The members of the Genin team were all waiting patiently at the gate of the village.
Sakura was looking at Sasuke, while Sasuke was trying his best to look at the random tree outside the village.
Naruto was lost in his own world.
Their peaceful harmony was suddenly disturbed when they saw Tachibana arrive near them.
"What happened Tachibana-kun?" Naruto asked coming closer to his friend since Tachibana appeared to be crying.
Tachibana's red eyes looked at Naruto for a bit and he hesitated to speak further but in the end, he chose to say nothing and shook his head.
"Come on Tachibana-kun! Maybe I can help you! Is it because a girl rejected you!? Don't worry! Sakura-chan rejected me multiple times too! I know though that she'll accept eventually!! You just haven't tried hard enough!! Believe it!!"
Internally Tachibana was dumbfounded and externally he was trying to slowly distance himself from Naruto since Sakura had heard exactly what he'd said and was cocking her hands as if she wanted to punch through his head.
But taking a deep breath by venting her displeasure using inner Sakura, she walked closer to Tachibana and asked him the same question Naruto did in a more friendly way.
"Did something happen Tachibana-kun? Do you need help? Is it something related to money perhaps? We can all chip in if that's the case!"
Tachibana looked at Sakura for a few seconds and was about to speak, but Yamato suddenly appeared behind everyone.
His sudden appearance brought silence to the group and then everyone realised that Tachibana no longer wanted to speak so they turned to look at Yamato with a glare.
"Huh?"
"What happened? Why are you glaring at me? What did I do!?" Yamato asked with a little panic.
Everyone looked at Tachibana, then at Yamato and then back at Tachibana again.
Tachibana just wiped his eyes and spoke softly, "You didn't do anything wrong Yamato-sensei, they're just playing with you."
Yamato finally got a clear view of Tachibana's face and was about to ask if he was alright, but Tachibana answered first.
"Nothing happened. I'm alright. I just had to say goodbye to a friend of mine."
Tachibana had staged a scenario early in the morning where he visited the orphanage and spoke to Mito, who was disguised as a girl, on the roof of the orphanage.
Tachibana had prepared and performed a simple play with Mito on the rooftop which was basically-
["Tachibana-kun! I'm so sorry, I will not be able to meet you again!" Mito said while staring at the rising sun.
"No!!! Where are you going!?" Tachibana asked with worry and tears in his eyes.
"I'm sorry Tachibana-kun, I cannot say. But I'm sure we'll meet again someday. I thank you for coming to the orphanage and meeting the children and entertaining them each day you are in the village. The children have been much happier when you've been around. Thank you."
After those words, Mito vanished slowly while glowing like an angel, leaving a crying Tachibana behind.]
Of course, the ANBU reported all the events to Hiruzen, but seeing Tachibana crying so much, and his rush to pack up for a mission, Hiruzen refrained from approaching Tachibana just yet since Tachibana's sanity looked like it was hanging by a thread.
A thorough understanding of the situation would help him prepare to talk to Tachibana-kun about the strange incident better.
The news had left him with a little worry in his heart but kept it to himself since Yamato was going to be around Tachibana and would be able to keep a watch on him for now.
With the first steps of his plan spinning into motion, Tachibana thought back to Mito's acting.
'She's damn good…'
'Why doesn't she just become an actress instead of bugging me all day long to improve my sealing skills?'
'Oh..that's right. She's dead.'
'Well, whatever.'
"Are you sure you're alright Tachibana-kun?" Yamato asked politely without intruding too much.
"Yes, sensei you don't need to worry. I will be able to handle myself." Tachibana nodded with confidence but he was still trembling a little to show how vulnerable he was.
Yamato nodded and that was their signal to quickly set off behind him as they moved through the trees using the body flicker jutsu.
Rushing through the trees, Tachibana eventually recognised the route they were taking and his guess was further confirmed when they arrived at a village that Tachibana had already been in once.
"This-" Tachibana was about to speak but his emotions remained stuck in his throat. This was his first mission outside the village and the first mission in which he'd killed someone.
"Yes. It is the mission about the missing children." Yamato finished, knowing that Tachibana knew about it.
"But…why are we here?" Tachibana asked knowing that they would likely have to cooperate with another team from the Land of Iron since the Daimyos of both nations were discussing it.
'I can't see anyone else here…'
'Why exactly did Yamato-sensei bring us here?'
'Is it so that the rest of Team Seven can talk to the village chief?'
As they moved closer to the village entrance, Tachibana noticed that the village guard was the same one he had seen earlier.
The guard seemed to have recognised him too since as soon as the man saw Tachibana he relaxed his grip on the spear he was carrying and spoke to Tachibana without asking for his identification.
"How have you been young man?" The guard asked politely.
Tachibana nodded with a smile and spoke softly, "I'm alright. Are the kids doing better?"
"Yes! No one else has gone missing as of late. But…"
Tachibana realised what the man wanted to say so he spoke in a promising tone, "Don't worry about it. We'll get them back. My team's really strong you know!?"
Naruto hearing this lifted his arms up and shouted, "Yeah!!!! I can do a wind jutsu too!!!!!"
Sakura and Sasuke were embarrassed by Naruto's enthusiastic expression but raised their chins with a little pride nonetheless.
The guard nodded with a smile and said, "I'm glad. I hope you can help the village chief. He's been worried."
Tachibana nodded and the group walked into the village with Yamato leading the way.
"You've been to this village before Tachibana-kun?" Sakura asked.
"Yes. Their children were kidnapped and sold away by Samurai from the Land of Iron. Turns out they were rebels and they wanted to earn money quickly, so they went around stealing a bunch of kids from various villages and this village was caught up."
"Then you found all the kids back and helped them return to the village!?" Naruto asked with his eyes shining.
Tachibana smiled wryly but then shook his head.
"Not exactly. While we found five kids, ten others were already sold away."
Team Seven's eyes widened and Yamato spoke softly while the villagers passing by all looked at Tachibana and greeted him with their smiles. Several kids pointed at him and waved at him too, but they were too afraid of the other shinobi to outright rush at him.
"Our mission today is to help the village retrieve all the ten other children. We will start from the basics by collecting any pictures or methods we can use to identify the kids."
Tachibana finally got his answer as to why they were here and all of team seven firmed their resolves and looked ahead with a determined gaze.
"Yosh!!!!" Naruto shouted pumping their moods even higher.
Tachibana remained the only one who was wondering how Yamato would react when it was revealed that the enemies were Danzo or Orochimaru.
'He has worked under both of them…'
'So he probably has a guess for as to why this all happened.'
'Yet he's taken this mission.'
'Did Hiruzen assign it to him so that Naruto and Sasuke wouldn't be swayed by Danzo?'
'I wonder what Yamato's stance on the matter will be.'
'Will he stop them from discovering the details or will he assist them?'
'Interesting…I just hope my plan works out fine…'