Sasuke replied. He hated not knowing, but without the knowledge of how to get past the ward, curiosity was pointless.

“What if…I mean there’s no way they could…” Naruto huffed a sigh, his face screwing up in concentration.

“Spit it out,” Sasuke grumbled.

“Do you think the bandits knew? About the scrolls, that is,” Naruto asked.

He considered the blond’s words. As much as it disdained him to admit, Naruto had a point. Why would bandits bother with such a meager amount of goods? It wouldn’t be worth it. They weren’t toting weapons. Only a small amount of medical equipment and nonperishables. It was the only logical argument.

“At this point, I’m sure they know. I bet they think we’re ignorant too,” he answered, “in fact, they’re probably banking on it.”

A pained frown tugged at Naruto’s lips, “We can’t just trade them for Riyame ’til we know what they are.”

“We’ll trade the cart.”

“What about the-“

“We’ll remove the scrolls, and then we’ll trade the cart. Their assumptions will be their undoing.”

Naruto looked at Sasuke as if had never seen him before. Where was this attitude before? Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to pop his bubble. It was better to have Sasuke with him than against him.

“One question, though,” Naruto said, “how’re we going to get the scrolls out?”

“Good question.”

Sasuke spent what felt like forever staring at the soft blue forcefield. He had spent the better part of an hour making hand signs and saying, “Release,” but with no luck so far. He had even looked closely to see if there was a seal he could break with a kunai. The only seals were on the inside.

Naruto, on the other hand, had spent the better part of the hour throwing small projectiles at it with the hopes that it would break. He had no clue if it would work, but something had to eventually, right? His thoughts occasionally drifted to tracking their teammate down again, but he knew Sasuke would never go for it. His only chance at backup was behind a tiny force field.

After another ten minutes of silence, Naruto started bouncing verbal ideas based in boredom off of Sasuke. “What if we go at it from underneath?”

“There are seals on the inside. The only way in is through the top.” Sasuke’s voice was a bored monotone. The sun had set an hour ago and a slight chill had set it, remedied only by the crackling low behind them.

“How many release jutsu do you know?” Naruto’s question was only partly a joke.

“Not enough.” They fell silent after that.

Naruto began to wonder if there was anyone that could break the barrier. It was obviously meant for a more powerful ninja than either of them. Naruto knew that throwing tiny rocks at it wasn’t likely to do much of anything at all, but it was better than nothing. He thought about getting larger projectiles or even a stick to poke it, but he was worried that one or both of them would end up injured by the backfire. Both of them needed to be at their peak if they were going to help Riyame out of this.

A sudden thought occurred to Naruto. “Aww man,” He groaned, falling onto his back. Sasuke gave him a questioning look, “Our three days are up tomorrow.”

Sasuke’s eyes widened in realization. The idiot was right. They were given a three-day constraint. They should have been to the Shadow village and headed back already. Instead, they were forced to negotiate with common criminals.

“Granny is gonna murder us,” Naruto complained.

Sasuke didn’t bother replying. He began to double his efforts, the hand signs coming faster from hazy memories and lessons with Kakashi. Nothing. No good. If anything the barrier glowed brighter. Frustration started settling into the cracks in his memory.

“Okay! Screw it!” Naruto jumped to his feet, rummaged around in the bushes near them, and found the largest, sharpest branch he could.

“What are you doing?” Mild curiosity brought Sasuke to his feet, but that didn’t keep him from sounding condescending.

“I’m gonna break it,” Naruto answered readying the branch in his hands.

“Are you insane? The thing could explode, moron,” Sasuke barked.

“It’s better than doing nothing,” Naruto bit back.

“Don’t be-“

“You can help me or shut up. I’m going it either way,” Naruto snapped. He took a deep breath, summoning as much strength as he could muster, and stabbed at the forcefield.

For a moment, Sasuke thought he had succeeded. The barrier seemed to cave in under the pressure, and the more weight Naruto put into it, the closer it seemed to piercing it. Then it began to shift.

“Let go of the stick,” Sasuke said urgently.

“I’ve almost got it,” Naruto protested.

“Let it go, idiot,” Sasuke nearly shouted. No sooner than Sasuke had yanked Naruto away from it, the branch exploded, showering the area with splinters.

“What was Granny thinking!?” Naruto uncovered his face once he was sure they were safe.

“Not that we would find it, that’s for sure,” Sasuke grumbled bitterly. He plucked a splinter from the ground and examined it closely. Part of it was charred which meant that the wall that was guarding the scrolls could withstand a lot of force. They weren’t going to get it open by force.

