"You are being assigned a C to B-rank mission. It is to go to the Village of Sunflowers and protect their princess and their sacred shrine. You may end up run into some low-ranked Rogue Nins and the occasional thug, but other than that you should be able to handle this mission with much ease." The fifth Hokage said to the group of Genin, and their sensei's, in front of her. She explained their mission with a nonchalant attitude, not putting much enthusiasm into her tone.
"Where exactly is the village of Sunflowers, m'lady?" Sakura Haruno questioned.
"It's inside the Land of Grass, about fifty-one kilometers outside of the land of fire. You'll go passed Hōzuki Castle until you see a mountain, it has a blob-like shape engraved into the side of it. Kinda looks like a flower if you squint at it. Pretty easy to spot really, I'm sure you'll have little issues finding your way there," The Hokage explained, re eyes flashed with remembrance for a second before she spoke once more, "Oh and when you get into sight of Hōzuki Castle, go around it. I don't want you running into unwanted trouble there. We've already notified the guards that you'd be near so they wouldn't get alerted by your presence."
"Wait wait wait wait wait... Wait. We get to protect a princess? Awesome!" The blonde haired, clad orange, blue-eyed, ninja said jumping up and down. He finally processed that single bit of information, most likely not being able to obtain the rest of it. Sakura raised a fist above his head, bringing it down harshly, dead on her target. Naruto cradled his head in a fetal position, whimpering slightly from the rock hard fist that hit his head.
A few of the other Genin and the sensei flinched at the force of the punch, and some of them looked worried. Some laughed a little though, well, Kiba that is. They wondered how he was still awake after a punch like that, after all she was very strong, in terms of reckless punching, for a Genin that is.
Tsunade continued, disconnecting her gaze from the violence demonstrated in front of her, "As I was saying before I got rudely interrupted. Once you reach the Sunflower Village, head straight to the main castle. Once you've reached to that point, you'll have an escort take you up to the main castle chamber to meet your employer. Understood?" Everyone but Naruto nodded, as he was still nursing the bump created on his head. "Okay, this mission will take some time, they're holding a festival in celebration of the Princess' coronation and they had received multiple death threats and rumors of possible attacks on the princess during either of these times. Most of the time the coronation ceremonies and festivals last a month, but you'll have to stay there for a little while afterwards to make sure she is safe and comfortable after becoming queen. Got that?" Once again they all nodded, excluding Naruto still, Tsunade handed Kakashi a scroll that held the details they discussed. "Okay, this should take no more than three months tops, if anything goes wrong and you have to stay longer message via summon. You are only to come back here if I call you back upon request or something. I wish you good luck on your mission. You can meet the one who payed for the mission at your designated gate,"—the Genin looked at her in question again, she rolled her eyes and gave an exasperated sigh—"It's in the scroll you idiots."
"Oh." They chorused.
Tsunade waved them off after wishing them farewell on their mission. They all walked out together to discuss what they were going to pack and for how long. Shikamaru was telling them what to mostly pack and such. "Make sure pack enough supplies for at least four months okay? We don't want to end up having to stay longer and not have you guys prepared."
Naruto finally spoke after getting his swell to finally go down, "Wait! How are we supposed to pack for a four months trip but 'travel light' at the same time?" As he wants talking about his unlogical view of the subject, Kakashi and Kurenai pulled out a lot of small scrolls from their weapons pouches.
Kakashi tapped on Naruto shoulder. Naruto turned around and looked at his sensei, his sensei was just eye smiling at his holding out on of the tiny scrolls. They were probably small enough to fit in the pocket of women's jeans. (Honestly those damn slots can't even be considered pockets...) Naruto looked up at his lazy, perverted, sensei questionably. Kakashi just kept eye smiling, and said, "No need to worry about that, my cute little Genin. These are storage scrolls. Well, miniature storage scrolls. You can seal your belonging into the scroll and carry it like that, so your still 'traveling light' as you put it." Kakashi put one of the tiny scrolls in each of his students hands, giving the rest to the other senseis so they could distribute them to their students.
"But Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi turned his attention to his pink-haired student. "How are we suppose to use these when we don't know any sealing?"
"Ah. So that's what you're worried about, huh?" A couple of the Genin nodded in response. "Well. You see how these are smaller than normal scrolls, "-The Genin nodded again-"Well, these are very basic sealing scrolls. The technique put into these scrolls is so basic... An academy student could do it."
All of the twelve to thirteen year olds looked over the outside of their scrolls, trying to see if there was anything on the outside of them, like warnings and such. It wasn't that they doubted what they were meant for, it was just they doubted the fact the Kakashi wouldn't do something to the scrolls, like putting a hidden riddle on it that ended with them having their face completely covered in permanent marker ink. Of course the one time Kakashi did that, was to get back at Naruto for stealing his perverted orange book and tearing out a quarter of the pages and using it as a fire starter. Let's just say, Naruto was never going to go anywhere near Kakashi's book again, his friends and fellow Genin were going to make sure of that. There was nothing but the usual scroll patterns they usually see on scrolls so they deemed it as safe.
