Disclaimer: I don't own NARUTO or any of the characters, just the OCs and this story.

This revamped chapter has been brought to you by Taijitu-no-Yang (author), Taijitu-no-Yin (beta, no account), and Godwolf Fenrir (gamma).

- - -

Uzumaki Naruto lay in his bed, snoring loudly. Wearing his normal dog sleeping cap and white pajamas, his pillow on the floor, and he had his left arm and leg hanging off the side of his bed. All was good for the sleeping twelve-year-old (although he turned 13 in only a few weeks) Genin, until-

Bang! Bang! Bang!

"Naruto!" came Haruno Sakura's voice.

Naruto moaned, but made his classic hand seal, and a pajama-wearing Shadow Clone trudged up to the door. The clone unlocked the door and opened it, and was puffed away into white smoke as Sakura strode into the room, her brow furrowed in annoyance.

"Naruto! Why are you still sleeping? It's our first mission since Sasuke-kun got out of the hospital! Jeez, Kakashi-sensei is going to get there before we do! Get up!"

"Right away, Sakura-chan," Naruto mumbled. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Five clones appeared and set about his apartment. They grabbed his blue ninja sandals, his pants, shirt, and jacket, one pulling the real Naruto out of bed, and the fifth went to go get a cup of instant-ramen.

Naruto pulled off his sleeping cap and wandered into the bathroom to change. He grabbed his necklace from his night stand before entering the bathroom. He quickly got dressed, smiling fondly at the necklace before tucking it under his jacket.

He tugged on his sandals and exited the bathroom, and the clone brought him the ramen. Naruto ripped the lid off, a clone tossed him chopsticks, and he dug in. The clones quickly cleaned up the apartment a bit and locked the door.

Naruto swallowed. "Want any, Sakura-chan? It's good!"

Sakura stared at Naruto slurp up several noodles before shaking her head.

"No thanks," she said, sounding slightly disgusted. She generally liked watching Naruto eat, he just seemed so happy -- which seemed to brighten the moods of those around him. But when he rushed, it just seemed... gross.

Naruto shrugged. "Suit yourself." And he drained the broth from the cup. Naruto grabbed his forehead protector and secured it to his forehead. "Let's get going, Sakura-chan!"

He opened the window next to his bed and jumped out. Sakura gingerly clambered after him, and the remaining clone on the inside shut and locked it.

They hurried to their destination to find Uchiha Sasuke leaning against a pole. As always, he had his 'bad-ass' expression on.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said cheerfully.

Sasuke nodded at her, "Morning."

"Wow, you actually said something today," Naruto said, landing on the roof behind Sakura. "You in a good mood, or did you forget to shove that rod up your ass this morning?"

Sasuke just eyed Naruto in an annoyed fashion.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled angrily, hitting him in the back of the head.

"Ha-ha!" Naruto laughed despite the monstrous lump on his cranium. "Totally worth it."

Sakura bashed him in the head again. "Still worth it?" she asked evilly.

"Let's go," Sasuke said, jerking his head.

"Right!" Sakura said brightly, hurrying away from the mass that was a bleeding, bruised Naruto.

- - -

Kakashi, after making his students wait an hour, finally showed up. The three Genin looked over at him, none of them bothering to yell at him for his lateness. What would be the point?

"Alright," Kakashi said brightly once the smoke cleared, pulling a scroll from one of his breast-pockets -- there was also an envelope secured to the scroll with a rubber band. "You three are to head into Water Country, into a snowy mountain range to act as escorts for the clients. You then bring them back here."

Naruto scrunched up his face and then asked, "Kakashi-sensei... What do they look like?"

"There's the info in the scroll," Kakashi said dismissively. Sakura noticed he seemed a little rushed. He hadn't been reading his book when he showed up, so it was possible he actually had a viable explanation for being late instead of something stupid like 'helping a cat out of a tree,' or simply 'getting lost on the path of life.'

"I don't get it, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura said. "Why send us? I don't mean to brag, but we're a strong squad. Couldn't they send some new Genin?"

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention," Kakashi said in his usual way. "It's a B rank. Apparently someone is after them, and they want the Village's protection."

"They're willingly sending Genin on a B?" Sasuke asked, simply cocking an eyebrow.

