Riz does not own Naruto or any of its characters. Naruto © by Masashi Kishimoto.

Also, this is set in the Shippuden time period.

Thinking of You
Chapter 1

"Hey, Rika, can we stop now? You're beating the crap out of me." Naruto spoke between short breaths, bent over with his hands on his knees. The last of his shadow clones had disappeared in a small cloud of smoke. Sweat was dripping from his face to the grass of the training fields. The sweat that coated the blades of grass was mixed with a bit of Naruto's blood as well. The blonde male fell to his knees coughing, still trying to catch his breath.

"You weren't taking me seriously, were you? Fine, fine, we can stop for today." The female replied as she stretched her arms upward. She wasn't really tired, she'd barely broken a sweat even though most of that training session, on her end anyway, was mainly taijutsu.

"That's because you use that giant boomerang! That thing wipes out a huge chunk of my clones in one swing!" Naruto argued, pointing towards the large weapon on Rika's back, and then winced and retracted his arm. He was sore all over thanks to the training session. "Ugh, why are we even training anyway?" he asked out of frustration, although he didn't really want that question to be answered.

Rika glanced behind her towards her weapon. "This? Well, every ninja fights differently, and you have to learn to adapt and figure out a strategy as quickly as possible." She replied calmly as she pulled out a scroll from the pouch on her back. She made a couple hand signs with the scroll in hand before she pulled it open slightly and tapped a blank space in between a few other symbols. With a puff of smoke, the boomerang disappeared from her back and was re-sealed into the scroll, a symbol was placed in the gap that she tapped. She rolled the scroll back up and replaced it in her pouch before walking over to Naruto. "We're training because you're still a genin, so you need training from a jounin. Also, you're the one who asked me to help you." The kunoichi said as she knelt in front of him.

"But that's because I was training with Pervy Sage and I missed the Chuunin exam!" Naruto exclaimed before wincing again, tilting his head downward. Rika sighed and made a couple hand signs again. She held her hand in front of the blonde and a purple chakra formed around her hand. The chakra moved to Naruto's body and began to heal his wounds. Naruto winced at first, bracing himself for the medical treatment, only he felt no pain; in fact, it was like his pain had been washed away entirely. He tilted his head up to look at the kunoichi and noticed that her eyes looked different. Her eyes were usually a shade of purple that was more towards the darker end of the spectrum, like an eggplant purple, but now they were a much lighter shade, like lilac. With the contrast of her black hair, her purple irises always stuck out, but now that they were a much lighter shade, they stuck out even more brilliantly. This was the first time Naruto ever witnessed Rika's kekkei genkai; the chiyugan, the healing eye.

When his wounds were completely healed, he was no longer sore. Not only that, but he felt like his stamina was restored.

"Woah, what was that?" Naruto asked with bewildered look on his face.

"Medical ninjutsu?" Rika replied, arching an eyebrow at him as she stood up.

"But it seemed different from Sakura's."

"I guess you could say that."

"But how?"

"It's my family's specialty."

"So your family is a bunch of medical ninja?"

"That's right."

"But how is it that you're so damn strong?"

"The medical ninjutsu is the primary skill of my Father's family. My Mother was more focused on combat. As it turns out, I'm capable of both, like Sakura and Lady Tsunade."

Naruto's face paled when he thought about the inhuman strength that the two Rika mentioned had.

"I didn't say my taijutsu was the same." She added, which made the male sigh in relief.

"C'mon, let's get going. It's getting late." Rika said as she offered her hand to Naruto, noticing that the sun was starting to set. The blonde grinned and accepted her hand, pulling himself up.

Just as they were leaving the training field, Rika heard a barking sound from behind her. She turned around in time to see a large white canine leaping towards her. She managed to duck in time and avoided the dog's tackle. However, the dog nin ended up pinning Naruto to the ground. He let out a cry for help as he struggled beneath the canine's weight.

"Hey, we've been looking for you two." A male voice shouted. Rika looked up to see the owner of the large canine. He was with a girl with long dark hair and large lilac eyes.

"Kiba, Hinata, is something wrong?" Rika asked as she stood up, dusting her hands off.

"Yeah, someone's dog needs to get the hell off of me." Naruto chimed in. Hinata ran over to the blonde.

"N-Naruto, are you okay?" She asked nervously, not entirely sure how to help him.

