Naruto: My Way
The Red Hurricane Of Konoha
By Sweet Heavens
Chapter 2: Path Of A Shinobi
Disclaimer: In tribute to the mighty Uchiha clan I am issuing a new disclaimer which is this. If I owned Naruto I would have made it so Madara didn't take the piss with the super powers. Hey I'm bored I know I'll give myself the rinnegan!-Point taken no?
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The moon was overflowing with light framing the gentle velvety darkness lit up by the pinpricks of light that were the faraway stars. Astronomers claimed these may have worlds like ours, lands with different customs, language and tradition. Perhaps somewhere among those endless beads of light there was another world, another band of ninjas living out their lives with the aid of chakra.
Naruto was just interested in the continued safety of his village and tonight instead of parting at the Garden on his friends last night of freedom the red hurricane of the leaf village was on the hunt for a traitor.
His name was Toji Mizuki, a chuunin ranked shinobi of the academy once suspected of betraying an ally by killing him during a mission and subsequently banned from anymore sensitive assignments. He had been abandoned by the system and made a teacher by orders of the Hokage. The ninja moderately gifted but his personality profile matched one who would one day betray Konoha if his leash was loosened. The village had plenty of souls like that especially the leftovers of the last shinobi war that were kept loyal by the idea that they were being watched.
Usually it didn't warrant a jounin, especially not one with sensor skills like him to track a measly chuunin. But it was the crime the rogue shinobi had pulled off that made him a hot target worthy of every village bound ANBU and every available chuunin and jounin that could move swiftly into action.
He had stolen the forbidden scroll of seals. It contained the jutsu catalogue that every Hokage had added to over the decades from the Shodaime and his brother the Nidaime Hokage. It included contributions from the dearly departed Sandaime Hokage to Minato and his powerful list of techniques.…
That alone had motivated the powerful shinobi. Naruto's anger was off the charts hidden behind a chilly exterior that hadn't even managed to get home to change for the festivities before the ANBU captain Uzuki Yuugao had informed him of the situation. It had taken barely half an hour for his informants stationed practically everywhere within a ten mile radius to scour the entire village and find a lead with their delicate noses.
This information network had led Naruto to the Shodaime Hokage memorial forest just behind the school. It was dense, dark and close to the school grounds making it perfect in theory to hide in since only slivers of moonlight could get in. Not so far away was the automated sealed defence line meant to keep out people trying to blindside the village from a delicate aperture. He was following the word of an ally to hook up with another comrade and had already sent it back to inform his Kage of the situation.
"You're here nyan!" a small being with a tail said from beside him. Naruto stopped mid jump, back flipping to kill his inertia so to land sideways on a trunk.
"Report Kuroneko," Naruto demanded.
The cat slipped into the moonlight illuminating its perfect green eyes, luscious raven coat and a long slender tail with a metal dagger clipped to the tip. It was wearing metal claws on its paws and a forehead protector of Konoha around its stomach.
"The traitor just went past me and he wasn't alone. A woman was with him. She smelt like him too."
Naruto remembered the file had notes on her and like any patriot who memorised the people on watch list had took the time to examine the photo and basic summary. A woman named Tsubaki was a known associate of his and another chuunin on the watch list because of her association with that man. She was plain looking from her case photo and only promoted on the battlefield during the last war.
"Guide me and inform our friends to alert the ANBU to move on our position please."
"Okay Oyabun!" the cat chirped, taking a delicate sniff. "Been seeing Hana-chan lately?" Naruto rolled his eyes as the cat looked like it was yawning when in fact it was releasing a powerful high pitched sound only their clan was trained to hear. He waited ears pricked until they twitched and its eyes turned into those of a hunter. "Teams Alpha through Delta has been informed. The hunter cats are already stalking the targets so they don't get away and are awaiting your orders."
"Attack them. I have orders that the scroll be taken into custody as soon as possible. I'm moving in. Jump on my back," Naruto ordered, receiving a salute in return before the cat landed and curled around his neck like a scarf. "Lead the way."
Naruto expanded his chakra senses to their maximum range and found nothing ahead where he was supposed to run to. The blue eyed jounin suspected he was just a bit out of range.
