NARUTO

THE BURNING

Naruto belongs to its proper owners, not me.

This is a fanfiction

A crisp wind blew through the village of Konohagakure; the small village hidden in the leaves, it had been a hot summer for the land of fire and people were making the most of the welcome relief, two such people lay stretched out together on a roof-top, enjoying the breeze, and each others company.

One was a short youth with spiky blonde hair standing above a blue headband marked by a metal plate with a leaf motif engraved in the middle and a mischievous smirk, made all the more apparent by his bright orange and blue tracksuit, he had a knack for trouble and excelled at practical jokes, for years he had struggled to gain acceptance in his village and win the heart of the young woman beside him.

The girl was tallish for a girl, and wore her strawberry blonde hair short, pulled back by a similar headband to the youth's, only much cleaner, she also wore a red top pulled over white pants.

She rolled her head to the side and grinned at the youth; whose heart melted. She opened her mouth and whispered "MASTER KAKASHI! I'VE FOUND HIM!"

Naruto groaned sharply as the wind was driven from his lungs by a sharp impact in his side; he opened his eyes, though the movement was impeded by the wince bought on by the pain of the kick, glaring up he spotted the culprit. Haruno Sakura, the girl he had been dreaming about stood over him and yelled "GET UP YOU LAZY JERK!" Naruto grinned at Sakura who drew back with a revolted look on her face before aiming another kick at Naruto's ribs, reacting quickly Naruto caught her foot and pulled her down beside him "Naruto get OFF!" she screamed as she hit the roof "Master Kakashi, DO something!"

"No way, a ditz and a dunce belong together" Sakura and Naruto rolled to their feet, their eyes meeting briefly, Sakura blushed fiercely before turning away. Damn it! Naruto's inner voice screamed she still won't have me! Naruto glared fiercely at his teacher; Hatake Kakashi, Kakashi Sensei, tall and lean, Kakashi was also known as the mirror ninja or copycat ninja, he wore his headband on a slight slant to cover his sharingan eye, and constantly had his mouth covered by a mask, his grey hair was constantly messy and spiky; similar to Naruto's, but that was where any similarities between them ended. Kakashi was always calm where Naruto was excitable and aggressive.

"What is your problem?" an outraged Naruto demanded "today is my day off!" he folded his arms and scrunched his eyes to slits, a look of pure rebellion written across his face.

"Well, things change" stated Kakashi sensei "we need you for a mission; we must head to lord Hokage's room for our briefing" Kakashi sensei turned away and started walking in the general direction of the lord Hokage's office.

Naruto sneered "Make me" then spun and kicked the doppelganger of his sensei away; continuing the spin to stand facing where Kakashi sensei had been…

"ONE THOUSAND YEARS OF DEATH!!!" yelled Kakashi sensei.

"OOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!!!" howled Naruto as the pain sent him flying through the air.

Kakashi smiled softly with his eye before noticing that Sakura was no longer the only young woman with him; fifty odd beautiful blonde maids rushed forward to grab master Kakashi's arms and legs, one of them leapt up to face level with him swinging a roundhouse kick, moments before impact the doppelgangers were dispelled by Naruto, who landed all by himself on the rooftop.

"Whaaaat?!" groaned Naruto as he looked about, Kakashi and Sakura were several rooftops away and moving quickly towards the Hokage's office, Naruto kicked off the roof and quickly caught up with the others only to receive a lecture from Kakashi Sensei.

"You have improved Naruto, but you're still a one trick pony who doesn't have what it takes to beat me, let alone become Hokage, you need to learn new moves, not just improve on old ones"

"You perv" Sakura supplied, as un-helpfully as possible.

Naruto snorted but remained otherwise silent, at least I get to spend some time with Sakura Naruto brightened, maybe this day wasn't so bad after all Naruto smiled as he ran with the others to the Hokage's office, skipping over ledges and generally enjoying the company of his teacher and the girl of his dreams, whether she felt that way or not.

…………………

The Hokage's office could be considered spacious but the available room was more for function than comfort; the room could hold a number of cells, or teams of shinobi, to be briefed, or quietly brief one person away from the walls and its prying ears. Even ninja had to be careful.

A noise caused the Hokage to glance up from her scroll.

Naruto burst into the room, closely followed by an outraged Sakura. Kakashi stepped into the room a moment later, the very image of calm in the middle of the storm, Lady Tsunade however, was not fooled; she had seen their little performance from her window, and while she had sent Sakura and Kakashi to find Naruto, she had known where he was all along.

"Ah, welcome team Kakashi, and Master Kakashi" Lady Tsunade acknowledged with a brief nod to the tall shinobi, Hatake Kakashi smiled briefly in return, I'll never figure out how I can tell he's smiling from just one eye the Hokage sighed silently before resuming the briefing "as you've probably heard by now; the village that supplies our forges is caught up in a war and require assistance from us immediately"

"What has happened to their own forces?" inquired Kakashi "surely neither army can commit enough troops to attacking such a village?"

"Ah yes, the village warriors, well reports have confirmed that Lord Hidaka has hired a pair of powerful fire village shinobi, they call themselves the 'Inferno' I've been led to believe, and since this village is something of an asset to our own enterprises I'm sending in two cells, since your cell is somewhat less than complete I've taken the liberty of choosing a team that seems to work well with your own"

The door to the Hokage's office opened and three people entered: Master Might Guy, Hyuga Neji and Tenten; Team Guy.

"Lady Hokage" Master Guy greeted "well Kakashi, it looks like both of us are running one man short. You without Sasuke, and me without my Rock Lee"

"Master Guy has already been briefed on the situation, while you were hunting for Naruto apparently" the Lady Tsunade commented offhandedly, Sakura elbowed Naruto hard in the ribs