"Blah": Talking
'Blah': Demon speaking/ Inner Sakura
'Blah': Naruto's Thoughts/other people's thoughts
'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto
Okay... Before we start, has anyone ever heard of the $1000 bagel? The Westin New York at Times Square, in New York City, there is actually a bagel some dude created that has white truffle cream cheese, goji berry jelly and gold leaves sprinkled on top. WTF! Gold leaves on a freaking bagel? Are you f***ing insane? Why would anyone want to EAT solid gold?
AZ44: Because you feel richer when you shi-
Kvsyaoran: Keep your answers PG-13, dude!
AZ44: Still, why bring this up?
Kvsyaoran: I dunno, I can't think of anything else to discuss this time around.
Deadpool: Here's what I have to say to that! (Whips out pistol and shoots the $1000 bagel until the plate is nothing but ash) Heehee! I just waste a thousand bucks! HA!
Kvsyaoran: ... I was going to return that...
Deadpool: Oh... Well this is awkward.
Naruto: Get the hell out of my seat and let's start the show!
Kvsyaoran: Okay, I got the chips and pop. Let's get this storted!
AZ44: Don't you mean 'started'?
Kvsyaoran: Whatever! Let's get it on!
AZ44: Are you coming on to me?
Kvsyaoran, Naruto, & Deadpool: SHUT UP!
Reviews are welcome and wanted!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,
Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,
Chapter 2: The Bridge Builder
It was sometime in the late morning when the first scream echoed out deep in the forest around the northern end of the village. It was the place where the trees grow wilder than normal and where ravenous animals were known to thrive and relish in the seemingly endless fields of forest life. When the first scream sounded of that of a girl, a swift, shadowy figure zoomed through the trees, hiding in bushes and piles of fallen leaves. The forms of three twelve year old genin swiftly followed the figure as stealthily as they could, hiding behind trees and making as little noise as possible.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura created a triangular formation around the figure once it found itself a comfortable bed of grass and leafs. It kept on jumping from one place to the next as it could barely sense the genin team pursuing it. It was when it had changed positions and flew right past Sakura's face did she let out a scream of surprise and set the animal on edge. Harry cursed at the girl, even though no one but Naruto could hear him, as Sasuke cursed out loud, and Sakura tried to pin the blame on Naruto for having not taken her original position.
Once the three genin were in the triangular position mentioned earlier, the three of them stationed right there as Naruto could see the animal walk around in circles and get nestled into a nice, soft spot on the ground to rest. Naruto and the others were all wearing wireless radios so that they may stay in constant communication and finally capture the creature they had been searching for hours. Harry often scoffed at the use of technology, since he never even had to use any such device throughout his entire life. Muggle technology was either primitive or pointless while he had magic to back him up. Naruto ignored his older brother and listened to Kakashi's soft voice call out to all three of his students.
"How far away is the target?" he asked.
Naruto looked around the tree once more before going back behind the tree and remaining silent and still, "Five meters... I'm ready..."
"I'm in position," said Sasuke from a treetop.
Sakura looked from under the fallen tree she was hiding behind and said, "Me too!"
"Alright! GO!"
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura all jumped from their positions and attacked the creature they were perusing. Naruto was in the lead and actually jumped and tackled the creature that turned out to by a slightly large ginger-tabby crossbred cat. Naruto lightly and carefully tackled the creature and immediately started cooing it as Sasuke and Sakura stopped dead in their tracks and watched as Naruto began to play with the animal. The cat actually looked excited to see Naruto and started patting at his face with claws retracted back into his soft and lovable paws. The cat purred and meowed playfully as Naruto pinned it to the ground and played with him.
"Tora-chan! Who's the good little kitty? You are! Who's a good Captain Meow? Meow-meow! Meow-Meow!"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and Sakura tried to look away after she looked for the identification for the lost pet of the daimyo, the red ribbon tied around the cat's right ear. Once confirmed she fully looked away as the cat started pouncing on Naruto and licking some breakfast residue on his face, tickling him. The blonde-haired genin laughed as the cat felt more comfortable with this random wizard than it's actual owner. No doubt, the cat must have been attracted to his welcoming magical aura just as many animals were. It was one of the reasons why Naruto always scored so high on all of his simulated-Care of Magical Creatures lessons.
"Sasuke? Sakura? Do either of you guys have confirmation on the cat's identity?" sounded Kakashi's voice though all the headsets.
The Uchiha answered their sensei saying, "Yep! The red ribbon tied around the cat's right ear is confirmation enough."
"Then good job to all of you! Mission to retrieve the lost pet of Madame Shijimi accomplished. Let's head back to the Mission Assignment Desk and get started on another mission!"
Naruto pet and stroked the cat even while he stood up from the ground and walked alongside his teammates as the headed to the mission desk with their sensei.