The shinobi took the louder and easier way through the tops of the trees with the cat issuing instructions. He did large cat like jumps showing grace from years of watching the cat clan go about their business. He landed always on his feet, using the tops of springy trees to propel him like a slingshot when needed. The noise of the travel was hardly stealthy but he was in friendly lands stalking an enemy prey trying to flee.
The simple geography of the trees made it an easy task to get the traitor. The pair of them was already dead as doornails on the ground riddled with small cat sized shuriken and one fuuma shuriken had cleanly stabbed through the snowy haired Mizuki's chuunin vest pinning him to the ground. His partner Tsubaki, the poor deluded bitch was moaning while crawling on the earth floor like the worm she was. She weakly tried to rouse the chuunin cradling the forbidden scroll and all she would see in the darkness were thousands of yellow glowing eyes all peering with evil intent towards her. She was shivering; a layer of chakra denoting their neko ninpo techniques included their own brand of genjutsu inducing fear in the battered soul.
Naruto landed in the clearing quietly right in the centre of the star crossed lovers and buried his heel in the woman's skull with a harsh crack. She coughed for a moment then died mere moments later from blunt force trauma. He snapped their dog tags off their necks, checking them to confirm their identities as protocol demanded before dismissing the bodies as if they were trash. The ninja in disgust kicked the body of Mizuki enough like one would scrape dog shit from their shoes and retrieved the scroll.
His finger produced blue chakra and traced it over the paper. The large scroll plain as white rice started to shimmer as the security seals, blood, chakra and fingerprint were examined. To his relief no secret of his home was revealed to these unworthy bastards. He secured it to his back, whistling to issue the order for all the cats par the neko that had just ran onto the top of his head could leave. They all left leaving a blinding cloud of smoke.
"Inform the ANBU to meet me at the tower," Naruto declared, cracking his back, "Tell them the mission is complete and to get a cleanup crew to these coordinates. I want to get this done sometime tonight."
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The horrible buzz of the alarm was not a welcome sound. The man left it hanging for what seemed like eons until his tired frustration grabbed it off its pedestal and was thrown into the nearest wall that just so happened to be his bathroom mirror.
"I fucking don't know my own strength sometimes," Naruto groaned opening his eyes. It was black in this room. Someone had turned off his lights and wrapped him in his sheets since he had hit the hay as soon as he had gotten in from the incident the previous night. Hell they had even undressed him as Naruto had been too tired chasing that traitor. He made to get up but his arm was pinned by a warm body lying next to him. It made a feminine groan and bunched up the sheet he was trapped in.
"I just got in from a long shift and couldn't," the woman yawned, stretching a little under her protective sheet. "Be bothered walking home so please let me just sleep. I left a uniform here for me to change into."
"I put it in your space in the closet," Naruto informed her. "Now can you let me go? I have to go report to Tsunade-sama in under an hour and I don't need to leap from the window and get reprimanded again for a surprise visit from Tsume again so I need to shower."
The woman complained in inaudible sounds but relinquished her hold over the bed sheet. The red head climbed out of his double bed and turned on the light smiling at the cute way Rin huffed like pulling the sheet back over was hard work and trying to hide her face by burying her face into the mattress.
"Turn it off!" she complained. "It's my day off and I want to sleep off my triple shift in your comfy bed with no bloody beanbag and no dogs barking."
"Inuzuka Rin I would think you might be speaking blasphemy against canines," Naruto joked, yawning loudly. His eyes were still blurry and his knuckles were wiping sleep from them. "I am tired too."
"I did the autopsy," the woman known as Rin stated flatly, still grumpy from being awoken, "Your fur balls made short work of them. Tsubaki died from the head wound you administered but she was already dying a painful slow death beforehand. Mizuki was killed by his own weapon. They don't mess around for a clan of spies."
Naruto didn't even try to disguise his feelings towards those traitors or his pride that his summoning contract had more bite than people expected. "They don't compete with ninken in the tracking business but in numbers and teamwork they are better at gathering information," Naruto said, knowing his window sentry cats could hear the compliment thrown at them. They were like a crowd of old gossips and soon everyone would hear of their summoner praising their hard work. "They save me a lot of recon work and unlike those ninken they can actually fight pretty damn well."
