The Tetsubun Fortress Campaign: Day -3
Konoha, Hokage's office.
Tsunade was not having a good day.
Shizune had managed to locate her hidden stash of sake that morning, certain members the council were trying to sneak tax breaks by her again (Which resulted in her having to pay attention and read what was written on the never-ending stacks of paperwork.), the old carrion birds in human form known as Homura and Koharu had been trying to get their beaks into places they didn't belong while complaining again how she was doing everything wrong and to top it all off, Jiraiya's new book had hit the stands earlier today and she highly suspected that one of the characters was based heavily on her with the slightest change in moral fiber ( The story version of her was a hell of a lot more...open to exotic suggestions then in reality.).
She honestly couldn't see how this day could get any wor...
"Hey old lady! Ya got a mission for me yet?"
Tsunade considered very briefly the act of slamming her head into her desk. This train of thought was quickly replaced with the somewhat more enjoyable one of slamming Naruto's head into her desk a few times.
While she might have a soft spot in her heart for the blond haired brat, there were some days that she considered using the same training technique she had used to deal with her perverted team mate's habits in her presence. Many of her kunoichi would be shocked to learn that Jiraya was a perverted shadow of what he was before she caught him trying to peek on her while she was relaxing in a woman's bathhouse.
"Brat, What have I told you about bursting in here and demanding missions WITHOUT MY PERMISSION?"
" Does my answer have any impact on the outcome of me getting a mission?"
Tsunade's left eye started to twitch rather dangerously as a vein seemed to bulge out of her forehead. She was so close to snapping that she could feel the straitjacket already. While she might have missed the brat during his training trip with her team mate and was really glad when he came back a month ago, right now she was contemplating mass homicide (After all, if she was going to go to all the effort of slaying her favorite blond haired brat, she sure as hell was going to hunt down everyone else who's actions pushed her into insanity and take them out. She had had a number of wonderful dreams on that subject).
What she needed was to make the loud mouth go away and the only way to do that was to find something for the little brat to do. Giving a sigh as she looked down at her desk, she started to sort through the small pile of missions that needed her approval. This would require a great deal of thought. While a simple D rank would get him out of her office, he might be back later today, if not tomorrow, asking for another one. That removed about a third of the pile.
Despite the fact that she believed that Naruto had a lot of promise and would one day make a great hokage himself, there was no way in hell he was ready to take on something A ranked or above solo yet and they didn't have anyone she would pair or team him with, which ruled out about half of what was left.
Just when she was starting to lose all hope that there was no possible way that she was going to get any peace and quiet around her office through none violent means, a mission scroll offered her some sort of salvation from the whining little blond before her. High C to low B ranked, the rest of the team was good to go, all they were missing was a fourth team member in order to meet the requirements for a boarder patrol. The tour was listed to last a month and the team would be based at the Tetsubun outpost, better known as the 'Iron Fortress'.
While the fact that it would be more then perfect way to get Naruto away from her for at least a month, it would also serve to give him the chance to interact with his fellow shinobi. At all times, Tetsubun was manned by eight patrol teams and two maintenance teams of four per team. It was a great assignment for genin and chuunin to get to know their peers and discover what kind of shinobi they would be. How a shinobi treated the assignment and behaved in the presence of their fellow shinobi was often what everyone remembered them by.
Besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't know anyone there. Team eight had been assigned to the same outpost two days beforehand.
Clearing her throat, Tsunade picked up the scroll and put on a small smile as she looked at an impatient Naruto, gesturing over to a coach at the side of the room.
"I have just the thing for you. Just take a seat on the coach over there and I'll summon the rest of the team for this mission."
…...
Naruto was bored.
At first, he had been really excited about the prospect of going on a C to B ranked mission. He had watched the old lady send out for the rest of his team, but that had been over twenty minutes ago.
Grandma Tsunade had returned to her stacks of paperwork and after witnessing her tear apart a seemingly random pile of paper while cackling like an evil witch before turning her attention to the next sheet of paper while muttering a three way conversation to herself while one of her eyes were twitching Naruto had wisely made the only decision that would enable him to avoid getting beaten into a wall or the ground: Stay seated, Don't make any sudden moves or sounds and if asked about it later he was asleep and didn't see or hear anything.
After twenty long minutes of doing nothing but staying off of Granny Tsunade's collateral damage list, the blond genin was bored out of his mind. When a knock sounded at the door, the one thing that kept Naruto from jumping into the air in joy was the knowledge that he would most likely be maimed if he did.