Team 7 entered the old Ninja Academy at the top floor in an area that Naruto and the other former students were forbidden to enter. But now, since Naruto and the others had graduated and become genin, they were allowed and obligated to enter this area, seeing as they were assigned their missions here. They entered through a large sliding door and entered a huge, wide-open space with a magnificent wooden floor-work. The floor was finely polished to the point where someone could see their own reflection with the exception of a few smudges caused by incoming shinobi and clients. There were six large windows across the room that led out to a balcony at the top floor of the Academy that really let in the light and shined brightly against the polished wooden floors. The ceiling was quite high above the heads of our heroes with two stick-like lights to bring out a confident and inspiring aura around all those shinobi that entered. The ceiling also had the kanji for shinobi placed in between the two lights for decorative purposes.
Naruto looked to the other side of the room and saw a long table where the Hokage and other shinobi were sitting, distributing mission assignments and receiving payment from clients of all shapes and sizes. On the front of the desk, there was a white banner with the kanji that said in dark lettering, "Mission Assignments Here" and there was another banner on the ceiling above the first one that said, "Everybody, Do Your Best". The reasons for this room being made forbidden for Academy students to enter became obvious, as this place was more spotless than a five-star restaurant. Since this was a place where people from all over the world came for assistance from some of the most reliable and highly talented shinobi in the world. The village would have to leave a good impression to their guests and clients if they wanted to stay in business. It only made sense that they would deck out this area and go out of their way to keep it in tip-top shape.
From across the room, Naruto spotted Iruka sitting down next to the Hokage, assisting him with sorting out missions to different teams. Iruka looked up when he sensed a familiar presence entering the chamber and smiled at his little brother upon spotting him. Naruto smiled back as well but soon he jumped when a woman close to the assignment desk screamed out in joy towards his general direction.
"TORA-CHAN!" she screamed out at Naruto.
The boy looked up from his cat to see an immensely fat old woman wearing an elaborate brown-bun wig and a brilliant set of robes with dark colors of pink, purple, and lavender that flowed all around her, giving her the look of a melting iced cake. She wore a lot of makeup, particularly over her cheeks and eyes to give the appearance of looking much younger than she actually was. Before she even spotted Naruto nestling and stroking her contented kitten, she was busy putting rouge on her already scarlet cheeks. She ran towards Naruto as fast as her stubby legs could push her and grabbed the cat from his reluctant grasp. The cat meowed unpleasantly as the woman's stubby fingers, which were adorned with several gaudy rings, grabbed him. The cat screeched as he was taken away from Naruto, who seemed a much better owner than this woman, Madame Shijimi. Tora screamed when the daimyo's wife almost squeezed the life out of him. Naruto could literally see the pain in the poor creature's eyes that almost made him want to steal the cat away from Shijimi and take it home with him instead.
But Harry restrained him and all he could do now was watch as the poor cat had to bare the burden that was an smothering pet owner.
"Aww... poor Captain Meow..." Naruto sighed.
Sakura said as well, "With an owner like that, can you blame that thing for running away from home...?"
Team 7 watched as Shijimi squeezed her cat again, rubbing her makeup-stained cheek against Tora's in a most uncomfortable way possible. She kept on cooing her cat and telling him how worried she was when she found out that he ran away again. As she kept on smothering Tora, she walked up to the payment desk and paid for the services she asked for. As Kakashi walked up to the man in charge of handling the money, Naruto kept watching as poor Tora was taken away back to his home in the great castle of the country's capital. Tora kept on meowing for Naruto padding his paw at the boy who could only sniffle and wave the cat goodbye until he would have to track him down again in the future.
Soon, Hiruzen Sarutobi coughed and gained the attention of Team 7 as he held up a list of clients around the village that needed their help. He took in a puff of smoke on his old pipe and wiped several fallen ashes from his white and scarlet robes and then emptied his pipe clean of those loose ashes. He sorted out a number of different scrolls in from of them, all of them labeled with a different letter of the alphabet from A to D and occasionally the letter S.
He started with, "Team 7's next assignment will be... let's see... babysit elder Koharu's three-year old grandson... help elder Homura's wife with shopping for groceries... picking out potatoes for the local farms..."
With every menial task announced after another, Naruto began to slump and tilt his head towards the floor as he felt his body sink down. But he soon recovered before he made a spectacle of himself and stood up straight after the Hokage was finished with the list of assignments that Naruto and the rest of his team would be allowed to do for the day. Kakashi stood up straight and began to ponder as to which assignment they should do first, but was having a bit of trouble deciding. Sasuke just rolled his eyes at the list of missions, as he wanted to do something that involved fighting or proving how strong and powerful he was. Sakura didn't really care about getting a more difficult mission, as she just wanted to take something that wasn't too physically demanding. All she wanted to do was something easy or something that would require her intellect, so that she could impress Sasuke or even get to talk to him.
Naruto, however (once he stood up), he walked over to the mission's desk and stood right before the Hokage with a normal smile on his face. This gesture surprised the old man and Iruka as well.
"Hokage-sama?" he asked in a kind voice.
Sarutobi was taken aback as Naruto addressed to him so much formal respect. Iruka and several others were also very surprised.
Hiruzen coughed, "Yes, Naruto-kun? What is it?"