Sasuke finally decided to say something after staying silent their entire visit to the Hokage tower, "How are we supposed to seal our stuff into the scroll." He was eager to learn something new even if it was something as small as sealing their stuff in a tiny scroll, it'd help a great deal when he was in a rush and trying to outrun his fangirls, and going on missions too; upon other things as well.
Sakura and Ino were fawning over the stoic Uchiha even though he just asked a simple question. All of the other Genin and senseis rolled their eyes at the two overly obsessed fangirls.
"Well, I'll have TenTen explain that, after all she is the best at these kinds of things, out of you guys that is."
"Wait, why does TenTen have to explain it?" Sakura asked, generally curious for their explanation.
TenTen decided to enlighten them, "It's only natural since I'm the weapons specialist of the group. I have to know how to seal different objects and different amounts of objects into scrolls if I want to launch a full out weapons assault. So, I had to learn how to seal and unseal weapons from scrolls. It's really simple once you get the hang of it." Gai looked proud at his student's explanation and gave her a nice guy pose. A lot of them cringed and backed away, afraid of the unbreakable scenery that usually pops up when Lee and Gai have their moments.
The other Genin nodded and signaled her to proceed with her instruction of how to seal and unseal.
"Okay, I'll explain the easiest method. These don't have any previous owners do they?" She directed the question to the adults of the group. They all shook their heads in response. "Good. Now, draw a little bit of blood from your finger, "-She waited for all of them to do as she instructed-"and slide it across the front side of the scroll. Next, do a tiger seal while gripping onto the scroll and channel some chakra, and then open the scroll and face it towards the item or items you want to seal. Add a wee bit amount more of chakra and there you go, you have yourself and very light and easy to carry storage unit. Don't face it at a person though, it can be dangerous and way too hard to get them out of the scroll. Sometimes they don't come out in one whole piece." TenTen explained while demonstrating how to do it. She sealed an extra scroll into her scroll for the demonstration. "You basically do the exact same process to unseal your belongings, but discard the tiger seal. Oh, and don't face the scroll up or else your things will go flying up into the air or break through the scroll. Neither end well, unless of course your scroll is built for that kind of stuff, but these aren't... So don't try it." She looked directly at Naruto when she said the last part. Naruto mumbled something under his breath, making sure no one heard.
The senseis nodded and began walking away and to their houses, leaving their students to talk amongst themselves.
"We should start packing, It would be troublesome if our senseis get mad because we ended up arriving late." Shikamaru stated lazily.
Everyone nodded and started heading home, some running by roof, sprinting on the ground, and in Shikamaru's case, casually and leisurely walking home. Naruto was one of the ones that sprinted at break-neck speed to his apartment.
Naruto was really excited to get out of the village again. He'd only been out twice. The first time on his mission to the wave and then a mission right after that where they had to find a missing person. Both happened to turn into A-rank mission and above. Hopefully this one was at least a bit easier. The last thing they needed was another incident like the last two.
Reaching his apartment at speeds rivaling the Yondaime, Naruto quickly packed his clothes, ramen, more ninja gear, more ramen, and his wallet named Gama-chan. He started to head back out to meet with the rest of the Genin and senseis until he realized he nearly forgot his keys and nightcap.
He snatched both up, checking the clock while heading out. He still had a good twenty minutes to get there, surprisingly. 'Eh, why not go to Ichiraku's? I have enough time.' Naruto thought. He never really had time to spare when meeting up with his team so he decided to take advantage of his new found earliness, well, actually, all of them had time due to Kakashi always showing late, but in the case of Sakura getting mad, yes, he was early. Of course, Ichiraku Ramen wasn't too far from his place anyway, he could get their in about two to three minutes and then eat a bowel of ramen in that same amount of time, and still have time to get there early.
With that, he made this way to the Ichiraku Ramen Shop, with a little bit of pep-in-his-step.
After eating his delicious ramen and having a very pleasant conversation with Teuchi and Ayame, the ramen shop owners and cooks, Naruto began sprinting to get to the Village Gate the teams were to meet at. He had stayed a little longer than he should have when talking to Ayame and Teuchi, but they were having a nice conversation, so it didn't bother him much that he had spent a couple minutes of overtime at the ramen shop. There was still some time to get to the gate and be early, he made sure of that.
Usually he never really tried to get there early but whenever everyone was involved, he made sure that he wasn't late or directly on the dot. Getting there early was crucial if there was even a chance of staying on everyone's good side and not constantly be berated by the tardiness of his arrival.
Naruto arrived at the gate and saw that only Team Gai, Sasuke, Shino, Shikamaru, and Sakura were there. Upon seeing the "Love of his life" trying to relentlessly ask Sasuke on a date, he decided to also go and ask Sakura relentlessly on a date. He knew he was just going to get rejected but he felt it was kind of fun to do. The only thing he didn't like about out was Sasuke always seemed kind of relieved whenever he'd get Sakura's attention off of him. He didn't want to give Sasuke the happiness of a "Sakura-free" life.