"We're a little short-handed," Kakashi explained. Sakura nodded -- that explained Kakashi's haste. "The Chuunin or Jounin that would have normally been sent are already out on missions. I'm not even able to go with you, I have another mission." Kakashi tossed the scroll and envelope to Sasuke. "See ya," Kakashi said, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Should we prepare a little more before we leave?" Sakura asked as they headed for the village streets. "I mean, we're not prepared for a snowy region."

"You have a good point," Sasuke nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't have any clothes that would be suitable, and there isn't a shop that sells winter clothes in Konoha in early fall."

"I don't have snow clothes, either," Naruto said. "So, uh... where do we get the clothes?"

They both shrugged. "Maybe on the way in a town we pass through? I bet there's a map in that envelope," Sakura said brightly.

She snatched the scroll away from Sasuke, removing and discarding the rubber band. She opened up the envelope and peeked inside. As she had predicted, there was a map included. Sakura tossed the actual mission assignment back to Sasuke, who caught it effortlessly, and Sakura took the map from the envelope. She studied it for a few moments before she nodded, pleased with herself.

"So, hey, what's their names?" Naruto asked as they all sat down at a bench near a river. "What's their descriptions?"

Sakura set aside the map and pulled the pictures from the envelope. There were four photos of each of them, two side-shots, a front-shot, and a back-shot -- the names in letters, age, birthday, and height were along the white edges of the photos.

Sasuke grabbed the pictures of the male first.

'Yoshimitsu Riddin' was a lightly-tanned 16-year-old male born on June 9th, standing at around 168cm. His eyes were a dark brown and were lidded, and Naruto was reminded vaguely of Shikamaru -- staring in a bored way. His hair was the same dark-brown as his eyes, and had five evenly-spaced horizontally curved spikes in the front, the hair on the back of his head was somewhat spiky, pointing downward. He had a thick white jacket and winter pants on in the photos, but they looked a little old and tattered.

The ninja tried to analyze the picture a little, to see simply 'the underneath.' Riddin's eyes (despite Naruto's original observation) were alight with laughter, the right side of his mouth tugged into a wolfish grin, his canines touching tip-to-tip. He was probably a happy guy, playful. His cheekbones were pretty evident, the skin pulled almost taut over his face. Which meant he was skinny, but so much so that it seemed like he didn't eat regularly.

"What's with his nose?" Naruto asked, squinting at the picture. The underside of Riddin's nose was a dark black for some reason. "You figure it's face paint or something?"

"I dunno," Sakura shrugged. "But look at his name: 'Riddin'... It's foreign, I guess. I wonder how he writes it in kana?" (Note: Sakura pronounced it as 'Reed-in.')

'Yoshimitsu Rayn' was a lightly-tanned 13-year-old female born on October 18th, standing at around 155cm. (About 5'1") Her brown hair (a little lighter than her brother's) was flat and shiny, falling to the middle of her back. She bore a thick black jacket and winter pants in the pictures, and they looked new. Her eyes resembled Sakura's, and were a light gray.

Rayn's eyes were a bit softer than her brother's, but contained the same amount of humor and mirth. She was sticking her tongue out in the face-shot, her lips curved in a smile. She looked a bit more well fed than her brother, too. Sakura looked between the two pictures, noticing Rayn seemed to be in overall better condition than Riddin. Or at least it seemed that way from their physical appearance, and their clothes.

"'Rayn'... Another foreign name," Sasuke observed. "Are we sure they're related? Different eye color, different hair tone..." (Sasuke pronounced it as 'Rah-yin,' almost like the name 'Ryan.')

Sasuke opened up the scroll, hoping the clients had sent some useful information other than 'here we are, come get us.'

"My sister and I are more or less stranded in the middle of nowhere on an island north of Water Country," Sasuke read aloud. "There is a group of people that are after us, but I don't know who they really are. There are these three other guys, but I think we lost them a few weeks ago. Also, Mist Shinobi seem to be after us -- hence why it's a B-rank."

Naruto nodded as if he had been paying attention, then asked, "Where can we find some winter stuff?" It was not lost on Sasuke nor Sakura that Naruto hadn't been paying any attention -- they had already agreed to figure it out later.

"There's a trading post between here and the island they indicated," Sakura said, pointing at the island in question. "We'll just get stuff there."

"Sounds good," Sasuke nodded. "Any complaints, Naruto?"

"Nah, that sounds good," Naruto grinned. "How about we all head home for extra money, and meet at the main gate in fifteen minutes?"

"Right, I don't have enough ryou for food and clothing," Sasuke said, disappearing.

Sakura gave Naruto a brief wave before hurrying off as well.