Naruto stumbled on memory through the small bedroom plainly furnished with a walk in closed walk in closet, the double bed and a window covered by a blind. Naruto could see the portrait of his mentor Minato, his aunt Kushina and him as a kid sitting in the Hokage's office that Tsunade sat in now with Minato sitting behind the infamous desk during his brief reign. Kushina was leaning on one edge while Naruto was lying down on top of the paperwork with thumbs up and a gigantic grin. He had been so young then, so filled with hope and talent flowed in his veins aged eleven and a new genin.
"Does Ai-chan know you are here?" Naruto asked, echoing as he turned on the bathroom light and grimacing at the sorry state of the mirror with the remnants of the alarm clock in the sink. He plunged it out of the shallow pool of water Rin had forgotten to pull the plug out of earlier and threw it in the bathroom bin knowing Rin would clean it up when she was more awake.
"I had her make the excuse yeah," Rin grumbled mutinously, wrapping the sheet around her so she lied on her back with her legs up in the air before loudly bouncing them off the mattress to make her point.
Inuzuka Rin and Uzumaki Naruto had the oddest relationship on kami's green earth. They had drifted for nearly ten years on and off in this relationship that reminded him of the tide with both of them just coming and going never changing. She was a failed Inuzuka who couldn't bond with their canine allies and lacked their beastly attributes. She took their mark just before she was banished for several years until Tsume; her elder sister took command of the clan and brought her back into the fold. She was an extremely skilled healer, genjutsu user and had studied under the Yondaime. It was sad to admit that Naruto had been second choice after Kakashi rejected her advances and later on started dating Mitarashi Anko when the girl was barely fifteen. The stabilising influence the snake mistress gave the second coming of the white fang had turned Kakashi into a truly wonderful ninja who could let the ghost of his father be put to rest.
It had dragged on since then. In secret the duo practically lived together and had compensated off the other. This was why most people thought the red hurricane was a bachelor and Rin hadn't the Inuzuka mating drive. It worked for both of them and nothing was said about making it official. It was Rin who suggested taking on shy Hana's genin squad so she had a responsible teacher who would take her seriously. Naruto could only wonder what would happen when it all came out. It was shocking the pair hadn't been found out by now but Rin was a healer, meticulous in how to scrub down with scent remover.
Naruto turned on the small walk in shower and turned the water on. The cold water made his teeth chatter until the dodgy plumbing piped in the warm water. He washed his hair that took a long time, cleaned up his body and rubbed hard an entire bottle of scent remover from a shelf that had cases of the stuff into his skin hard.
It was something all jounin were issued as standard kit these days. If it helped throw off Inuzuka trained hunter nins then it was good stuff in their eyes. The research and development department called it their biggest discovery in the last thirty years. Naruto just used it to stop Inuzuka knowing his friend was really a bed mate/cohabiting couple… It was hard to define so after some whimsical thinking he went in the end with long term partner.
Once his skin was rawer than the colour of his hair he stepped out of the shower naked unabashed on the search for a towel. Somebody had taken the last one.
"Rin!" Naruto shouted, knowing the fuin painted on the walls muffled any sound made in this apartment. "Where are the towels?"
"I put them in the laundrette for you," Rin replied sleepily. Just use that fancy wind jutsu of yours or something. Just mind your mess. I just cleaned up in there."
"Sometimes I wonder if I should just call you my wife and say we did the mating rites," Naruto muttered. His hand formed a ram seal and a blast of wind blew around the entire circumference of his body drying him instantly. Personally the red haired ninja thought it was a waste of chakra but Rin had been in charge of the laundry duty this week or rather dumping it in the laundrette as neither of their homes had a washing machine.
"I will have it here for you when you get back today or if you are on a mission when you are home Naruto," Rin said, showing off her one skill picked up from the Inuzuka. Some damn good ears.
"Thanks babe," Naruto replied, stepping into the closet still yawning despite being refreshed by the shower and his long hair dry and more frazzled like an electrocuted cat. He opened up the closet, stepped in and came out in the same outfit as he always wore with his hair tamed somewhat with a naked Rin drabbed in the pearl coloured sheets with his forehead protector around her wrist.
Rin was a beautiful brunette woman with two perfectly rectangular purple streaks down each cheek. She had nothing that identified her as an Inuzuka otherwise but her big brown eyes reminded him sometimes of a puppy. She was making an effort to send him off in case he was sent on a mission and kissed him softly. Naruto returned the gesture and allowed her to tie his forehead protector around his neck. She had left a little scent but that was common about anyone touching a person and they were friends going back many years.
