NaruHina: Duty

Chapter 12: Operatives

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Part 3: Clash

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Late at night, two exhausted figures in an office were ironing out the final details for a mission.

A man held up a photo of a girl with pink hair.

The person seated across from him answered with a shake of the head.

"No undercover work for her. She's busy here. I need her to run the medical corps. I'm heading off to Iwa to meet with Onoki in a week, and she needs to stay in my place."

Sakura's photo was set to the side on the table.

"What about her?"

Ino's photo was held suspended in the air for a minute before a negative reply came from the person opposite.

"She could use her family's jutsu, but she's going to stand out too much. She'll be suspicious if she just arrived suddenly in the area without a cover."

The photo of Ino went on top of Sakura's.

This time, the man held up a headshot of a girl with brown eyes and brown hair tied into two buns on her head.

"Tenten?" came the musing voice across the table. "I don't know...what's her excuse, though? Everyone knows she's a weapons expert, so that blows the purpose of her being undercover."

Another shake of the head invalidated the option, so the man discarded her picture, too.

He picked up the next one. "This candidate?"

A photo of Hinata went to the middle of the table.

"Oh, she's perfect!" The voice was pleased. "They've already got the contacts in the village. She can easily use her family's business as cover and won't make anybody suspicious if she's there for a long period of time. She's also got that ability to not stand out in a crowd."

There was a hum of approval. The photo stayed in the middle.

"And her partner?" the man asked.

"We need someone who's personable and can easily make friends with people. Somebody cheerful and will be able to put people at ease."

"So no Uchichas."

The picture of Sasuke and Itachi were added to the pile of rejected shinobi.

A snort. "And no other Hyuugas."

Neji's headshot went on top of the stack of photos.

There was a brief smile as the speaker held up the next candidate. "What about this lazy ass?"

"No, he's got other stuff to work on at Suna."

Shikamaru's photo was added to the rising mountain of profile headshots.

"This guy, then?"

A different photo of a man with glasses and a hood went up in the air.

There was a laugh. "I said personable and cheerful."

An answering chuckle. "I guess not. Plus, he's too obvious as an insect user and I want him here working on something else."

Shino's picture was added to the stack.

"Okay, what about Kiba?"

"He needs Akamaru to work with most of the time so it will be difficult if he finds himself in a tight spot."