Warnings: I don't think there really are any.
Disclaimer: Naruto Belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.
Special thanks to fairyniamh for betaing this. She told me I should post this here, so don't shoot me. runs from thrown objects

Naruto's Ninja Way: Chapter 1 - The object

"Kakashi, hurry up."

"Why? We have a week to complete the mission and it's only a day's trip there and a day's trip back if we run, so we can relax and take our time getting there."

"But, but, but, if we take that long we'll miss out on all the fun activities the village has planned."

"Ma. It's too much work."

"Please, Kakashi?"

"No."

"Why Not?"

"Don't feel like it. Wanna read."

"Please, I don't want to miss all the activities. I heard they were going to have a kissing booth, a fortuneteller, and a costume shop. Please, Kakashi? I bet you'd enjoy the costume shop."

Only if you're modeling the costumes. Kakashi thought as he looked up just in time to see Naruto use the puppy dog look. Kakashi could feel himself slowly melting and giving in. "Fine, but you have to take point. I'll follow along behind you and keep an eye on your rear."

"KAKASHI!" Naruto yelled scandalized.

"Sorry, sorry." Kakashi cringed slightly from the glare being leveled at him. "Ma... I meant I'd keep an eye on our rear, so that no one sneaks up on us." Kakashi tried his best to look innocent as if what he said wasn't supposed to be perverted.

"Kakashi, stop being a pervert and move faster." Naruto took off through the trees running just slightly below his fastest speed, so that Kakashi would have to spend more time keeping up with him than watching his ass.

"Ma. Ma. Naruto, slow down."

"No! I'm not going to make it easy for you to be a pervert. I had to put up with ero-sennin for 3 years and I don't need it from you." Naruto pouted.

"I can't help it. You're just too cute when you pout or use your puppy dog eyes. It's very hard to resist you when you're so cute."

"Well, try harder! Wait! What puppy dog eyes?! I don't use puppy dog eyes."

"Oh, yes you do."

"No, I don't." Naruto leapt away increasing his speed in hopes that Kakashi would be too distracted to continue the argument or that Naruto would be too faraway to hear the response.

Kakashi, however, was wise to his tricks and so sped up at about the same time Naruto did, keeping pace behind him. "Yes, you do."

"Gaahh! I don't." Naruto yells speeding up even more. Pretty soon they're running at breakneck speed while still continuing the argument. They lost interest in the argument, however, when their danger signals began tingling and they had to dodge the shuriken.

"Can't you two be quiet? You're on a mission for Pete's sake and they could probably hear you all the way in Water Country." Iruka said as he stepped out into view. "You guys can be glad I'm not an enemy ninja and that none of the enemy ninja have found you."

"Iruka!" Kakashi and Naruto chorused together.

"What are you doing here?" Naruto screamed questioningly.

"The Hokage sent me to make sure you made it to the festival as soon as possible. Apparently, she received word from the village and the mission will need to be completed immediately if you're to succeed. Also, I'm here in case you need backup with whatever's happening. The note she received wasn't too clear on what exactly had happened, so be prepared for anything and keep your voices down." Iruka finished with a glare.

With Iruka there, it was a lot harder for Kakashi to indulge in his fant-ass-y, especially since Iruka felt the need to keep Naruto and him separated after that argument by having Naruto be point, Iruka be in the middle and Kakashi watching the back. For the rest of the trip to the village, which fortunately wasn't much longer, Kakashi's eyes tried to burn a hole in Iruka's back without seeming to be doing so, as he pretended to read his book while wishing that Iruka wasn't in the way of his view of the eye candy that was Naruto.

Iruka, for his part, was trying his best to ignore the shivery feeling he got every time Kakashi looked up from his book. He couldn't see the glares Kakashi was giving him, but he could feel the eyes every time they bored into him.

Naruto, of course, was completely oblivious to the tension between Iruka and Kakashi. Seeing as how Iruka had told him to keep his voice down, Naruto was trying to be quiet. However, he was feeling too cheerful to be able to be completely silent, so he was humming to himself thinking about how great it was that Iruka was there to prevent Kakashi from being too perverted and how glad he was that they would soon be at the village and able to enjoy the festival.

