Spy Games

A number of years later…

Chapter 1

The man was a westerner. More precisely, he was a Frank. His eyes were brown, and his hair both short and black. He was wearing a dark grey three-piece suit, and sat with one leg folded over the other at one of the many shaded tables outside of a moderately popular cafe. His coffee remained, for the most part, untouched next to the laptop bag that he had placed on the table. In his hands, the man held a local newspaper that Sasuke had just watched him buy at a magazine rack across the street. Perhaps it was the way he had fumbled with the unfamiliar currency that had drawn Sasuke's attention to him...

"Hey, Sasuke," came a voice from behind him, "why are you wasting your time staring at that guy?" Initially, Sasuke was simply going to ignore the question Naruto had posed, but then, as always, Sakura came unnecessarily to his defense.

"Probably because Kakashi-sensei told us to go and watch people. Or have you forgotten?"

"I didn't forget! It's just that if he ever wants to become a real agent, he should learn to watch more interesting people than some dumb tourist!"

"Hn"

Sasuke's 'rebuttal' brought the other two to silence as they both began to study the young man trying to find what they thought Sasuke saw and they had missed. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything to be found. Though Sasuke would never admit it aloud, the dobe had hit the nail on the head. In short: there was nothing remarkable about a Frankish man in a conservative business suit reading a newspaper. He had simply been distracted...

'At least he's easy on the eyes...' Sasuke thought to himself wryly.

"He looks too nondescript," Sakura said suddenly, jostling him from his thoughts. "It's almost like it's practiced... like he's spent time studying what people look like going about their everyday lives and is trying too hard to copy it..." If anything, Sakura was perceptive.

"Now that you mention it," Naruto chimed in, "he does kinda seem like he's up to something..."

After a moment, Sasuke voiced his agreement, "Yeah, he does."

It was then, when all three were staring unabashedly at him, that the man decided to lower the newspaper and look up. Brown eyes met black, and for an instant the world around them seemed to slow. As if the universe itself waited with baited breath to see what would come of it.

Slowly a smile formed on the man's lips, and Sasuke found himself tentatively smiling back. Then the man winked.

"He saw us!"

"What do we do?!?"

When Sasuke's mind returned to focus, he immediately realized that time had not at slowed at all. While he and the man had locked gazes, Naruto and Sakura had dived behind the bench they had been sitting on.

“Why the hell are you still sitting there, Sasuke? He caught us!”

“Yeah, with you two acting like idiots there’s no way he didn’t.”

“What the hell did you call me, Teme?”

“Shut up, he’s starting to walk away.”

“Do we follow him Sasuke?”

At this, the young Uchiha paused. Was there really any point? In all likelihood, he had no connection to the imperial governor or his “policing” forces. He was probably just some tourist spending his vacation in what he perceived as one of his nations Far-East provinces or a business man sent to seal a new marketing deal. The oddness they sensed was probably just paranoia, and it would be a waste of time to follow him. But…

“Let’s go.”

In their haste to cross the plaza and catch up to their Frankish mark, for he had managed to traverse quite a bit of sidewalk in that short space of time, not one of them noticed that he had left the laptop bag on the table…

******** ********

The first few minutes of their covert pursuit had gone rather well for them. Their new mark seemed to be aimlessly wandering between the various shops and stalls that lined the street… pausing here to glance through a window… stopping there to buy a canned soda and a snack. In fact, he didn’t seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary, which further reinforced Sasuke’s second thoughts. Naruto and Sakura didn’t seem to be sharing them, however. Sakura, who was on point and closely tailing the man, was competently accomplishing her own act of nonchalance while Naruto trailed and darted from lamp post, to alcove, to doorway with too much enthusiasm. Sasuke paralleled the man across the street with his hands in his pockets, his head down, and basically looking every bit the broody eighteen-year-old that he was.

After a brief stop at a small clothing boutique, the young Frank finally did something that once more caught the trio’s interest: after deftly crumpling the paper packaging of his snack and tossing it into a convenient trashcan, he simply left his emptied soda can on its lid. But before they could move in to investigate, they were caught once again. He made eye contact with each of the three in turn, offered another smile to Sasuke, and then simply vanished—or disappeared so quickly into the crowd that he seemed to. Either way, the three were dumbstruck and gathered together where Sasuke stood.

“I can’t believe he saw us again!”

“Why don’t you say it a bit louder, you idiot, I don’t think everyone in the city could hear you.”

“So what? If Sasuke hadn’t…”

“You were the one jumping around like some little kid! I bet he didn’t even notice Sasuke.”

“Hn… You’re both idiots,” Sasuke finally said, starting to turn around.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

“Back, before Kakashi shows up and thinks we got lost or something.”

“And did you get lost?” came the voice of their silver-haired mentor from behind them, freezing all three in shock. “Well?”

After Sakura and Naruto recovered, they immediately launched into rapid-fire and wildly conflicting explanations of how they had gotten so far from the bench he had left them on while Sasuke just folded his arms.

“Settle down you two… save it for the debriefing. Speaking of which, we should probably get back to the tower before the Hokage thinks you annoyed the wrong legionnaire and ended up in a cell.”

“But…”

“No buts, we’re already far too late.”

At this, the three exchanged knowing looks, but obediently followed the man as he strode away.