Watching as Granny looked up from her desk, he noticed her seemingly prepare herself for company by toning down the insanity and collected herself before announcing to the world that she was permitting whoever was standing at the door that they were being granted an audience with their beloved and benevolent greatness. Naruto then took a moment to pause and wonder what the hell 'benevolent' actually meant and ponder how it ended up in his head.
"Enter."
As the door opened and allowed three people, two rather unfamiliar to enter the room one by one, Naruto quickly stood up and moved over to stand with them in front of the Hokage's desk. Looking at those standing next to him, he tried to take in what details he could get.
The first person he noticed was the pre-teen girl standing next to him. While he had never met the girl before, he couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be a mix between a chibi-Hinata and what Neji might have looked like if 'he' had been born a 'she'. The girl's hair was a dark brown color with long bangs, and her eyes were almost completely white. Her forehead protecter hung around her neck in a fashion that was exactly like Hinata's, showing to the world that her forehead was clear. She was wearing an armless blue v-neck shirt and blue shorts with a weapon pouch hanging on her hip.
The second figure was the tallest person in the room, easily standing a foot taller then Naruto was. It was also impossible to tell what the man looked like (Naruto was assuming it was a man. There seemed to be a complete lack of bumps on it's chest to suggest otherwise.) due to the outfit he wore. The top part of his face was hidden behind a white mask. The eyes of the mask were covered in something that looked exactly like the smoked glass of sunglasses. The lower part of his face was blocked by the breathing apparatus of gas mask. The rest of him was covered completely in such a way as to cover every single inch of flesh. On closer inspection, Naruto noticed that the outfit seemed to be airtight, clamping down around the man's mask, wrists and ankles. It was impossible to tell if he even had hair, since it was somewhere underneath the black outfit. If not for the odd breathing noises coming through the gas mask, he was damn sure the man (Teenager? It was hard to tell.) wouldn't be able to breath at all. A pair of boots and black gloves that managed to slide under the clamps, sealing everything inside the suit. On top of the outfit was a green chuunin vest.
The last person in the line up was rather dull when compared to everyone else. He was a little shorter then Naruto was, with short brown hair and a rather worn brown shirt with sleeves that cut off at the elbow and a pair of old green pants that cut off two thirds of the way down his leg, a weapon pouch hanging from each of his sleeves and a few scrolls in his back pockets. On closer inspection, it would appear as if both pouches had been sewn there. The kid had to be sixteen, maybe seventeen years old.
Turning his attention back to Grandma Tsunade when she gave a polite cough in order to get all four of them to pay attention to her since, much like Naruto had done to them, they had all taken the time to size each other up. It was easy to forget that when you were watching others, others were watching you. All of them stood to some manner of attention as their leader addressed them.
" For the duration of this mission, you will be known as Team Fifteen. Team Fifteen shall be made up of Uzumaki, Naruto of Team Seven, Hyūga, Hanabi of Team Five and Gorotsuki, Musei of Team Two. You shall be lead by Chuunin Tsukai, Soeki. Is that understood?"
Four "Hai"'s rang out.
Emboldened by this, the old lady continued on in a tone that clearly showed why she was the top dog in the village.
" Your mission is to head to the Tetsubun Outpost and relieve Team Six of their patrol duties. Once that is done, you will take over their duties around the Outpost, which include performing patrols of the boarder and any maintenance work that the Outpost requires of you. You will be on this assignment for thirty days and you will remain at Tetsubun until your replacement team arrives to replace you. Do all of you understand?
The wave of "Hai"'s was almost a pleasant sound to hear.
"Very well. Soeki, the team is yours."
The mysterious masked chuunin bowed his head in acknowledgment before taking a step forwards and turning his gaze to the genins that he was now in charge of. While it wasn't possible to see what he looked like, Naruto could almost feel whenever the chuunin was looking at him. When Soeki spoke, his (and it was going to be a 'his' until that was solid proof otherwise) voice was deep and edged with a robotic tone, a result of the breathing equipment no doubt.
" You will all have an hour and a half to get your affairs in order and pack what equipment you will be needing for this mission. We'll be meeting at the eastern gate within the next two hours, but we will be leaving once everyone is gathered. Everyone clear on that?"
With a final group "Hai", Soeki nodded his head in approval.
"Dismissed."
…...
One Hour, Twenty Nine Minutes later, The Eastern Gate of Konoha.
He was fully packed and more than psyched for the mission to come!
