The next morning, a large cart loaded with wooden boxes of crops waited for Kakashi at the road leading out of the Hatake territory.
Standing next to the cart was Itsuki, the elder Tane, the one responsible for trade, and- huh?
That was the first Guy Kakashi had talked to. The guy who explained the whole clan-head thing to her.
The three of them were deep in conversation.
"Kakashi-sensei!" Itsuki was the first to notice her.
"You are so late!" The elder man immediately complained when he saw her. "What was taking you so long?!"
"Don't yell at me, old man Tane. I couldn't find anything appropriate to wear for the trip," Kakashi said with an annoyed huff.
She still couldn't believe that Sana didn't own any kind of pants! All she owned were Yukatas and Kimonos, all in different shades of gray!
Honestly, Kakashi would have to buy proper clothes fit for a shinobi as soon as possible. Fighting was already difficult with the heavy weight on her chest. She had realized that they actually hurt whenever she made over-the-top movements.
She couldn't even restrict them adequately due to-
Guess what?
Sana-san doesn't own any bras. Though Kakashi can't figure out if that was a her thing or if the clothes market hadn't developed that far yet.
All that to say, Kakashi had to rely on good old bandages to do the job. Which was very uncomfortable and left her more than a little disgruntled because now that she had to fight pantsless with a tight constraint on her breathing.
It made her question how the hell Tsunade-sama fought dressed the way that she was.
"Kakashi-sama, are you certain that only you going is a good idea?" Elder Tane couldn't help but ask. Even though he had seen the feats that the woman was capable of, he couldn't help but doubt.
After all, this was the entire clan's hard work in that cart. If they end up getting robbed, they might struggle with money for a while. Just because the Hatake clan was mostly self-sufficient, being made up of farmers, didn't mean they didn't need money.
"Wouldn't it be better if you took a few of the men with you?"
Kakashi waved him off. "There is no need. I will make sure the crops are delivered safely."
He couldn't argue with the point that sending this many men away would leave the clan vulnerable, especially since they had to change their leader twice in a month. If someone who wants to target them catches wind of this and decides to strike while a good number of their manpower is away, wouldn't it be Elder Tane's fault?
Elder Tane sighed in defeat. "Well, this is Hatake Shū. He would be the one to go with you to drive the cart."
Shū, from the look of it, was the same age as Itsuki, though his hair and eyes were a shade darker, and he had a dead look on his face that was the complete opposite of Itsuki's beaming smile.
"Maa, there is no need to be so formal, Shū-kun," Kakashi told him lightly. "After all, the two of us have a long trip ahead of us."
Shū blinked at her, unsure of what to say, but Kakashi didn't want to waste any more daylight, so she didn't wait for him and turned to Itsuki instead.
"You should expect us back by tomorrow night at the latest."
Itsuki tilted his head in thought. "Isn't that too soon, sensei?"
"Not really. Since it is just the two of us, we will be quick about our travel." As long as they are not faced with any complications on the road.
Honestly, Kakashi could probably have made the trip and back in a couple of hours if she had the time to create a sealing scroll.
But oh well, she will take this chance to familiarize herself with the environment here.
She slapped Itsuki on the back. "Don't forget to do your paperwork while I'm away. I will revise it for you when I get back."
Itsuki looked a little constipated even as he smiled at her. "Yes, sensei. Please come back safely, both you and cousin Shū."
Oh? So the two of them were direct cousins. Guess that would explain why Kakashi felt they were pretty similar.
"Be careful on the road, Kakashi-sama."
Kakashi waved Elder Tane off as she went to the front of the cart to sit on the left. Shū hurried to sit next to her, gripping the oxen's reins.
Riding a cart felt surreal. It had been such a long time since Kakashi had to do an escort mission like this. After becoming classified as an S-rank shinobi, Kakashi's missions came with ridiculously high stakes, and in comparison to those, this felt like a picnic.
"Maa, Shū, you have been on deliveries like this one before. What do you think I should know?" Kakashi asked as the cart started moving down the road.
Shū gave her a quick side-eye before looking back at the road. "A lot of bandits tend to target carts carrying crops since it's really hard to find a stable source of food."
"Unfortunately, the only road to Komori Village passes through several areas where bandits are known to wander."
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully.
"Me?" Shū's expression remained completely blank. "Nothing. My job is to drive the cart. You are the one who will have to deal with the bandits if we come across them."
Kakashi laughed loudly and brightly. "I guess that is true!"
Normally, young men tend to talk big when asked such a question, but Shū seemed a realistic young man with no intention of bragging or talking proudly about his achievements and skills.
Which is a good thing, because Kakashi would jump off the cart and wish him good luck on his own if she had to put up with that sort of behavior for the entire trip.
"Do you ever come across any other clans while making these deliveries?"
"That's very rare. We are pretty far out from a lot of the other clans, so it would take a lot of resources for them to come steal from us, and it wouldn't be really worth it." Shū said calmly. "That's not to say that some haven't tried in the past."
Kakashi thought for a moment before asking a different question. "What about clans like the Uchiha and Senju? Did our clan ever clash with them?"
He shot her another side-eye. He wanted to scold. Wasn't this woman married to Daichi, their old clan head? Why is she asking questions she should already know the answer to?
"The Senju are too far from us to cause us problems, and even though the Uchihas tend to move around a lot, they see us as too weak to bother with." He tilted his head to the side, squinting at the road ahead. They had been on the road for about an hour at this point.
"Though I think the reason they've left us Hatakes alone so far is that they're too busy killing each other."
Shū hopes it always stays that way and that neither clan ever turns their attention to them. That would be such a mess. Shū shivered just imagining it.
Kakashi, on the other hand, didn't know whether to cheer or lament. She had thrown out the Uchiha and Senju names to see if Shū would recognize them. Learning that they did exist and were still at war with each other left Kakashi unsure how she felt about this news.
It should be a good thing, right? That meant they would eventually join forces and create Konoha, and Kakashi would be able to go back home…
A form of home, anyway.
She let out a long sigh.
"Kakashi-sama, you-"
Kakashi groaned and flicked Shū's forehead with the hard center of her nail. "I told you to stop dropping the sama already."
Shū shot her an irritated look, and Kakashi felt like she was looking at the second coming of Sasuke. "I can't just call you by your given name-"
He didn't get to finish because he heard a rustle in the trees, and when he turned to look, he caught the glint of an arrow coming toward him.
Before the arrow aimed at Shū's face could strike, Kakashi deflected it effortlessly with the tip of her kunai.
"How impolite of you to interrupt our conversation like this?"