"Bye Naruto," Rin crooned, kissing him again. "Call me after seven all this week. I am working the day shift. We can have dinner tonight but I expect the Hokage will have you working a mission."
"I think she will too," Naruto said, kissing her cheek and heading for the front hall while pulling up his facemask, "I owe her for letting me have yesterday off to watch the graduation ceremony. See you and have a nice sleep for once you workaholic," Naruto waved his goodbye as he slipped into his shoes and walked out the door. He searched from side to side in his civilian mainly occupied block of flats to make sure nobody saw what was hidden inside his rooms. It was why he kept them. No shinobi to see his business, secluded and it was really cheap. He never understood why people preferred shinobi only places.
Naruto jumped on the railing separating the floor from the three stories below buzzing with children going to civilian trade schools or late for the academy and adults going about their business. He breathed in a gulp of fresh air and admired the view. Konoha was blossoming for another great day. The sky was nice and blue. The sun burned just hot enough for everyone to bask but not melt in the dense heat of the fire country.
Everything felt perfect. Now to make it that way and for that to succeed the ninja required sustenance. A gymnastic flip using his hands on the railing into a vertical summersault three more stories that with some redistribution of weight had him landing on the flat topped roof. He formed a half seal lazily and vanished in a flash of light scattering the braver pigeons that were used to the chakra wielding soldiers of Konoha's antics.
Naruto reappeared on a rooftop overlooking a market square. The rich scent of coffee filled his nostrils from below and grinning at his anticipated breakfast eagerly leapt from the roof at high speed, landing on one knee in front of the ninja catering coffee shop. The place was small but comfortable. It had busy staff working their asses off to get the orders made swiftly so their customers could get back to work swiftly and efficiently. It was just how the red head legend liked it.
"About time you showed up," Shizune scolded playfully, in one of the outside tables and was dressed in her usual comfy clothes. It was a quaint place with a large garden with tables for enjoying the day. They were all filled with shinobi even the cramped interior was packed with people. She was munching on something light, a traditional breakfast with a very non traditional bucket sized cup of coffee. The woman ran on the stuff. "I ordered for you," she stated with a wink. "Even though you missed sending off poor scared Genma. His little kunoichi is crushing on him. Inoichi passed by to warn him before he started teaching. Have you any tips?"
Naruto walked over and sat down. "Yeah avoid death defying situations and his natural charm will fade unless the Yamanaka girl has a terminal case of stupid," Naruto advised. He laughed and sat down where she uncovered a simple miso soup and fish breakfast. The ninja pulled down his mask and snapped the stuck together chop sticks together. "Thank you for the food." He began to eat silently with Shizune watching on. She sipped her coffee and read another one of those brain melting reports on something to do with administration. It was no wonder Naruto pitied her for being a "minion" of the Hokage. He would have handed in his resignation and had his chakra sealed before that fate was given to him. "Damn that was exactly what I needed Shizune-chan." He slapped the chopsticks down with a contented smile.
"I know you better than you know yourself," the woman said friendly. There was no spark between them. They were like brother and sister. Two peas in a pod well three if you threw in Genma as the little brother you tried to ditch when they got bratty on you. "And you barely function without a good breakfast. I am heading your way too so we can go together to see what Hokage-sama wants you to do."
"Going to finish your hundredth cup of coffee this morning before we head?" Naruto joked. "But seriously what job has she got for me?"
"It is A ranked so better keep it quiet," Shizune whispered with a wink. The red head nodded in concurrence.
On the scale of missions you could talk about all the horrific chores they tried to pass off as D ranked missions all you like. It was the same with C ranks unless you were handling information or escorting some rich people but anything above that from B to S rank missions could get you anything from ten years to beheading if you were caught talking about it and an enemy heard you.
Naruto ordered a coffee from the pretty waitress and made Shizune flush with double entendres. Shizune shot back by questioning his sexual orientation even if the woman was a hypocrite. Naruto retaliated with questions about her closeness to the Hokage and soon by the time Naruto finished his cup it was bordering ten am.
"We better head," Naruto said, pointing to the clock in the centre of the square.