Another ten minutes passed before Naruto spoke again, “I wish Sakura was here…” Sasuke glanced at him as if to ask why. “You know…she’s so brainy. She’d know just how to break through it.” Even Sasuke couldn’t deny that. Sakura might have been annoying sometimes, but she wasn’t one of the top students in their class for nothing.

“That’s it!” Naruto’s face lit up, proud of his revelation, “We have to think like Sakura!”

Sasuke quirked a raven colored brow, “How exactly are we supposed to do that?”

“You know…try to imagine what Sakura would do in this situation,” Naruto cleared his throat, “Oh Sasuke, you’re so clever,” His voice was high in the worst imitation of Sakura that Sasuke had ever heard, “I just know you’ll figure this out because I’m so in love with you-“

“I don’t know what that’s supposed to be, but it’s not helping.” Naruto kept going, unhindered by Sasuke’s negativity.

“-Naruto, you’re okay too, but Sasuke has his chidori and his sharingan and you’ve just got a-“

“Wait,” Sasuke put a hand up to silence him, “Chidori.” At best, they broke the barrier, at worst, they blew up the entire cart, and they would have to either save his sister themselves or call in a swat team from Konaha.

“Chidori…you mean, you think it’ll be enough?” Naruto’s face scrunched up as he thought about it, “I mean…what can go wrong, right? It works or it doesn’t.”

Sasuke flitted through the hand signs and felt the flow of chakra form around his hand. The lightning chirped as it danced around. He flattened his hand into a position where it would do the most damage and jabbed at the shield. At first, he met resistance. He knew that had it not been for the chidori, his hand would have been fried to a crisp. After a couple of seconds of intense pressure, the surface began to ripple inward.

A little longer, Sasuke thought, come on. Just when he thought his hand would pierce through it, he was blown backward. The breath left his lungs in a huff of air. He struggled to regain it as he righted his aching body. On the other side of the cart, Naruto stood clutching his side. Both of them approached the cart with grim faces and peered into it.

Naruto let out a whoop of joy, thrusting his hands in the air. A wave of relief settled over Sasuke that nearly swept his legs from beneath him. He reached forward hesitantly to be sure that his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him, and he was hit with another wave of relief when his hand touched the scrolls uninjured. He grabbed the one beneath his fingers.

When he opened it, his relief was short lived. He was vaguely aware of Naruto peering over his shoulder, but he was sucked into reading through the precise handwriting.

“What is it?”

“Something we should have never seen.” He rolled it back up and placed it with the others.

Naruto grabbed up the scroll, but he was quick to recoil and replace it.

Disgusted. That’s how he felt. How could Tsunade have them carting around war plans without telling them! He was furious. They were down a teammate and all for what? A bunch of scrolls.

By the time Naruto had calmed down, he was more than ready to lay the smack down on the jerks at noon. He didn’t have the patience to sit through strategy with Sasuke, but he did it anyway. He wasn’t risking something screwing up this time. They were going to get Riyame back, no matter what.

Naruto welcomed the sunrise as it crept over the horizon. It was a symbol of his determination. They would be successful today. No matter what happened, Riyame would be safe again and they’d be on their way before the day was over. They’d send a message to Konaha telling Tsunade not to worry, that there was a delay.

Oh, Naruto couldn’t wait to tip granny a new one over the scrolls when they got back. Just the thought of it had him running energetic laps around the small campsite. He’d run the entire way to the Hokage’s office, and she wouldn’t like it when he gave her a piece of his mind.

“If you’ve got so much energy, put out the fire.” Sasuke ignored Naruto’s excitement and buried the scrolls at the base of the bushes where the cart was once stashed. He replaced the false bottom, ensuring that it appeared seamless, and carefully arranged the supplies as they were before.

Everything was ready well before noon, so they stopped to eat something small. Neither of them could stomach much with the anticipation eating at them. Both of them silently hoped their plan went off without a hitch. If all went well, they would trade the cart for Riyame and be on their merry way. Naruto feared the worst case scenario, but Sasuke was prepared for it—even if it meant killing any of them.

When the sun had reached the eight position in the sky, Sasuke announced that it was time for them to find the rendezvous point. They found the spot easily enough. It was the only clearing that Sasuke could see for miles from the tallest tree he could climb.

They sat there until the sun was high overhead. Naruto was growing restless, and if these jerks didn’t show up soon, he was going to say "screw the plan" and hunt them down. In his impatience, a snapping twig to his right nearly sent the knuckle-headed wonder into attack mode.

Into the clearing stepped a guy a little older than them. His burgundy eyes were unsettling, and his hair was as dark as coal. His pale skin almost appeared ghostly in the bright sun and gave him a startling appearance.

“Hello, boys,” He said pleasantly, “We haven’t met yet. I’m the negotiator.”