Chapter 1 – Inconvenience
"WHAT?! NOT ANOTHER TRANSPORT MISSION!!" yelled Naruto angrily at the hokage.
"I'm sorry Naruto but it's the only mission available at the moment. It's that or nothing…" sighed Tsunade, returning to her paperwork.
"B-But I've already done ten this week!" complained Naruto.
"Well okay then. If you don't want it, I guess I can give it to somebody else. I'm sure there are plenty of other ninjas out there who'd like to make a quick ryou…" replied Tsunade.
Naruto bit his lip in frustration. True, he didn't want the fairly easy mission but the reward for it was far too great to resist.
"Fine… But you better have a better mission once I'm done with this one…" pouted Naruto.
"Fine, fine! Just go already! I need to get all of this finished by tomorrow and I doubt that I will with you bickering in my office…" groaned Tsunade as she stamped another mission report.
Naruto left the hokage's office and proceeded to the village's front gate. After their brush with two of the Akatsuki's men, Kakuzu and Hidan, and the untimely death of Asuma there has been a moment of inactivity in Konoha. Sakura had continued her training under Tsunade and subsequently, Ino has been training under her. He hasn't heard from Sai after the mission but he heard a rumor that he was in some sort of dangerous espionage mission in the rice country.
"Damn… Why'd that corpse-like Sai get all the good missions while I'm stuck with these genin missions." groaned Naruto to himself.
"Maybe because you're still acting like one…" said a voice behind Naruto.
Naruto almost jumped out of his skin, startled by his sensei, Kakashi. He had snuck up behind him, his usual reading material in hand.
"Waah… DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!!" shouted Naruto.
Kakashi merely ignored Naruto's rants and continued reading.
"And what was that you said a while ago?!" sneered Naruto.
"Hmm? Oh that little Genin bit! I just wanted to say it to you. I feel very mature when I do that…" smiled Kakashi.
"Uh-huh… Mature eh?" sweatdropped Naruto.
"So, going on another mission? What is it this time?" asked Kakashi, not pulling his eyes away from his favorite novel.
"Another dumb transport mission! I'm so sick of it!" complained Naruto.
"Hmm? You should be thankful. It's not easy to get easy and well-paying missions like that these days." lectured Kakashi.
"I just wished that old hag would give me a proper mission for my level…" frowned Naruto.
"Well technically you're still a genin because you haven't finished the chuunin exam yet…" insulted Kakashi comically.
"Rub it in why don't you?!" spat Naruto.
"You should really consider taking it soon… That is, if you want to keep up with your peers." told Kakashi.
"Yeah yeah, whatever…" dismissed Naruto.
He passed by the large wooden gate and the guard post where the two ninja guards were usually stationed. Kakashi had stopped at the entrance and turned left, leaving Naruto alone once more.
"Stupid hokage. Stupid sensei. Stupid mission…" cursed Naruto as he walked towards his destination.
The client that Naruto was going to meet was situated in a small village not far from Konoha.
"Let's see, I'm supposed to meet this guy in a village called Himawari…" said Naruto as he checked the mission scroll handed to him earlier.
A rough sketch of the village's location was drawn in it.
"I turned left after I passed the first intersection so that means I just have to follow the river banks downstream to get there…" said Naruto. He spotted the river not far from his current location.
He followed the river's flow, occasionally checking his map to make sure. After a few more minutes of walking, he finally caught sight of the village. It looked really plain and nearly abandoned. The only thing that set the village apart from the usual ghost town look was the wide fields of sunflowers that grew outside the village.
"Whoa… Now I know why they call it Himawari…" said Naruto in amusement. He headed for the village entrance, rather pleased at the short trip he had to take.
He was almost past the village gate when out of nowhere, a quick whir passed in front of him, splitting the earth underneath it leaving a long scar. Naruto stepped back and readied his kunai. He made a quick survey of his surroundings to see who his attacker was.
"Come out! I'm not afraid of you!" roared Naruto.
In a mere split second, Naruto felt something blow his kunai away from his hand. A teen was now standing in front of him; his right palm folded sharply and was apparently the one that knocked the kunai of his hand. Before the newcomer could land another blow in Naruto, he quickly created some distance between him and his opponent.
Naruto observed his outfit to see if he was a ninja too. His upper dress looked something similar to a ceremonial kimono (those worn by shrine maidens) but with longer and wider sleeves that completely hid his hands. He wore black cargo pants on top of his upper dress and a pair of wooden sandals for footwear. His hair was jet black and slightly reached below his neck. It was tied into a ponytail by a flat piece of white cloth. His face was sharp and chiseled with bright violet eyes that were all but hypnotic. On his lips was an expression that was a mix of anger and calmness. Naruto didn't see any forehead protector in his body so he abandoned his ninja theory.