Naruto suddenly slammed his knees to the ground, causing an almost loud boom and put his arms up high above his head before joining his hands together in prayer. He closed his eyes and caused fake-comical tears to flow down his face as he begged to the Hokage like a hopeless beggar. Iruka raised his brow, Sarutobi bit down on his pipe, and the other people at the desk jumped and outraged at Naruto's unpredictable behavior.
"Please!" he cried, "Will you please just give us more of a challenge, Grandpa! I mean for crying out loud we're supposed to the shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato, not the boy scouts of London!"
'He's actually got a point for once...' thought Sasuke.
Sakura growled and held back from punching Naruto, 'He is such a stupid brat!'
'What the hell is London?' thought Kakashi.
"Please!" the boy emphasized, "I even called you Hokage-sama back there! Can't you just give us a mission that actually requires us to leave the front gates for a change? Go to a distant village, protect a princess, or go on an epic adventure! I've been a good ninja! I deserve to get a good ninja mission!"
The old Hokage coughed loudly in order to get Naruto to quiet down and furrowed his brow at him for acting so ridiculous in front of over ten or so special clients. Iruka gestured for Naruto to tone it down a huge notch as he pointed in the direction of the clients just entering and received a bad first impression. Naruto looked behind him briefly to see several rich and dignified people look at him with confused expressions and half-raised eyebrows. Naruto apologized for his outburst and stood up straight.
Iruka said to him with reason, "Naruto. You can't just dive into danger just when you're starting out! I told you before; you're still a rookie genin! You start out with grunt work to build up experience!"
"But babysitting and picking up groceries for the elderly doesn't count as a mission!" the blonde child argued, "It's just a bunch of pointless chores-OWW!"
Kakashi had walked up to Naruto and bopped him on the head hard enough to get him to stop ranting before he even began. Naruto started rubbing his head lightly as Kakashi's bop to the head wasn't even close to the ones he got from Sakura. His bop didn't cause a swell mark to form, but that's not to say that it didn't hurt.
"That's enough, knuckle-head..."
Sarutobi sighed, "It seems that you still do not understand what the missions are all about, Naruto... Many different missions are given to us each day, ranging from babysitting to assassinations. We take those variously ranged missions and sort them into the four-five basic rank levels..."
The Sandaime Hokage went on about and explained to Naruto how all of these mission requests were sorted and that the assignments with higher difficulties were only given to those shinobi who were at a higher rank and had the necessary experience to fulfill those missions. He said that Naruto and the rest of his team were more properly suited for easier, simpler, in-village tasks such as D-Rank missions. Sarutobi told him that he would most likely not be given even a B-Rank assignment until he's had at least an eight-month to a year's worth of experience, much to Naruto's and Harry's chagrin.
Naruto argued a bit more calmly, "But I'm tired of always scraping from the bottom of the barrel! I'm not that same little troublemaking screw-up from the Academy! I'm a shinobi of this village now, and I think I should be given a mission to prove that point! Doing a bunch of D-Rank assignments doesn't show any change at..."
At hearing that statement, Sarutobi pondered while the other genin looked away in embarrassment. Kakashi kept rubbing the back of his head, expecting to hear a reprimand from the Hokage later. Iruka, at hearing Naruto wanting a mission to prove himself again, couldn't help but smile at his efforts and silently agree with him. Iruka himself was like that when he was his age and oddly enough, so was the Hokage. Sarutobi closed his eyes after careful contemplation and made the decision he felt for sure would be the right one. He would grant Naruto his wish and give him a more difficult mission, though he did not choose a mission that could threaten the lives of any of his youthful soldiers. He chose an easy assignment, but difficult enough to leave Naruto content.
"Very well... Since you are so determined, I am going to grant you a C-Rank mission that would normally be given to an experienced chunin. A simple escort that will require you to protect an important individual."
Sasuke looked up in amusement as Sakura looked up with unease, and Kakashi looked up in surprise and slight disappointment, as he wished for less strenuous assignments. Naruto raised his head to the Hokage and he beamed while he took in a breath of surprise and unbelievable excitement.
"Really? Oh my god! Thank you so much, Grandpa!" he said.
Sarutobi interjected, "Don't get too excited, Naruto-kun. It's not like you're transporting a pretty princess or a great lord. You will be transporting a man named Tazuna back to his home in the Land of Waves. He's a master bridge builder and requires a safe escort back to his home to complete his latest project. I hope you didn't expect too much from a simple C-Rank mission such as this..."
"Oh... Umm... Okay!" said Naruto, speculating on the assignment given to him before he threw aside his speculations and felt grateful just to be given this opportunity.
The Hokage then called to outside the room, "Please, send him in!"
Team 7 turned around as one when they heard footsteps coming from behind the sliding door. They all watched as the door slid open, revealing their expected client.
Tazuna was a grey-haired bespectacled old man with a mustache and subtle beard. He wore a sleeveless v-neck shirt with an obi, tan pants and a pair of sandals. He also carried a white towel around his neck and carried a pointed hat on his head that Harry found to be ridiculous and started giggling at it. He was seen drinking a large bottle of sake, holding it by the slender handle, which made him almost look as if he were a bum fresh off the street. If it weren't for his clean clothes and face, he would have been mistaken for a bum. He took another sip of sake, leaking droplets from the corners of his mouth, drinking his alcohol as if it were water. The old man took a huff of a breath as his cheeks blushed slightly from the alcohol when he looked over his chosen escorts.