"Can I have the cheque please?" Shizune called out. The staff, a small man with a balding head dashed forward and handed her the receipt. It was her turn to pay. Well it was Genma actually but the man had to attend to his new genin. The red head was expecting a plea for help by the end of the week.
"I got this one," Naruto decided, giving the man his money plus a tip. "I think since he isn't here I don't think you have to pay for once," Naruto declared. Shizune had banished any thought of his life to the side as she always did unknowingly. All his little problems would've swallowed him whole if she hadn't been there to talk to him about it. The wisdom she carried in her young mind had guided him past the death of the Yondaime aged thirteen. For twelve years she had taken the burden of his conscious willingly and his aunt had taken her fair brunt too…
He was surprised Namikaze Kushina didn't hate her nephew. It was his combined genius with the Kiiroi Senko as a newly dubbed teen that created the Shiki fuin. His aunt Kushina was truly a survivor and someone to be looked up to and respected.
"I should be worried then," Shizune said gratefully, "My teammate finally figured out I am a woman now."
Naruto groaned. That old chestnut had been brought up again. When their team had been formed shy little Shizune had not attended the academy and instead taught by Tsunade-sama directly. She showed up for graduation and the red head mistakenly with her baggy clothes and short hair cut thought she was an effeminate boy much like a lot of branch member Hyuuga boys were. It took until Taira-sensei who didn't ask for names just a display between new teammates had Naruto tackling her to the ground and was slapped for groping her breasts by accident to find out his assumption was incorrect.
"I am a gentleman and I always pay for good company," Naruto said, bowing to the blushing woman. She was that easy to fluster that the raven haired woman shouldn't ever try to tease anything. "Now shall we go my lady?"
Shizune formed the seal for shunshin and vanished in a whirl of leaves. Naruto waved to the shinobi and kunoichi and those in the know including the staff shielded their eyes as he performed his light shunshin in honour of Namikaze Minato.
Naruto and Shizune landed on the roof of a building opposite the Hokage tower and jumped down together. The red head had to jump from the wall to avoid landing on a distracted genin's head and the girl in question screamed and leapt at a wall head on. Naruto caught her by the arm before she sustained a concussion and sheepishly grinned at her in apology. The young blue haired girl blushed and giggled then took off at top speed reddening deeper by the second.
"You have a new fan girl then?" Shizune said laughing with one hand over her mouth.
"Why does this feel like you plan these things to happen to me Shizune-chan?" Naruto accused good-naturedly.
"You just have that much bad luck Naruto," she chided, slapping his shoulder, "Now we better not keep Hokage-sama waiting."
"She likes me so I'm not worried about being a few minutes late Shizune-chan."
"I'll tell her you said that Naruto," she japed back, stepping inside the building. Naruto saluted the two guards on duty, a pair of dying inside chuunin who half heartedly waved back. It was a short journey past reception and Haruno Sasaki handing them badges again. The badges were special, marked with reverse summoned seals that meant they never got lost or left the building so nobody had to return them to her personally. His oba-san had not enough to do it seemed.
They made short work of the stairs in silence, passing a chuunin team about to go on mission until the receptionist waved them in with no challenge.
"It is about time you got here Naruto," Tsunade declared. The poor woman had a pile of paperwork bigger than he was on her desk and already seemed drained and happy for an excuse to keep away from it. She was standing with an old drunk with a joined grey beard and moustache and spiky grey hair. He was short and the old man was built like someone who did a very physical job. His sloppy manner of dress, a simple grey sleeveless shirt and pants didn't help Naruto's opinion of the gentleman. "This is Tazuna from Nami no Kuni. You are to escort him and his supplies to build a bridge."
"Of course Hokage-sama I live to obey your commands." Naruto said. This was an A ranked mission? Shizune had taken her place at her master's right hand side and was examining the mission request ignoring his attempts to seek a silent explanation.
"Hey," the old drunk said guzzling a gourd of sake.
"Good morning honoured client," the hurricane recited standing stiff. Tsunade found his acting awfully amusing and so did his old teammate but it made the spectacled bridge builder look impressed. He would be willing to talk to someone who looked professional.
"This is an A ranked assignment for there is a bit of a gangster problem at present thanks to a man named Gato from Gato shipping."