"Oh, I'm just peachy." He replied sarcastically.

"A-A-Akamaru, you should get up. You're crushing Naruto." Hinata pleaded with the canine, but he wouldn't budge.

"Uh, shouldn't you save your comrade from your partner in crime?" Rika asked, arching her eyebrow. Kiba could only grin and let out a small chuckle at Naruto's predicament.

"Dammit, Kiba!" Naruto yelled as he squirmed beneath Akamaru. Kiba let out one final laugh before taking a deep breath to calm down. He made a small whistle, which made Akamaru's ears perk up.

"Alright, Akamaru. That's enough." He said with a grin, exposing his fangs. The dog nin whined before standing up and returning to his owner's side. Naruto gasped for air before jumping to his feet.

"Are you insane? Your dog could've killed me!" the blonde yelled. He would have attempted to punch Kiba in the face if Hinata didn't grab at his hand and told him to stop. As soon as she realized that she had grabbed his hand, she retracted hers and instantly flushed to a cherry red.

"He would've gotten up before then. Anyway, the Hokage wants to see all of us." Kiba said before he moved on, Akamaru right next to him. Rika glanced at Naruto and Hinata before following.

In no time at all, the four were standing in the Hokage's office. Kiba, surprisingly, was calm and focused, with Akamaru standing next to him. Hinata looked a little nervous, and her eyes kept wandering to the floor, which has become very natural of her. Rika stood up straight, composed and professional. Naruto, however, couldn't keep himself still if the fate of the entire village depended on it. He clearly looked bored and ready to burst with energy.

"So, Granny Tsunade, what kind of super tough mission am I getting? An assassination? Guarding a princess? Or maybe-" Naruto was cut off from voicing his eagerness by a quick elbow jab to his ribs from Rika. Tsunade furrowed her brow in annoyance as she straightened a stack of papers.

"Naruto, not only are you unfit for those kinds of missions, but you would end up as a liability." Tsunade replied, momentarily shattering Naruto's ego.

"I've summoned you all here for the following mission: Arata Orime, a well known weapons smith in the Land of Fire, has recently gone missing. His latest client filed the report since Orime never appeared. He was last seen in the Land of Hot Water. Your mission is to find Orime and return him home." Tsunade said calmly.

"So it's a tracking mission. What about Shino? He would be really useful for this kind of thing." Kiba chimed in, asking about his comrade. Kiba, Shino, and Hinata were all great trackers; Kiba and Akamaru with their sense of smell, Shino with his insects, and Hinata with her byakugan.

"Unfortunately, Shino has another mission, so he is unable to offer his aid." Tsunade replied.

"Okay, but why would I be needed?" Rika asked. After all, she didn't have the same skills as Team 8.

"He may be injured, and there's a chance that he's being targeted. Orime doesn't make weapons for just anybody. We've found out that he's turned down a group of bandits, and they were less than pleased with his decision."

"So you think they might have something to do with his disappearance?"

"Correct."

"Okay, but what about him?" Kiba asked, pointing at Naruto.

"Hey! Why you, you stupid dog!" Naruto yelled as he tried to tackle Kiba, only to have Rika hold him back.

"Naruto needs more mission experience." Tsunade said bluntly. Naruto froze, jaw dropped.

"What? That's it? You don't have a better reason?" Naruto pleaded. Tsunade shrugged in reply. Naruto crumbled and sank to the floor. Kiba let out a stifled laugh.

"Oh, Naruto…" Hinata said in a soft voice, feeling terribly for him. Rika rubbed one of her temples and sighed. Once Kiba had finally got his laughs out, he looked towards the Hokage again.

"So, do we have anything to go off of?" He asked, regaining his composure. Shizune then stepped forward.

"We have a picture and this." She said, holding out a picture, and then a rag that was sealed in a clear bag. It was a small scarf that belonged to the weapons smith. While everyone else studied the man's face, Kiba took the cloth out of the bag and held it up to his nose, and then held it in front of Akamaru. Once they had memorized the scent, Kiba returned the bag and the cloth to Shizune.

"Rika Izawa, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuuga, and Naruto Uzumaki, you will all leave first thing tomorrow morning." Tsunade said in a loud voice, standing up from her chair.

"Right!" The four said in unison before leaving the Hokage's office.