"You're kidding me, right? These are the ninja that I'm going to be given? They're just a bunch of stupid, snot-nosed kids..." said the client.
Harry commented, 'What a charming entrance...'
"Their incompetent!" Tazuna criticized, "Just a bunch of snot-nosed cosplayers, especially the shorty in the middle, he's gotta be the size of a circus midget! Just look at him! He's a runt!"
Naruto giggled when he believed that Tazuna was referring to either Sasuke of Sakura, but then his teammates closed in on him and showed him by comparison who the short one of the group really was. Naruto looked side to side and noticed that Sakura was remarkably taller than he was by at least a few inches. Sasuke was taller than Sakura, prompting Naruto to become rigid with anger. He growled at Tazuna and jumped in to attack him but Kakashi caught him by the collar and lifted him off his feet by almost a full foot.
"YOU WANNA SAY THAT AGAIN? GET OVER HERE, YOU DRUNKARD BRIDGE-BUILDING MORON!"
At the back table, the old Hokage sighed at Naruto's child-like behavior in front of the other clients that had just started to come in and expect nothing short of the most respectable shinobi in the world. When they saw Naruto's attempts to harm his own client, their confidence in the village dropped several points, causing Sarutobi to grimace as much as when Konohamaru would normally barge in to embarrass him. Iruka, on the other hand, raised his hand up over his mouth as he tried to hide his silenced laughter. He just found Naruto's reaction to be incredibly funny.
Sarutobi told Kakashi from afar, "We'll have Tazuna-san waiting at the front gate while you and the rest of your genin students get ready for the mission. This trip will take at least a week to accomplish."
"Yes sir, understood," he said in a calm voice and then, "Naruto! Stop trying to maim the client!"
As Naruto returned home in a rush, Harry coaxed him not to run after the client Tazuna and demolish him for poking fun at his height deficiency several more times. The blonde child packed up most of his weapons and a week's worth of clothes. He walked up to his refrigerator and tucked several food rations into his beaded backpack, and several bottles filled with Wiggenweld potion. He walked back to his bedroom and took with him a small book he created that contained a miniature spell book and potion-making instructional booklet that he could study from if the mission dulled in the slightest, given their client. Naruto also grabbed his photo album with all the pictures of his life and mother just in case. Once he was finished with packing, he shut off all of the lights and locked all the doors before he stepped out to leave.
'Don't forget that some of your good clothes are still at Iruka's place. You should stop by there before you go, Little one.'
'Ooh! I forgot! Thanks!'
Naruto stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Toshi arguing over something with his wife. The boy slowly made his way down the hall and looked down the outside steps to see Toshi going on about something, shouting back to his woman, who must have been somewhere around their end of the building. Naruto knew better than to get involved with these entanglements, so he jumped on top of the railing and jumped across to the other building with some difficulty. He then narrowly avoided being spotted by his landlord again and jumped from rooftop to rooftop before jumping back down into the streets of the city to dash toward Iruka's house.
After navigating through multiple crowds and groups of people, he got there in about two and a half minutes. Naruto climbed the stairs and used a click of his fingers to magically open the door and walked inside. But when he stepped inside he gasped in surprise when he saw Iruka in the living room, cleaning up what was left of his lunch from his lunch break.
"Oh! Iruka-sensei..." he started.
Iruka smiled, "Hey! Weren't gonna leave without saying goodbye, were you?"
"Oh, of course not! I came by to pick up the last of the clothes I need, you never know if I'll need another set..."
The older chunin grabbed his emptied plate and walked toward the kitchen, "Say, was that door locked when you opened it? I could've sworn I double locked it when I came in here..."
Naruto's eyes widened slightly as he called himself an idiot in his head for just using magic like that. He then sighed when he knew now that he had to lie to Iruka again. It was a shame, when he thought he was finished with having to lie to him now that he lived with him from time to time. Harry sighed as well, but he was still not open with the idea of Naruto pouring out all of his secrets to Iruka just yet. So he would have to keep making up excuses whenever something strange or unusual happened around him. Naruto hated it, but he had to do it anyway.
"Nope!" he lied again, "The lock must be broken or something..."
Iruka watched as Naruto packed up all of his freshly cleaned clothes (that Iruka took the liberty of washing for him) and tried to suppress the urge to get him to change his mind about going out on a C-Rank mission so soon. This was one thing that Iruka feared ever since he took Naruto in; his little brother's life would be put in terrible danger. Body-guarding a civilian could mean a possibility of having to fight against a person or multiple people who wish to harm or even kill their client. Although this mission would seem like nothing as Team 7 was just going to escort a simple bridge builder back to his home, you can never predict what would've driven this man to resort to hiring escorts and protectors just to get back home.
He had to tell Naruto his concern, before it would be too late. The very least he could do, would be to at least warn or remind him of the danger that he could face. He walked up to adopted brother and then started.