After he weighed the better of the two evils, he decided to let Sakura torture Sasuke with her date offers. It was rather amusing to watch in his opinion. Who wouldn't want to watch an Emo Duck-Butt Sasuke being tortured by a Pink haired Shrieking Banshee? Some might not have found it amusing but Naruto sure thought it was funny. He was just waiting for the day Sasuke agrees to go out with her just so she'd stop begging him. Though, when that day—which it most likely never would—came, he'd probably heave up any ramen he had that day.
Of course he did like getting some attention, which is mostly why Naruto would ask Sakura out constantly, but he found other ways to get that attention besides Sakura. In order to get the attention he wanted, he took on pranking once again. The pranks were coming to a stop ever since he became a Genin so he thought he could bring it to life once again. It took the villagers by surprise whenever it happened too, since they'd thought he'd grown out of that.
Upon his arrival, no one really noticed. Shikamaru, Lee, and Gai were the first one's to acknowledge his existence there. Shikamaru nodded at him, Lee walked over and started blabbering about "Youth," and Gai followed suit with it.
About five minutes after Naruto got there, the rest of the rookies arrived, along with the rest of the sensei... Other than Kakashi. The client wasn't there either, probably dilly dallying like Kakashi was.
Even after the meeting time passed, neither Kakashi or the client had arrived, so Naruto decided to voice his frustrations.
"Where the heck is Kakashi-sensei and the client?" Naruto growled.
"Shut it Naruto! Maybe he had something important to do!" Sakura belched.
"He never has anything important to do, we all know that." Naruto snorted. Apparently Sakura didn't find his arguing and complaining humorous in any way, so she, once again, brought her fist down on his head.
"Ouch! Sakura! Damn it, why do you hit so much?!"
"You won't ever shut up that's why!" Sakura yelled.
Some of the other Genin rolled their eyes in annoyance, others looked at Sakura and mutter things saying her actions were unreasonable. The sensei just looked at her a bit in disapproval.
Finally, after endless bickering between Naruto and Sakura, Kakashi arrived with a boy around the other Genin's age, maybe a bit older, like about Team Gai's age. He had brown hair that spiked up all over the place like Naruto's, though a bit tamer, and bright green eyes about a shade darker than Sakura's. He had the air of mischievousness and wittiness around him along with a huge grin plastered on his face. Overall he was pretty much a twin of Naruto's, personality wise that is.
"Where the heck have you been Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura yelled.
"Well, there just so happened to be an old lady who thought I as her son, so I had to explain to her that I was just a shinobi who was passing through. Though, after I explained to her that I wasn't her son, she insisted I have some tea with her in apology for the mishap, it was only polite of me to accept. Don't you think so?" Kakashi explained. Everyone sweat dropped at the lie excuse.
"Liar!" Naruto and Sakura chorused.
"Maa Maa, no need to be so aggressive you two."
Both Naruto and Sakura huffed and made faces of annoyance. They could be annoyed, or "aggressive" as Kakashi had put it, all they wanted. He was late so of course they were going to be upset about it.
The boy next to Kakashi snickered and smiled slightly. He'd thought it would be better to stay quiet until he found an opening to introduce himself.
Kakashi eye smiled and turned his attention to the client. "Okay everyone, this is the client who payed for the mission on hand." He explained.
"Wait, he payed for it, this is a potential B-rank mission! Those are super expensive! He's like our age!" Sakura yelled.
"Yes, he's the one who payed for it, after all he is the Princess' little brother. It's only natural for him to have the money to pay for it, don't ya think?"-everyone was quiet and took in the boy's appearance-"Well, anyway. This is our client we are to protect and escort to the Village of Sunflowers."
Everyone nodded and looked at the boy. He took this as the time to introduce himself. "Hello everyone! I'm Kameko Setsuna, it's a pleasure to meet you all. I hope we get along well!" He said with a small, polite, bow.
Kakashi nodded and looked at the other sensei. They got the silent message and began to introduce themselves and they teams. Kurenai went first.
"My name is Kurenai Yuhi, sensei of Team 8. On my team is Hinata Hyuuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame." Kurenai gestured to her team as they gave small greetings to their client.
Asuma went next, "My name is Asuma Sarutobi, sensei of Team 10. My team consists of Choji Akimichi, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka." He did the same gesture as Kutenai did while introducing his team.
"I am Might Gai, sensei of the ever youthful Team Gai! I have the youthful Rock Lee, Neji Hyuuga, and Tenten on my team!"
Kakashi waved and eye smiled at Kameko. "Well, you already know my name since I brought you here, but I'll tell you again for the sake of professionalism."-Everyone else sweat dropped and gave him the 'are you serious?' look-"My name is Kakashi Hatake, the sensei of Team 7. My cute little Genin here are Sasuke Uchiha, Sakura Haruno, and Naruto Uzumaki."
Kameko smiled at them all and turned his attention back to Kakashi, "All right! Let's hit the road!" Kameko yelled enthusiastically, and running for the gate.
That grabbed Naruto's attention and quickly ran after Kameko yelling, "That's what I'm talkin' about! Let's go!"
Everyone sighed at all the energy, besides Lee and Gai, they just said it was very youthful of them. They followed the two out of the gate, they had officially started their mission to the Village of Sunflowers.