Chapter 1 – The Team is Set!
"Hey, hey, hey, Old Lady, what's up with this? It's 2:00 AM, BELIEVE IT! Why'd you drag me over here?"
Naruto was looked like he was recently dragged out of bed. His bright blue eyes were half closed, and his blonde hair was going off in one direction, instead of the random spikes he usually wore it as.
"I'm with Naruto on this one, Tsunade-sama," Hinata said timidly. Hinata had black hair and odd eyes. They had no eyeballs, but instead, were pure white. She looked relatively weak.
"You wanna know? I'll tell you. I have a very important mission for you. You'll be traveling farther away from here then you ever have before. You are going to England. You two have been requested as assassins by Lord Kriegan of London" the old lady said. Despite her old age, she looked as if she never aged a day from 20.
"WHAAAAT?" exclaimed Naruto.
"Naruto-kun… that's great! Uhh… so that means I will be… and you will be…"
Hinata blushed deeply and tapped her fingers together. Naruto simply stared at her, but decided against asking.
"You aren't the only ones. There are a few other people. Also, your escort should be here any second. He will take you to London, and from there the rest of the mission will be explained. Also, since you will be going so far away, traveling expenses will be paid by Konoha, within reason of course. Also, your pay will be doubled… Twice," explained the leader of Konoha, Tsunade.
"W… w… w… wait. Are you serious? TWICE?" asked Naruto.
Suddenly, somebody knocked on the door. Without permission to walk in, the door was opened, and in walked an unfamiliar person. He was tall, had blonde hair and weirdly shaped eyes. He was wearing some sort of metal chain for a shirt and a hood, and pants made out of a weird hide. His boots were made out of the same thing.
"Hold it right there. Who do you think you are, coming into my office without asking?" Tsunade was very angry that someone had dared to defy her authority.
"My apologies," said the unknown foreigner. "My name is Sir Paagaen, and I was sent from England by Lord Kriegan." He looked around the room, then tilted his head down and finally saw Naruto and Hinata. "Are you telling me that these pipsqueaks are going to be the ones to guard my Lord? This is an outrage. We asked for the best available. If this is all you have, then we MAY take our business elsewhere. Otherwise, prove yourself with a series of tests I brought. They were designed for fully grown adults trained as a knight. It was always difficult for children foolish enough to take the tests back in England, and our children are strong. I doubt you could pass."
Seemingly out of nowhere, a thousand Narutos came out and went, or at least attempted to go towards, Sir Paagaen. There were too many for the room, so the room looked kind of like a jar full of beans.
"Stop it Naruto. He is your escort. Nothing good will come of it if you hurt him. Oh, and your squad leader should be here any second now. You'll be a little surprised to see who he is, I think."
"Impressive skill. I still expect you to take these tests, however. My Lord asked for you to take them no matter what. I hear Sunagakure is our next best choice. We've heard rumors of a great demon in a child."
"Yeah? Well, I got one too! And my demon is even stronger then the Shukaku, believe it!" Trembling from head to toe with anger, Naruto yelled at Sir Paagaen. "I don't care who you are, or where you're from. But if you insult Hinata-san or me any more I swear, by the Kyuubi in my stomach, that I will kick your sorry… little…"
"NARUTO! I SAID STOP IT. Oh, and by the way, your leader is here. And it looks like he brought some reinforcements."
In walked in none other then Gaara of the Sand, Kankurou, and Temari.
"We never travel by ourselves if we can help it," Kankurou said with a grin.
"Yeah, we are a squad. And squads stick together," said Temari.
Gaara just stood there with a blank look on his face.
Kankurou filled in for him. "We know you love us too, Gaara."
"Okay, I've decided. In order to balance Sand and Konoha's teams, I will be adding a third member to your squad. In order to appease Sir Paagaen, it will be somebody from the ANBU Black Ops…"
In walked a boy around Naruto's age, but wearing the jacket of a Chuunin.
"Or, since I don't want to fill out the forms for the ANBU, Shikamaru will work too."
"What? This is so troublesome. I just walked in to drop off some reports. What'd I get into this time?" Shikamaru looked pretty disappointed in walking into a mission he didn't want. "Why is Sand here, and who is he?"
"You will be traveling to England. Gaara is your squad leader, and this is Sir Paagaen. He is your escort. Your pay is being quadrupled."
"More pipsqueaks? I don't believe it. You, ma'am, are the worst…" Naruto suddenly covered up Sir Paagaen's mouth with his hand, and whispered into his ear: "You don't want to see her when she's angry. You won't like her when she's angry. Believe it!"
"I will be expecting you 6 AM at the main village gate tomorrow. I will have prepared the tests for you by then. Be ready."