This piece of writing shall be forever known as a turning point in the world of literature.
I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. This story takes place after the Rescue Gaara arc in Shippuuden, because I haven't read the manga far enough past that to know character attacks or anything.
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It was like any other day in Konoha. Birds singing, sun shining, and Naruto splurging on yet another eighteen bowls of Ichiraku.
"Itadakimasu!" could be heard throughout the entire village, as he dug into his ramen. His teammate and long-time friend, Haruno Sakura, walked into the little shop.
"Naruto. Tsunade-shishou wants to see us in her office in two minutes."
The blonde looked up at Sakura, bits of noodle dangling from the corner of his mouth. He nodded briefly to indicate he'd be there on time; he still had two more bowls to finish. Picking up a new pair of chopsticks (he'd gone through three already, biting them in half as he slammed heaven into his mouth) he split them in half and looked up at Ayame.
"More, please!"
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Halfway across town, Hatake Kakashi was also doing some digging in of his own: into the newest Icha Icha book, that is. He strolled through a side street while snickering at a particularly funny event that'd happened in the book.
"Jiraiya-sama writes such good books. I must convince him to write faster so I can read more."
Sakura appeared in a flurry of smoke, standing in front of his path. "Kakashi-sensei, Tsunade-shishou wants you to be in her office in a minute."
"Eh? But I've only just begun to get into the meat of the story—"
"You do realize that if you're late, Shishou will probably smash your face into the ground."
"H-hai." The copy ninja shuddered at the thought of Tsunade's monstrous strength, marked his page, put the book in his pocket and began jumping across rooftops to the Hokage's office.
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When Naruto arrived, he had just made the deadline with two seconds to spare and half a bowl of ramen stuffed in his oversized mouth. Mustering up as much throat muscle as he could, he forced the huge chunk of material down his throat before noticing the amount of people inside old Baachan's office.
Team 8, Team 10, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Team Gai, and a new group of faces he'd never seen before all looked at him.
"Welcome, Naruto," Tsunade's voice silenced everyone else's. "Make yourself comfortable, although keep standing."
She turned to address the whole group.
"I have gathered you all here today to send you on an S-rank mission—"
This was met by gasps and, from Naruto, a shrill girly scream of excitement.
"—which will more than likely severely injure or kill at least half of you."
The commotion in the room died down instantly, and everyone looked worried except for the unknown group in the corner. They looked much like a gang, and the leader appeared to be the one with black hair that wore a straw hat. (AN: zomg, crossover!)
Tsunade continued. "Many, if not all of you are wondering who these individuals are. To keep introductions short, they have come from a sea which they call the Grand Line. Apparently, our country – the hinokuni – and every other country in the land we know are all just part of an enormous island which sits in the middle of the Grand Line. We have apparently never known this because all people who have seen the sights of the coast have been killed by various things on the journey back, be it monsters or starvation or disease (AN: obscure and vague, I know, but it gets more detailed later on.). This group of pirates – kaizoku – requires our help. Robin, if you would like to continue?"
A tall woman with a warm expression emerged from the back of the group. "My name is Nico Robin. I am a member of this pirate crew, the Straw Hat Pirates. We sailed to a rugged area south of this unusually large island one week ago, south of your country; our ship was destroyed in the process of everyone getting to shore. It was washed away and sunk by a large thunderstorm. We were on the run from an exceptionally powerful pirate crew who completely overpowered us and were lucky to get away alive. After three days of endless wandering, we found a small village which helped us recover slightly. We wanted to know if any people knew of powerful individuals who would help us fight a particularly nasty group of pirates. They hesitated to tell us, but spoke of your village. We followed the map that the townsfolk gave us and wound up here.
"Now we ask for you all to help us. We do not ask you this because we were in danger of being killed; it is because that crew most likely knows we are on this island. We, as pirates, stole much of their gold and money before fleeing; they want us dead as a result of that and they won't hesitate to burn down villages and towns in their search. We have all agreed that we will take full responsibility and blame for any lives lost as a result of our running onto this island, but if you help us then the loss of innocent lives will be minimal."
She paused, letting what she'd just said to be able to sink in. After a minute of silence, Naruto spoke.
"Where do we find these guys?"
Robin was startled. She saw the same kind of determination in the blonde kid's eyes that she could see in Luffy's whenever he vowed to do something.
Therefore, it was Luffy who stood up and motioned for Robin to sit. There was silence for a while until Luffy broke it.
"I'm hungry. Do you have any meat?"
The entire room shook as everyone inside anime falled.
After five minutes of finding enough food to last Luffy for an hour, he sat down and started talking.
"We don't know the location of the crew, but all the crewmembers – nine of them – have a shaved head and a tattoo on their scalp; the kanji representing "slaughter". The leader is the only one who doesn't wear a shirt. For now, all that we can really do is wait or go out and look for them…and that's where you guys come in. Our idea is to go out in search parties to each country and do two things: one, inform the people of that country of the situation; and two, to fight with all our strength if we meet up with any of the crew.
"Your Hokage has already split us into groups. I've got the paper some…where…"
Luffy made a frantic search of his shorts and vest before Zolo picked up a scroll from the ground and began to read, much to Luffy's disappointment and cries of "Oi Zolo! I was supposed to read them out!"
"Team A will consist of Hyuuga Hinata, Yamanaka Ino, Chopper over there" - He pointed at a small reindeer-like creature- "Aburame Shino, and Robin, who you've already met. You're going to Kumogakure, the Village Hidden in the Clouds."
"Team B will be me (Zolo), Hyuuga Neji, Inuzuka Kiba, Nami" - A pretty looking redhead waved at the ninjas "- and Nara Shikamaru. We're headed to Amagakure, the Village Hidden in the Rain."
"Team C is Tenten, Sanji" – Zolo motioned to the blonde smoking a cigarette" – "Akimichi Chouji, Maito Gai, and Haruno Sakura. You guys can have fun staying in Konoha as defense."
"That leaves Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee, Luffy, the guy in the straw hat, and Usopp for Team D. You get to go to Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Sand.
"We leave in two days to give us time to get ready and all that."
Tsunade finished the meeting by reminding the group to be back in this office in two days.
And so it began.