"Listen, Naruto... whatever happens out there... just promise me that you won't go too far..."
The boy turned to him with attentive eyes, "Huh?"
"You know," the chunin coughed, "just be careful while you're out there... The world outside the village isn't a safe one..." he then placed his hands on Naruto's shoulders, "Promise me you'll take it easy and stay safe..."
Naruto smiled and nodded after a long pause, "I promise... But..."
He paused again and thought about what he read about the outside world in An Unbiased History of the Hidden Leaf Village and A Shinobi's Monologue. He was fully aware of the risk he and the other members of Team 7 were taking with this simple mission. If anything happened to him, if Naruto ever got hurt or never returned to the village for whatever reason, he would never be able to tell Iruka any of the things that he so desperately wanted to tell him. This man that cared for him unconditionally and took him in deserved to know the truth about him, what he had been doing for the past six years and what he was capable of doing.
The boy started slow as Iruka removed his hands from his shoulders, "Iruka-sensei… There's… There's something important I've been wanting to tell you…"
'Naruto, don't do it,' he stated strictly.
Harry had piggybacked on Naruto's thoughts and tried to stop him at once. He didn't trust Iruka and he had his reasons, seeing as he never had contact with the outside world apart from Naruto. He caught Iruka raising his eyebrow from the mindscape, which meant that his interest was captured. Harry spotted it and he tried to dissuade his little brother before it was too late.
Naruto tried his best not to succumb to Harry's orders, as he never actually disobeyed him before, "It's about something..."
'I said no, Naruto. Don't!'
The boy continued as he dropped his hands to his sides and curled his fingers, "I've never told any-"
Just then, Harry focused a great deal of magic through the mindscape and into Naruto's body. The boy failed to feel the sudden warmth in his right hand and the force of a Knockback Jinx escape from his fingertips and shoot out behind him to hit the clock on top of the mantle at the end of Iruka's living room. The clock fell down to the ground and almost broke and caused both Iruka and Naruto to jump with twin expressions of comical surprise on their faces. The clock, with Harry's magic influencing it, tolled loudly and Iruka walked over to inspect the destruction, leaving Naruto to stay where he stood and scowl at his invisible companion for his stunt.
"Oh, man. Mom's antique clock...!" the chunin despaired subtly.
Iruka took a look at the time and look alarmed by how much time had supposedly passed since Team 7 was given their assignment.
"Oh, crap! You're gonna be late!" he said.
Naruto snapped out of day-dreaming and looked at the time as well, "Oh, alright..."
"You're going to need this." said Iruka, who passed over Naruto's beaded bag.
The boy thanked Iruka and gave him a big hug before he turned to leave. He opened the door to the apartment but then he stopped. Naruto paused and spoke to Iruka in his uncommonly soft voice, "Say... About what I said earlier…" he then turned his head around toward Iruka with a warm smile on his face, inherited from his mother, "I'll tell you next time, okay?"
Iruka raised his brow before smiling himself and he nodded, "Right."
{{There Is A Plot/Dobby The House Elf by John Williams}}
Naruto soon reunited with his teammates and sensei at the gigantic front gates of the village. Naruto always noticed this gargantuan set of doors that he could see from his old apartment. The great set of doors that comprised the main gate were painted forest green to match the surrounding environment and had the kanji for "hermitage or retreat". The gates were always open during the day but it was required that the doors be shut and locked securely at night, to prevent any enemies from simply walking into the village without detection, or when the gates were unmanned.
The blonde boy looked over to either side of the gate and spotted two chunin sitting at a large security booth with screens on the walls that fed from cameras all around the gate. There were also guard dogs on patrol there to sniff out impostors if the enemy decided to assume the identity of someone from Konoha. Looking around and spotting all of the numerous security cameras and shinobi patrols guards the top of the stonewall border, Harry and Naruto both had to admit that the defensive strategy put in place to ensure Konoha's protection was very impressive. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the one from Hogwarts, but it came in close.
Looking ahead, Kakashi was signing some sort of form at the security booth and patted the head of one of the guard dogs playfully. It quickly became apparent that Kakashi had some sort of soft spot for animals such as dogs, or rather, particularly dogs. Naruto spotted Tazuna still sipping down his large class bottle of sake. Sakura and Sasuke were close by their client and seemed to be talking. But upon closer inspection, it was just Sakura who was doing the talking while Sasuke nodded his head just to let Sakura believe that he was actually listening to her. Sakura was too oblivious to notice Sasuke wasn't paying attention and just went on rambling about tween-related topics. Naruto sighed and hulled his beaded bag over his shoulders, ready to start off this first big mission.
From the other side of the entrance courtyard, Iruka and the Hokage stood and watched as they saw Kakashi and his students sign their names on the check-out sheet and start marching out of the village for the first time in any of their lives (minus Kakashi). Iruka couldn't help but watch fearfully as his little brother entered the dangerous world outside the walls of this relatively safe village, unable to shake off this feeling of unexplained dread. He could only hope that Kakashi kept him and the others safe as well. Iruka knew that it appeared as if he were being harsh on the blonde for worrying like this, but he only wanted him safe. For now, all he could do was wait and hope that Naruto would be able to return and get to tell him what it was that he was going on about earlier, perhaps over a nice bowl of ramen.