After going home to gather his stuff ( Some clothing, some basic weapons, a jutsu scroll he was reading... six cups of three minute Ramen. The important things.) and stopping by Ichiraku's Ramen Stand for one last half a dozen bowls of his beloved ramen as well as asking Ayame if she would be kind enough to water his plants while he was gone (He had forgotten to do it before leaving for his training trip and the smell of dead plants isn't the most pleasant of things to come home too), Naruto had taken a look around for Sakura and Kakashi in order to tell them that he was off for a month or so. He was rather upset that he hadn't found either of them, but he did leave a message with the hospital receptionist to tell them he was going out on a mission.
It had occurred to him that this would be the first time he had taken a C or higher ranked mission without being on the same team as another member of his graduating class, fuzzy brow's team or the sensei of any of their teams. It was... well, exciting. Sure there was the standard fear of being meeting new people and being rejected by them, but that was put on the back burner for the time being.
Approaching the meeting spot, Naruto couldn't help but notice that the chuunin with the plain white mask and metallic voice had already beaten him there. It was a rather strange feeling, seeing a team leader who was actually punctual. After being stuck with Kakashi as a sensei with his 'lost on the road of life' bullshit, followed by Jiraiya and his sudden 'research' trips, drinking benders, hangover recovery days...
As far as he was concerned, Metal man had already earned a ton of brownie points with him.
"Hey Metal man! You're early aren't ya?"
Soeki turned towards the new voice since it seemed to be directed at him, connecting the voice to a face and a face to a name. The nickname admittedly threw him a little. Mumbling under his breath while the member of his team was still out of range, Soeki had to ask himself "...Metal man?"
Shaking his head slightly to put figuring out his new nickname back to another day, Soeki smiled underneath his mask... which couldn't be seen by anyone but the gesture was still there.
"Not really. I didn't really give an exact time for us to meet up so the least I could do was be here before you little guys started to panic. So tell me Naruto, is it true that you know the Shadow Clone Technique? And if so, how many clones can you make at once?"
At the seemingly innocent question, Naruto let a large grin consume his face, his hand rubbing the back of his head.
"Yep! I can make thousands if I want too!"
Despite the fact that it was impossible to read anything about Soeki, the air of surprise hung in the air around him. Already, wheels were turning in his mind.
"That is truly impressive. While I honestly hope that we don't run into a situation where you would need to pull off such a feat, it would really be a damn good sight to see."
Accepting the compliment and glad that he seemed to be at least getting along with his squad leader, Naruto nodded his head in thanks before walking over to a bare wall near the check point and leaned his back against it, getting ready for the wait for the rest of his new team mates.
After a few moments of silence, Naruto couldn't help but ask "So Metal man, what's with the bio-suit? I've never seen someone where one willingly before."
Despite the upfront and possibly rude nature of the question, Naruto was really interested in the answer. He had seen some of the ANBU wear such outfits before on a number of occasions when some of his pranks went horribly wrong (Or horribly right... depended on the prank and if he was there to suffer from it).
Soeki could have reacted in a number of ways to this question. He could have ignored it, gotten angry over it, answered it with a lie or, if he wanted to give the genin nightmares, answer it with the truth. He decided against all these options and went with a witty remark that didn't tell him jack shit.
"I wear this for the same reason you were bright orange, with the added peace of mind that if we get gassed, I'll be perfectly fine."
Naruto couldn't really find anything else to say to that and simply returned to being silent and waiting for the rest of the team to show up. At least he wasn't going to be waiting for long this time.
AN: Hello everyone. It's me again.
I would like to introduce you to my newest fanfiction story. To answer those interested in the -3 on the days, I am officially starting the mission when they arrive at the fortress, which will be declared day 0.
There are going to be a number of polls connected with this story which will be open for a few days in order to discover some of the finer details, such as who in the Konoha 11 will be in this story and what relationships will be discovered. Team 15 (Mentioned above) and Team 8 (Kiba, Hinata, Shino and Kurenai) are already selected.
I will also be holding a contest. Even with the rest of the Konoha 11 (If they all get a min number of votes) there will be a need for a number of OC's. I've already got a couple in mind, but there will be a need for more. Anyone who wishes to submit an idea for an OC, including name, age, place of birth, history, personality and any bloodline they might have, Please send my a PM or submit your idea in the reviews. Remember, we will need OC's both loyal to Konoha and some mercenaries and bandits to go against them.
Please tell me what you think of this story. Be honest.
Dedication:
They may be called the Palace Guard, the City Guard, ANBU, or the Patrol. Whatever the name, their purpose in any work of fiction is identical: It is, round about Chapter Three (or ten minutes into the film) to rush into the room, attack the hero (or villain) one at a time, and be slaughtered. No one ever asks them if they wanted to.
This story is dedicated to those fine men and women.