"Your kind is not welcomed here. Leave." said the newcomer.
"Hey I'm just here for the mission! Someone in this village asked for my help!" yelled Naruto.
"Hn… Your lie is laughable!" spoke the teen as he lunged towards Naruto, unleashing a barrage of swipes with his hands.
Naruto nimbly dodged the attacks but a blow had connected with his jacket, leaving a clean diagonal cut across the jacket's left shoulder. Naruto countered the attack with some punches of his own. His opponent gracefully dodged the blows, almost in a similar manner as dancing. His foe had anticipated one of his punches and caught his right hand.
"Got you…" muttered his foe. Naruto tried to use his free left hand to punch him but he quickly stretched his arms and spun around until his back was against Naruto's. He wrapped an arm around Naruto's neck and quickly tossed Naruto to the ground with the help of his feet. He did a quick somersault to give himself some distance from Naruto.
"That speed. I wasn't even able to use kawarimi to dodge it…" cursed Naruto. He stood up and felt the effects of the blow. His back ached a little and he had his air literally knocked out of him.
"This is my final warning… LEAVE!" warned the boy.
"Not until I finish my mission!" replied Naruto. He did his favorite hand seal and prepared his jutsu. "Kage-bunshin technique!" yelled Naruto as several duplicates of him appeared.
His foe's eyes narrowed at the sight of his jutsu.
"Mere tricks. Typical of your kind…" spat the teen.
"We'll see!" yelled Naruto as he and his clones closed the gap between them and the enemy.
Naruto and the clones did a dervish of different blows ranging from punches and kicks but not one of them connected. The teen's movements were fluid and graceful that for a second, Naruto thought he was just a mere image rather than the real thing.
"I'll show you a trick of my own…" said the boy as he stabbed the clones with his left middle and index finger. Each one of them disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Finally, only two Naruto remain. The real Naruto had managed to evade his foe's suspicion as the newcomer stabbed the last clone with his fingers. Directly behind his opponent, Naruto lunged forward with a kunai hand, prepared to attack his unsuspecting enemy. Or so he thought.
The teen caught Naruto's hand and stabbed his finger into the ninja's gut. The pain was a not far from tolerable but what happened after that made Naruto scream in terrible pain. The chakra that Naruto used for his clones shot from the teen's fingertips like a bullet, ripping through him and leaving a trail of shining blue light behind the ninja's back. The blow propelled Naruto a few feet away from the teen and into a bed of sunflowers.
"Argh…! That hurts." moaned Naruto in pain as he flimsily stood up, still feeling the effects of the blow riveting in his nerves.
"Ready to leave? I won't go easy next time!" warned the teen.
Naruto was getting ready to say his retort when a shower of needles rained down his opponent. He tried his best to repel the needles with his moves but several of them connected into his flesh. Naruto spotted another man standing on top of the village gate, his arms folded sternly.
"Heh, thought I'd never get rid of you…" said the man as he descended from his perch. He was wearing a Konoha ANBU uniform with a cat mask over his face, his short black hair partly showing behind his face. "Thanks to this guy, I'm free to grab anything and everything in here…" laughed the man menacingly.
"Ugh… You again…?" cursed the teen as he fell to his knees, overcome by the poison in the needles.
"Don't be such a sore loser Yukie. I wasn't…" snickered the man.
"Stay away from here!" yelled "Yukie" as he rushed clumsily towards the man but was easily dropped with a kick from the ninja.
"Please Yukie… Let's end this. We've been playing for days now! It's time one of us finally wins…" said the man as he turned and walk towards the village.
"Nnn… No…!" groaned Yukie as he fought a losing battle with the numbing poison.
"Don't worry Yukie. I won't be taking all of your family's treasures. I have my eyes on one and one only." dismissed the man as he vanished inside one of the old houses inside the village.
Abandoning all his doubts, Naruto went to Yukie's side to see if he was alright.
"Hey! You okay?" asked Naruto.
"Gghh… Can't let… the mask to be stolen…" moaned Yukie under his breath as his body involuntarily twitched from the poison.
Naruto quickly remembered the vial of antidote that Sakura had made for him. He snatched it from his belt pouch and emptied the contents into Yukie's mouth. He laid the boy under the front gate and proceeded to the village.
"I'll stop him for you. Catch up okay?! We have a fight to finish." said Naruto as he ran after the rogue ninja.
I have decided to make a Naruto fic since it's apparently one of the more popular topics for yaoi fics around here. I hope this does better compared to my basara fic. Please R &R! Oh, and prepare for a major plot twist evil grin