As he and the Hokage began to leave and get back to work at the Mission Assignment Desk, Iruka turned back as Naruto's orange and blue tracksuit disappeared from view and he said, already knowing that Naruto probably couldn't hear him anyway.
"Be safe... little brother..."
Naruto sneezed as the gates of Konoha now looked like a miniature model from the distance.
'Gesundheit! Perhaps someone is talking about you, Little one?'
'You actually believe in that myth? It's rubbish, I bet!'
'You never know... I bet its Sarutobi or maybe Iruka. I could definitely sense that Iruka didn't like the idea of you taking on an assignment like this so soon.'
'It doesn't matter. I promised that I would stay safe, and that's what I'm gonna do!'
The little blonde shinobi took careful steps along the large trail while he followed in his sensei's footsteps. But soon, he walked up ahead of the group by a few meters, Kakashi was about to tell Naruto to not run off ahead, because it would be dangerous, but then the child stopped before he could even say a word. Naruto took one extra step forward and then gasped before whooping in happiness. Tazuna and the other genin watched the blonde's unusual behavior before he explained through a sort of announcement.
"This is the farthest I've ever been away from home in my life! In fact, it's the first time I've ever set foot outside of the village!"
Sakura rolled her eyes as Tazuna pointed at Naruto, "Do you honestly expect me to be escorted back to my home by this runt? I should go back and request for a more competent ninja than this joke!"
"He's with me and I'm a jounin, so you don't need to worry!" Kakashi reassured their grumpy client, 'Kami... This geezer acts like a brat...'
Both Naruto and Harry scowled at their client as the boy kept walking forward. The first thing that popped into Naruto's head to do was to mouth off the old man but then he shook his head and decided to hang back and get close to Tazuna and give him a piece of his mind, hoping that all of that lousy alcohol wouldn't slur the message he was about to give him.
"You know, Tazuna-san. You should learn to give people, other than yourself, some normal respect... I may not look like it now, but one day I'm going to become the next Hokage!" he said.
But Tazuna scoffed at Naruto's fair warning, "The small always dream of things too big for them to handle! There's no way in hell you could be a Hokage, let alone a good ninja. You're too much of a pipsqueak."
"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A RUNT SO TINY THAT HE CAN ONLY BE SEEN WITH A MAGNIFYING GLASS? YOU JERK!"
(A/N: I love FMA!)
A few hours later, Kakashi led his team and their client deep into the woods that led to the east. The Land of Waves, which was a group of numerous different islands, was located a few miles off the east coast of the Land of Fire. The only problem that seemed to be in the way of this mission for Team 7 were the many miles they would have to tread just to get there. It would take them until nightfall just to get to the shore on foot. After all that walking, they would have to find a transport to cross the sea and reach the islands of the Land of Waves.
Naruto was very excited at hearing Kakashi inform them of this, despite how long it would take. He kept on asking him how they would cross the sea and started asking questions if he ever went to a beach before.
"Yes, Naruto, I have seen the ocean before." he answered kindly.
Naruto asked him, "What's it like? Being there on the beach? Is it nice?"
"You'll just have to find out for yourself, Naruto. It's going to be a long journey before we even get there."
Kakashi was patient with all of his smallest student's questions and answered them all without showing any signs of being annoyed. Naruto soon stopped questioning his sensei as he didn't wish to irritate him and he decided to keep a look out for danger.
Unbeknownst to the traveling group, two tall and suspicious figures watched them from the trees. They were both so silent and so swift in their movements that the steps they made, whether on the ground or in the trees, remained unheard from even the most audio-sensitive animal in the forest. Harry, back in the mindscape, kept a lookout as he too had read from the books Naruto read about the danger of the outside world. He couldn't shake off the feeling that they were being watched and kept his senses stretched out enough to pick up the faintest chakra signature.
About forty-five minutes into walking east, everyone started to get a little bit bored or in some cases scared.
"Say, Tazuna-san?" asked Sakura, as she started to become frightened of the forest already, "You come from the Land of Waves, right?"
The old man grunted, "Yeah, what about it?"
"Kakashi-sensei," she decided that she didn't want her answer from Tazuna and turned to her teacher, "are there any shinobi out there in Tazuna's country?"
Their teacher answered, "No, not in the Land of Waves. But in other countries there are villages like our own, each with their own customs and cultures where the shinobi thrive..."
Kakashi went on about how most of the countries of the world they lived in where a country that had a shinobi-populated village meant they had powerful military strength. He told them that the existence of powerful villages is what helped the villages protect themselves and kept the balance of power between the five main elemental countries and their respected hidden villages. Naruto already knew that the hidden villages were not under control by any government and that they were independent, though for some reason, Sakura had no knowledge of this.
"A small set of islands such as the Land of Waves doesn't need a hidden village, as it is already protected by the sea..."
'Should I bake a quiche while I wait for this snooze-fest to be done?'