As they continued their journey Iruka was getting closer and closer to his boiling point. Between the tension between Kakashi and him and the oblivious Naruto that was causing his eyebrows to twitch, Iruka was just about ready to explode. Naruto was humming. Iruka felt justified in having his eyebrows twitch. After all, Naruto was a jounin now, and yet he still couldn't keep quiet.

Fortunately for Kakashi and Naruto though they didn't realize this, they arrived at the village before they drove Iruka to the breaking point thus saving themselves from another tongue lashing with possible physical torture. They were met at the gate by one of the Daimyo's personal guards. He didn't say anything just gestured curtly for them to follow. Naruto tried to remember all the twists and turns they took, but gave up after the 21st and decided that the guard was purposefully confusing them, so that they wouldn't be able to find their way to the ruling house again.

Finally, the guard opened a door and indicated that they should go in. The guard stepped in after them, staying only long enough to say, "Here are the guests you were expecting, Sire."

He then turned around and left, closing and locking the door behind him. Now that they were alone in this room with the Daimyo, Naruto took the chance to look around. He found it looked a bit like the Hokage's office only more eccentric. The guy had a purple desk, after all. Naruto wasn't sure if you could get more eccentric than that and still have it be tasteful.

In addition to the purple desk which was originally metal and then painted with one of those dark purple or indigo colors, there were multiple shelves on the wall which were obviously originally designed to hold weapons. Now, they held scrolls. The Daimyo sat in a chair which looked like it could have once been a throne chair. You know the kind where it's made out of gold or gold plated or something and then has purple cushions(of course the purple of the desk matched the purple of the cushions) for the back and the seat.

For guests, he had two of the most uncomfortable looking chairs in Naruto's opinion and given the way he lived the early portion of his life that was saying a lot. They both were in colors that complemented the decor. One chair had a floral print that was in pinks, purples, and blues, however, the arms of the chair were so close together that you'd have to be a twig to fit into it comfortably. The other chair was patterned with a purple background that had orange and pink sunbursts on them and it looked like there were senbon barely poking through the surface. You know you'd get a assful of senbon if you sat there. How these two chairs didn't clash is still a mystery, but they didn't and even managed to make the office look more like a King's meeting room.

To Naruto, it felt like he had perused the room in just a couple of seconds, however, it had been closer to a couple of minutes. While he had been gathering information on the room, Kakashi and Iruka had quickly surveyed the room for quick exits, weapons, etc. After determining that right now the Daimyo was the most dangerous thing in the room, Kakashi and Iruka watched the Daimyo to see what information they could glean from his body language.

After Naruto finished his visual tour of the room and returned his attention to the Daimyo, the Daimyo asked, "So what have you been told about this mission?"

"The original mission as I was told by the Hokage was that you would be giving us a package that we would then need to protect until the end of the festival." Kakashi responded.

"So you were told nothing about the object you were to protect?"

"That is correct. " Kakashi replied. "Originally we were told nothing, however on our way we received a message saying that we needed to get here ASAP in order to even be able to complete the mission, so what's happened?"

"Well, I'm going to entrust you with my most precious possession. My advisor's had assured me that it was protected with the best protection and that we didn't actually need shinobi there in order to guarantee it's safety, which is why we weren't originally in a hurry to have you here."

Here, Kakashi noticed a small tear slowly makes it's way down the Daimyo's face. "That has changed now. There was an attempt on this object and it was almost taken. It was only through luck that one of our guards happened to be in the right place at the right time when he was off duty to prevent it. Needless to say, that was too close for comfort. I've doubled the guards, but I'm not sure that's enough, so I want one of you to personally be close enough to this object at all times that you could quickly get it before an enemy that's ten times better than you could. Do you think you could do this for me?"

"Definitely. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm going to be the next Hokage. No one will get this object from me."

Naruto, do you never learn? Iruka thought questioningly.

"Ma. Naruto, we don't even know what we're protecting yet."

"Doesn't matter. I will protect it. That's my ninja way."