The Civilization Within
By Liz-Mary-O
Chapter 1 A New Mission
Darkness seeped into a small crowded room with seven tall shrouded figures that stood motionless closely situated around a white shrouded figure who sat at her desk looking meaningfully at the collection of papers before her with a smooth thoughtful expression, hands folded casually under her chin. Special situations like this always required extra precision and endless preparations. Her eyes flashed to the nearest shadowed figure who met her gaze and nodded promptly. She diligently picked up her papers and looked through them carefully pausing at the forms that contained what seemed to be personal data that included a small photograph though the receding light made it difficult for any normal human being to read. The woman was different however; she had no problem deciphering the small letters, and elegant symbols. After reading the packet for the second time she laid the papers flat on her desk and looked up at the silent shadows.
"How are the others doing?" she asked.
The figure furthest from her responded her question in a deep but clear voice:
"The second has been working phenomenally well, all things considered, hasn't lost a battle yet however he did at one point come close to"
She nodded curtly and turned her attention to another figure in the back and gestured him to speak.
The shadow began to speak in a quick clear yet animalistic voice.
"The first has grown a lot stronger in the past weeks; his sharp mind has placed him above several of his companion however he was defeated by one of the enclosed ones."
She nodded once more to him and turned her gaze to the other shrouded figures still standing motionless in the semi darkness. After a few moments she stood up the sleeves of her billowing white cloak elegantly claiming her arms again and spoke addressing the entire group.
"Very well then this meeting is over. Stick to your orders and follow the plan if anything goes unexpected you are to report to me, we will begin tomorrow. That is it you have my leave to go."
The meeting was over and the shadows replied by swiftly entering a prolonged bow, and after straitening themselves again and the seven shinobi instantly disappeared in a flash leaving no trace that they had ever been there to begin with. The white robed woman walked gracefully to the window in her office in the shimmering moonlight. The darkness had settled now and her vision was perfectly adjusted to long shadows. As she stared out the window the faint light illuminated her face just enough to highlight the faint marking on her forehead and then as swiftly, as gracefully, and as quickly, like a whisper of the wind, she too disappeared.
"Granny Tsunade!" A loud obnoxious voice called. It was scarcely a half hour after sunrise and already the fifth Hokage had her hands full of paperwork to do, she was tired, late night meetings weren't her thing unless it meant chatting with old friends, gambling, or sake, either way they always gave her enough problems in the morning, on top of that she did take loud banging noises and obnoxious yelling to her good graces. It didn't take long for her anger to be triggered and it was in that second that the office door was kicked open and a bright spiky blonde haired boy with way too much energy came crashing in, and immediately began bombarding her with his usual complaints and recommendations.
"ENOUGH!" she bellowed causing the number one hyperactive knucklehead ninja to crash on the floor and making the windows rattle.
"Now what is it that you want?" she asked in a forcefully calm voice.
The kid didn't waste any time before answering
"Granny Tsunade, are we going to get a real mission this time,"
"All the missions that I've been giving you are real missions; you get what's on the list," she replied to him in an almost bored tone
"But Granny Tsunade! I don't want to do this boring work; I'm tired of chasing people's cats, or going after someone's old man, I want an A ranked mission." The boy ranted.
" Naruto, you're still a gennin," she put a small strain onto the word "You shouldn't even be doing half the types of things you've been allowed to do! I can't give you one"
He wined again and voiced his disapproval,
"Look this is all I can do for you, take this mission and go over it with your teammates, I expect it done as quickly as possible." She replied in an exasperated voice.
She began to fumble around with the many papers on her desk grabbing a rather small scroll and proceeded to force it on him
"But Granny Tsunade!"
"JUST DO THE MISSION" she roared and Naruto not wanting to further anger one of the legendary Sannin specifically the one with superhuman strength.
"Lady Tsunade?" a timid voice dared to ask and a woman with short-cropped black hair appeared in the doorway
"WHAT NOW" she yelled. Realizing that she had yelled at nothing in particular and that Naruto had already left, She calmed down and tried again
"Yes Shizune"
"This mission requires more than the usual four to a team," the woman called Shizune stated.
"Which mission is this?" Tsunade asked inclining toward Shizune. She handed her the form and Tsunade took it eagerly in her hands. After reviewing it she replied in a thoughtful voice:
"Ah, yes we discussed this yesterday at our meeting-crap! I forgot!" She called for a man in a tall black cloak and a dog shaped white mask.
"Find team Gai and have them report to me immediately as well as Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino from team 10, they'll need to hear this too." She commanded.
The man bowed and promptly disappeared out of the room. Tsunade let out a tired and worried sigh as she sunk back to her chair.
"Shizune!" she called again
"Yes mi lady?" she called
"Could you hand me that book on the far let corner the dark blue on with the ancient insignia on it, there were a few medical jutsus in that one I need to study off of and after that could you bring me the stack of papers on the front desk and-"
She stopped suddenly having recalled a small detail that she had missed in the morning.
"Shizune?" she asked slowly this time catching the woman's attention immediately.
"Hai Hokage-sama" she responded with a slightly curious and slightly worried look.
"What mission did I give Naruto," she asked again little by little piecing together her answer. She started to scramble the papers and scrolls on her desk looking for an important piece.
Still not having making any connection Shizune responded,
"I think you gave him the one…" she began and suddenly her eyes went round as saucers as she realized the problem
"Shit." Interrupted Tsunade before bellowing at the top of her lungs
"NARUTO!"
so how'd it go? this was my notorious 1st real Naruto fic, and i really want to scrap the thing, but its really up to you, i can post the next few chapters i have and see where things take from there. all you got to do is
Flame Rave or Rerview!
Thank You!