Naruto tried his best not to laugh at Harry's joke out loud and just kept quiet while he listened to Kakashi explain what he already knew about the five main countries that had hidden villages. Harry just groaned and tried to pre-occupy himself with something else as Kakashi explained the major importance of the five Kage that ran each of the five hidden villages. Naruto forgot most of the names of the leaders but he did get down the names of Hokage, Kazekage, Mizukage, Raikage, and Tsuchikage from the villages of Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Kumo, and Iwa respectively. When Sakura came into full realization of the political and military power that the Kage held in their hands, she looked ecstatic.
"Really? Then Hokage-sama was be so amazing! Heehee!" she giggled, placing her hands together and blushing, as she would normally do for her precious Sasuke. But her Inner-Sakura said so otherwise, 'That lazy old man? A leader worthy of honor? YEAH RIGHT! I'm not buying it for one second! CHA!'
Naruto greatly respected his grandfather more for having raised him since he was a baby. But to be honest, he wasn't sure if he respected him as a warrior so much as he respected him as a member of his family. Naruto just couldn't see an old man as wise and loving as Hiruzen Sarutobi to be a ruthless leader of an entire military force of thousands upon thousands of shinobi and kunoichi.
'Grandpa being a warrior...? The only time I can recall him doing anything close to that would be when he vanished out of thin air and wore that old uniform.'
'You mean like that time on the night of the Uchiha Massacre?'
'Yeah, that time...'
Kakashi asked out loud, "You guys just doubted Hokage-sama, didn't you?"
Sakura and Naruto both froze up and shook their heads, insisting that their sensei was wrong about their true opinions of the Hokage. Although, Sakura did a very poor job with making it seem as if she truly respected their chief and lord. Harry had to admit that how Kakashi read them both like a book and caught them off guard like that made him laugh a little bit.
Team 7 traveled for over an hour towards the east. They slowly climbed down steep hills, crossed through dangerous terrain with jagged rocks and horned plants, but they made it out all right through every obstacle in their path. The group eventually walked across a very large wooden bridge over a deep river being fed by a beautiful, cascading waterfall. They soon entered into a new forest filled with strange trees that looked different than those found normally in Konoha. Naruto took in a deep breath as he walked and could tell now that they were very far away from the village as the air smelled significantly different. There was a sort of pine tree smell in the air that Naruto recognized and associated with the mindscape whenever he and Harry celebrated the winter holidays.
As they entered a clearing in the forest, Naruto looked down and spotted a fairly large puddle of water. He raised an eyebrow and looked up to search for any sign of recent storm clouds but found none. He smelled the air and couldn't pick up the same smell that came after a night of rainfall Naruto ever lived through. He stopped and examined the puddle from where he stood; his teammates ignored him as they caught up with him, except for Kakashi. Naruto saw the water ripple slightly even though nothing happened to cause it to happen. He noticed that the water didn't look all that right. The water was an unnatural color of blue, when it should have been clear. Harry analyzed the puddle and said to Naruto in a playful voice.
'Oh, what a wonderfully obvious puddle of water! Exactly how thick do these people think we are?'
'It hasn't rained in how long again...? This is obviously a genjutsu; a transformation that allows the user to blend in with water to be undetected by the enemy. It would be brilliant if they chose to use it after an actual rainy day!'
'Be careful. I sense there are two human souls that wish to kill you and the others, hiding just beneath the surface. I can feel their bloodlust from here.'
'What should I do? Do something about it or leave it to Kakashi-sensei?'
Harry smirked and joked, 'Why not try both?'
Naruto smiled back before he stretched his sore body from all that walking and then he jumped into the puddle. He jumped up and down on the water and splashed in the puddle over and over again and laughed like he was six. He splashed around for a bit longer before he went back to walking and caught up with his teammates. He quickly jumped up ahead of the group and ignored Harry's howling laughter at pointing out the obvious use of genjutsu. Sakura scold Naruto for almost splashing some water on her dress, but just like Harry's laughter, he channeled it out.
As they continued to walk down the road, the puddle reformed itself and out from that puddle silently sprouted two human heads with long brown hair and terrible sharp eyes. Two human figures soundlessly emerged from the puddle as the water beneath their feet formed into their flesh and clothes. They were two young adults, possibly in their mid-twenties, that looked almost perfectly identical. They both wore dark, tattered robes that were stained with blood and smelled so foul that they could make one's nose crinkle at how much it stung to smell them. Underneath their hideous cloaks and disgustingly greasy and poorly-kept hair, they wore identical air masks that allowed them to breath in harsh environments, a large clawed gauntlet (one wearing one of the left arm, the other on the right), camouflage pants with different shades of brown and grey, and a headband with the symbol of Kirigakure no Sato engraved on slightly rusted metal plates.
Once they had emerged completely, letting a small trail of mist encircle them, they attacked. One of the twins jumped off of the other, lunging over Kakashi, their first target. With a surge of chakra sent into their feet and legs, the two ninja encircled Kakashi several times in the space of one second, revealing an unnaturally long shuriken chain that was attached under the claw of each twin's gauntlets. The sharp weaponry wrapped around Kakashi, instantly digging deep into the flesh of his arms, neck, chest, and legs. Once their chain was all used up and no more could possibly wrap around Team 7's leader, the twins gave a great and mighty tug of their chain as Team 7 and Tazuna watched Kakashi be turned into shredded hamburger meat.
