After a long mission and having a hearty meal with his teammates, Sasuke went to the bookstore to buy the 2nd edition of Icha Icha Paradise.
Kakashi, who was looking for him and found him here, could not figure out whether or not he should be impressed that his discipline is honest enough not to hide his interest.
'Hope her mother is not cursing me for corrupting him this early.' Kakashi recalled how much she cursed in front of Minato and Kushina in private.
After paying the book, Sasuke noticed Kakashi was there, who insisted on walking with him.
'Definitely something going on.' Sasuke felt, as Kakashi had maintain a poker face.
So Sasuke went with the flow and was walking with Kakashi.
"Today, Asuma and Kurenai proposed to me to do a temporary change in our Genin team." Kakashi said, still not figured out the reason for it.
"So tomorrow temporarily, Asuma team would be Naruto, Sakura and Ino, Kurenai team would be Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji and my team would be You, Hinata and Shion."
Sasuke was less surprised, and more anxious when he heard 'Shion'.
'Just like I feared, I have to have interaction with him.'
Among Konoha 12, Shikamaru and Shion had known OG Sasuke throughout the Academy due to their excellent observation skill and would be first to notice a change of Sasuke personality.
Sasuke, despite God's warning, had only limited interaction with them, since Sasuke personality was so different from OG Sasuke, they might think he is imposter and may insist Ino to contact her father to verify the truth.
Of course, he might be overthinking, but considering the timeline was now noticeably different, Sasuke was more willing to be cautious as things are now unpredictable.
"Why the look on your face? Can't be separated from your friends?" Kakashi grinned, making Sasuke embarrassed a bit.
"Anyway, the mission you and your temporary teammate is going to be..." Kakashi paused for a moment and opened his Sharigan and looked around before looking at Sasuke:"S rank assigned by the village."
Sasuke, like Kakashi predicted, was taken a bit.
A and S rank was assigned only to the elite Shinobi or Anbu members, where it is given the utmost importance due to significance it has for village interest.
"What is the mission, Sensei?" Sasuke asked, out of curiosity.
"Alright, but don't say to anyone, even Naruto and Sakura, that it might jeopardize our mission." Kakashi warned, highlighting the significance of the mission.
"A month ago, one of the councilors of the Konoha council, Koharu Utatane, who was also the head of the Medical-nin department and vice head of the Sensory department was killed."
"Her body was found far away from her residence, where her heart was pierced."
"According to report, it was alleged that an assassin from Kumo was the culprit since Kumo shinobi was noticed by the guards and reported to the authorities an hour prior to her."
"No one knows why she was killed, but they speculate she must have gained critical information related to Kumo, hence Raikage ordered her death." Kakashi concluded, where Sasuke had the biggest shock in his life.
Sasuke, who transmigrated here with a good chunk of history and timeline, knew she was the last person to die.
No where she would have died that early, at least this was what Sasuke expected until hearing Kakashi's words.
Sasuke did not think Danzo, Orochinaru and Obito would kill her,doubting anyone would be interested in killing her if they didn't kill her in the OG timeline.
But also Sasuke found it strange that no one knew where she was going prior to her death and did not take bodyguards, like she should have done.
'Either her own friends killed her or Obito extracted information when she was vulnerable and then killed her to erase evidence.' Sasuke concluded, not believing the slightest that Kumo had their hands on her death.
"So, Lord 3rd gave this mission to me to locate his discipline, one of the Sannin,
Lady Tsunade and at all cost convinced her to return back and become the new head of the Medical-nin department." Kakashi said, while wishing Jiraiya did not leave when he heard the Chūnin exam was canceled.
His intelligence network was the widest and was technically the only Sannin the village had in times of crisis, though he was the most absent in the village for his personal writing career.
"So, are there any clues about Lady Tsunade's location?" Sasuke respectfully asked, aware of the prestige she had.
"Well...Lady Tsunade suspected to be in Tanzaku Quarters due to aligning with her interest....other than that... it's more like a goose chase." Kakashi said, less opportunistic of her encounter with her.
'Well, Search for Tsunade in the OG timeline occurs at the same time here, so maybe we will find her.'
"We start our mission at 4 am tomorrow and don't worry, I had already informed those two." Kakashi said.
"Wait, why are we going there with you?" Sasuke asked, realising there was no need for them to come in the first place.
Why send a Genin team who supposedly have no idea of politics and supposedly not stronger than Chūnin, rather than sending Asuma, Might Guy and Kurenai who are both loyal to Konoha and capable fighters to accompany Kakashi?
"Well I wanted to understand the benefit of temporarily changing our Genin team and I thought you guys would start to make some progress if you go outside the village rather than train all day."
"I mean she can't just use her Byakugan all day to extinguish her frustration." Kakashi said, patting Sasuke's shoulder, before body flickering away.
"You son of bitch!" Sasuke yelled, remembering a certain scene in the movie 'Road to Ninja' and realising Kakashi's words.
'Shit, it's so cursed to think Hinata would do it.' Sasuke agonizes with his palm on his face, considering Hinata doesn't deactivate her Bakyugan to disprove the notion.
Sasuke decided not to train and sleep early, so that he would forget the cursed thoughts.
'Surely my daily nightmare will help me forget right?' Sasuke thought, unknowingly cursed himself not to have a nightmare for once, when he most needed it.