"Gato shipping is the biggest exporter of luxury goods in the eastern elemental nations. He sells everything from food to expensive furniture. He even designed, built and sold the Kiri navy those new troop carriers that allowed them to invade Umi no Kuni a few years ago right?" Naruto was spot on with his data. He prided himself on it. Few could match it.
Unofficially Naruto recalled how the man was a suspect in over a hundred contract killings, prostitution, slave rings and drug manufacturing and distribution. It was only through money and the right contacts in the fire lord's court that he wasn't being some disgruntled horny man's bitch in maximum security and the fact nobody could get anything on the man. Any ninjas that searched before had never returned. Naruto would love to get something on him.
Tsunade was nodding her head showing how impressed she was with his intelligence of world events and avoiding saying anything particularly sensitive.
"Well we have reason to believe according to Tazuna that he has managed to obtain a stranglehold over the country by buying up legitimately their harbours you will be heading to with your partner for this assignment. He is running a little late. I had him collect his pack for this mission. You will escort the man and his goods to where his bridge is being constructed. You will then protect those people as it is being built."
"I have heard the mission parameters and they are understood ma'am!" Naruto saluted with a sly grin. Tsunade maintained her composure and so did Shizune since she was not the butt of the joke.
"Okay then Tazuna he and his partner will meet you at the North gate in twenty minutes and I pray this is worth me waiving your fee for this assignment. The village needs your ports open so we can swiftly offer you assistance when required."
"I am not lying and thanks for sorting it out for us. You won't regret coming to our aid. I have the ear of our daimyo and I will make him lower the taxation rate for goods exported to our country."
"That better not be an empty promise," Tsunade warned with a stern look that had the red nosed drunk startled but as soon as it was there it was replaced with a polite smile. "Thank you for coming to us about this."
The man toddled out of the room and the sound suppression seal was activated blocking all the sound from the room. The windows seemed to flicker as sunlight caught the incorporeal field of energy creating false images for any sniper and all the sound of any listening device that passed the barrier would come off as static.
"What are my other parameters Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked. "I know you wouldn't assign just me and this partner if it was just bandits or rogue samurai backing his corner."
"Officially Nami no Kuni is on the undesirable list among its surrounding nations. Rumours about the treatment of these villagers have reached our ears already and so have Kiri and Mizu no Kuni who happened to be once one of their biggest trading partners."
"It would make sense if they assigned at least a couple of shinobi to scout the area like we are."
"Exactly so I want someone who can swiftly scout and gather information that is you to find out all the weak spots in Gato's operation and then your partner will eliminate them all. I want Gato dead without anyone knowing Konohagakure was involved. Set up the Kiri nins to take the fall if you can so the focus is thrown off us. I do not want the daimyo to find out about this until we have collaborating proof which will mean I want you to kidnap his executive officer and if only you engage and any eliminate the rogue shinobi under his control."
"I understand." Naruto was getting a beauty of a mission. It was one that really worked with his contacts in mind. "Will I be required to kill any of them?"
"You leave Gato to your partner and the rest can be yours. This mission obviously has the time limit of how long it takes for him to finish the mission with Tazuna. If you have to you have permission to sabotage it if you need to extend it."
Naruto proudly said his thanks and the door's seal released. The door opened and in stepped his assassin that would be working with him.
Gekko Hayate was a competent enough Tokubetsu jounin with a horrific cough to the public. He earned his rank by unusually mastering the sword and the famous Mikadzuki no Mai. He had enormous chakra reserves a requirement of needing to master the infamous shadow clone technique that even Naruto struggled to learn due to the tremendous chakra demands. He was neatly dressed in his Konoha standard uniform and black bandana covering up but a few loose clumps of dirty brown hair. The infamous katana, something that was not standard equipment was proudly on his back ready for use. Naruto was almost fooled by his sickly ninja act. The whole look at me but dismiss me as a threat. He knew for a fact Hayate was deliberately inducing those coughs with drugs since he was a child much like his father who never failed to kill his target and get away without leaving a trace.
This man was the invisible man of the hidden leaf it's clean up guy and damn was he good at it. According to rumours among the ANBU he was friendly with this unassuming silent killer had over fifty high profile targets to his name including no less than the Kaminari no Kuni daimyo's youngest granddaughter, an act that was revenge for the attempt to kidnap the Hyuuga clan heiress some years previously. The old man had gone into seclusion and failed to name their heir negating any threat of war while they fought it out for who would succeed the old fogey pulling their powerful shinobi village into the conflict to restore order. In the chaos the Sandaime Raikage was assassinated and the new muscle head was put in charge.