Sakura screamed at the top of her lungs, Sasuke gasped in surprise, as Tazuna let out a great yell of horror.
Naruto yelled, "SENSEI!"
Just then, the two enemy ninja used that same surge of chakra focused into their feet and both appeared right behind Naruto. He could sense them at once, so well that he could already read their faces, despite not having caught sight of them in the second it took to destroy their sensei. Sakura gasped when they appeared behind her teammate but was too frightened to yell for him to look out. Naruto froze, the fear of death keeping him in place for a second or two. But then he remembered facing situations and dangers that were just as bad as this moment and had come out just fine. He soon puckered up the courage adopted from his schoolhouse of Gryffindor and got ready to fight as the shinobi he was now ready to become.
To Be Continued...
Alright! Chapter two is at last finished!
AZ44: I must say, this was well done, but did you really have to use two FMA-like quotes in this chapter?
Kvsyaoran: I know, but I just love Edward Elric so much that I love to put in some of his famous lines. Particularly the ones that he yells when his height is pointed out. He and Naruto seem to have that temper problem when it comes to insulting their height. But I don't think I'm going to do anymore, it's funny but not all that original.
AZ44: That's probably for the best, considering I hate Fullmetal Alchemist.
Kvsyaoran: What?
AZ44: I just don't like Fullmetal Alchemist. The 2003 version or Brotherhood. I think it's stupid.
Kvsyaoran: You are dead to me.
AZ44: What? Just because I don't like one of the anime that you like?
Naruto: It's more than just one!
AZ44: Okay. I don't like a few of the shows that you enjoy watching.
Kvsyaoran: It's more than a few! You told me "Baccano!" was too confusing to follow and you said you wished it ended after the first five or less episodes.
AZ44: In my defense-
Naruto: You said that One Piece looked like it was drawn out by a four year old!
AZ44: But I-
Kvsyaoran: You said that xxxHolic was too weird and obscure for anyone to like!
AZ44: Well-
Kvsyaoran: You spat at the television screen when Neon Genesis Evangelion started playing! HOW DARE YOU!
AZ44: Okay, could we just get to the omake already?
Oh yeah! I'll rant on you another time, here's an omake that I wrote while I was at the beach and thought it would be funny! Feel free to laugh if you thinks it's funny! If not, I don't care I was bored.
As Team 7 walked down the dirt road path out of he village and turned to the east, Naruto raised his arms above his head and cheered, "Road trip! Yay~!"
Sakura growled at Naruto as she always did, "Naruto! Will you keep it down, you baka! There could be enemy ninja stalking us!"
"Aww, c'mon Sakura-chan!" Naruto reasoned, "This is the first time any of us have ever been on the road together! We should have some fun while we're here, right?"
Kakashi stepped in front of Sakura, keeping his hands in his pockets and staying laid back, "I don't see why not... Even though I've been outside of town loads of times, I never really had any fun with it."
"There's always a first time for everything!" Naruto smiled at his teacher, "I can't remember being this excited since I went to that Enya concert!"
Sasuke snorted and laughed at Naruto as he pointed at him mockingly and Sakura joined him in laughing, "You went to an Enya concert? You really are the biggest loser on the face of the earth, dobe."
"Wait a minute!" Kakashi froze and looked at Naruto in surprise, "You listen to Enya, Naruto?"
Naruto crossed his arms and said, expecting Kakashi to respond negatively like Sasuke, "Ever since I was six!"
"Me too! I love Enya!" Kakashi confessed happily, "I once got her to autograph my black t-shirt! I'm wearing it right now!"
Sakura looked as if her face went flat and dull as Kakashi lifted his flak jacket to show Naruto his autographed black t-shirt written in silver marker ink. Sasuke shared a similar expression and declared that Naruto was now the second biggest loser on the face of the earth. Tazuna looked over his hired help and tried to deny what he was seeing as Naruto and Kakashi started going on about how much they loved Enya music. It didn't take them that long before they started marching down the road and singing on of her songs as if they had consumed a large amount of alcohol to get started.
Naruto: I walk the maze of moments!
Kakashi: But everywhere I turn to!
Naruto: Begins a new beginning!
Kakashi: But never finds a finish!
Naruto: I walk to the horizon!
Kakashi: And there I find another!
Naruto: It all seems so surprising!
Kakashi: And then I find that I know~!
Tazuna tried again and again to deny what he was seeing as Sasuke and Sakura stuck close by each other, fearing that Kakashi and Naruto as if they were both demonic spirits sent from another world. Tazuna looked at his bottle of sake and tried to check if these ninja had slipped it out of his hands and drank some of it, hoping that it would explain their bizarre behavior.
He eventually said to himself, "These... are my escorts?"
Anywhere Is Lyrics by Enya
New chapters coming in soon, remember to leave behind a review to help inspire me! :)