"I am ready for my mission Hokage-sama." Hayate said coughing on cue. Naruto saw the gloved hand had a sealing array releasing an odourless and colourless gas into his face to lengthen his cough. "I will go and report to the gate as commanded. It will be nice to be working with you again Naruto."
"Let us hope it goes as smoothly as it did the last time."
All they had done was a smash and grab through the border of Kuma no Kuni, kidnapped an old man wanted for extorting a casino in Tanzaku who found it cheaper to have the man killed and have Konoha cover up all the evidence of their wrongdoing.
"It is all to protect the will of fire Naruto." Hayate said like a true patriot. "Goodbye Hokage-sama." The man vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Is that all Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked.
"It is that time of year Naruto so can we borrow Tora again this year? The genin teams haven't figured out they are chasing one of your summons."
"No problem Hokage-sama," Naruto insisted. He bit his thumb to gather the blood, formed the hand seals and slammed them into the ground with the necessary chakra requirements for the summoning jutsu.
A small fluffy brown feline with a red ribbon around its right ear appeared disgruntled. Tora, his codename was their spy in the daimyo's court. He was all prim and properly brushed like a show pet and was very disgruntled. But he was always that way. Being the pet of the infamous Madam Shijimi, the daimyo's wife he had to take extra lessons in how to avoid being crushed to death.
"Thank god is it the time of year already?" the cat complained. It stretched cracking probably every bone in its tiny body. "Hello Hokage-sama, oyabun."
"It is indeed the time of year again," Naruto affirmed, "We just need you to avoid possibly just ten teams this time. They haven't done their final genin exams yet."
"Its cool boss I just enjoy the time I get outside and away from the she hulk," the cat said, waving its paw dismissively at her. "I can spend some nights with the missus and the kittens too as well. I hate my job."
Naruto rolled his eyes. The cat had a nagging wife and a pack of delinquent kittens. What reason else did he not ask to be reassigned directly?
"I can ask the boss to have you reassigned. You are due to "die" anyway soon from old age."
"No," the cat retracted quickly, "I mean I will make do with what I have. I am the best spy you have after all."
"Well then obey the Hokage as you would me as usual."
"Have fun," Tsunade simply stated as she had done the other million times the cat was called into duty to help teach teamwork to the new genin. The cat saluted and vanished in a puff of smoke ready to start his job the next day. "I will pay you your usual C rank pay for the loss of your summon during this period."
The cat compound, a large well defended village on a guarded island had every cat summon in the entire world inside it. Their numbers were massive and he wasn't going to miss one but money was money. He just hoped the Hokage never figured that out.
"I will learn to survive as always," Naruto shrugged, "He already gets me an extra bit to my paycheque passing on information to the Intelligence department anyway."
"You are dismissed," Tsunade said, shooing him away, "I have paperwork for Shizune I mean for me to do."
"You have a good time with that Shizune-chan!" Naruto said merrily and entered the shunshin with a blast of light.
Twenty minutes later after a nice walk to see if any of the new genin teams had finished and had some ramen for lunch (He was low on funds until the end of the week) he was swift to check his storage scroll was tucked into his vest containing his supplies. He was very good at miniaturising storage seals without eroding their integrity but he was a fuin master. It was small potatoes to a guy like him.
The ninja decided to take a shortcut through the busy rooftops filled with ninja that would get in his way. He ran towards the white perimeter wall and jumped on it sticking to it with chakra on his feet. The ninja found his ally and the client waiting by the gate. He dashed the last few metres across the perimeter wall waving at a few guards he knew and then flipped over a long distance curving into a flying corkscrew to land right in front of Tazuna who jumped back from fright. Hayate barely blinked at him and wore his backpack ready to work.
"Are we going?"
"The convoy is waiting outside for us," the old man stated, "I want to get there by the end of the week."
The ninja plus their client went to the border guard station to begin their new mission with Naruto last thought being if his nephew had passed his exam.
XreviewX
A/N Now we have Naruto on his mission. What will happen next I wonder?
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