Birth of an Assassin: Heir to the Namikaze

Chapter 4

Learning the Ropes

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Assassin's Creed or Naruto.

"Speaking"

'Thinking'

"Jutsu"

"Tailed Beast Speak"

Pairing: NaruxSaku

Assassin!Naruto

Now onto the show!

000

The Creed

Stay your blade from innocents

See but be unseen

Never compromise the Assassins

Nothing is true, everything is permitted.

000

Konohagakure

Team 7 Training Grounds

Kakashi settled into a basic offensive stance as he stared down Naruto, even if the boy was skilled he couldn't go all out against him. That would defeat the purpose of the exercise if he didn't give them at least a chance to win. Still, Kakashi thought with a vengeful smirk, he could hurt Naruto a little more than the others thanks to his father's training.

Naruto just waited in his defensive stance for Kakashi's response. The other two stayed in their hiding spots, not knowing what else to do but watch as the most skilled of them fought Kakashi one on one.

The Jonin glanced at his destroyed book and, with speed only gained through years of conditioning, knelt down and threw the knife right back at Naruto. If Naruto's attack looked like a flash of light, Kakashi's easily surpassed it in speed and accuracy as it was well on its way to where Naruto stood waiting for it. It was to his secret disdain his opponent had been allowed to use his own equipment against him, one that he promised not to allow a second time.

The knife was headed straight for his thigh, a non-lethal attack designed to wound him enough to keep him out of the battle. A good strategy, if Naruto allowed the knife to hit.

With reflexes unknown to only the most skilled of the village, Naruto knelt and caught the knife between his fingers without as much as a scratch. The two genin did not have enough time to be amazed as they saw their sensei appear in front of Naruto and prepare a strong elbow to his gut.

'No! Look out Naruto!' Sakura covered her mouth and wanted so much to look away, she knew how much it would hurt.

Sasuke just kept watching because from what he had seen from Naruto so far, a counter to this move wasn't outside of his abilities.

Naruto twirled the knife around his fingers so that he was now gripping it as a weapon and attacked Kakashi's outstretched arm. Seeing the danger, the man began to jump back instead to forfeit his attack in turn for safety. Naruto stopped his attack mid-stretch and twirled the dagger around again, sending it straight for the man this time, no ulterior target to stop the attack.

Kakashi didn't have the sheer speed and reflex Naruto had, he calculated. To try and catch it might lead to even more damage to himself and leaving himself vulnerable to a counterattack.

Naruto made a dash forward with lightning speed to try and catch Kakashi, realizing what he was about to do. Before he could reach out and grab him, the man disappeared in smoke and the dagger impaled a log. Naruto silently cursed and pulled his weapon from the discarded wood, pulling it close to his eyes to observe. Finding nothing wrong, he nodded and placed it back on the leather vest where it belonged.

Naruto looked around for a moment, trying to sense his sensei's new location. He was no sensor type ninja, however, that wasn't what he used to know his surroundings. Minato had taught him to use his own senses, sometimes amplified by chakra, to sense his enemies. With knowledge combined from stolen documents of the Inuzuka clan and old clan techniques, Naruto was just as effective as the best tracker in all of Konoha.

The Jonin did a good job of masking his scent but Naruto easily found him hiding within the forest, not too far off from Sakura. It looked like he changed targets after he realized that Naruto was a bit too much to handle on open ground. As the blonde walked over to the discarded book remains, he contemplated helping her. Sure, he didn't really know her and she was technically a rival in this exercise..and she wasn't exactly the most stable girl he had seen.

Then again, Naruto wasn't exactly the most normal of people either. Living in an empty compound for several years and speaking to your dead father through technology you barely understood, there were few that could boast the same.

Naruto picked up the book and looked at its shredded cover, frowning at the choice in literature. It seemed the man was as lecherous as he was lazy. To think he was more interested in reading this than teaching Naruto something useful, that annoyed him.

Naruto looked again toward the spot where Kakashi was approaching Sakura in a slow stalking manner. He didn't realize it, but he had just made his own student dislike him further. Naruto made the ram hand sign with a single hand as he held the book in the other and concentrated for a moment. The book suddenly burst into ashes from a sudden electric burst that emanated from the palm of his hand.

Kakashi unknowingly flinched from this action as he readied his genjutsu for Sakura, he got a chill run through his spine.

'What could that have been? This day just keeps getting worse..first I lose half of my book to my sensei's kid and then I get embarrassed in front of the two other kids when he almost made me break a sweat!'

Naruto smirked and ran into the forest after Kakashi, he wasn't about to let a good fight go to waste when he had the man where he wanted him.

Sasuke still remained in his hiding spot, crouched on a tree branch waiting for a chance to strike. That chance had not come and instead he was treated to a show as his teacher almost lost to a fellow genin. That was enough to put a smirk on his face and he almost felt like laughing when Naruto, as if to rub it in further, burned the book or what was left of it.

When the assassin ran into the forest toward where he could only figure Kakashi had run off to, it was a matter-of-course the Uchiha followed. There would surely be a chance for him to join the fight this time, prove himself to the Namikaze and the Jonin, and maybe even see Kakashi humiliated farther.

'Maybe this training exercise wasn't such a bad idea after all.'

000

Sakura had watched the battle between Naruto and Kakashi up until its conclusion where the man used a substitution to escape. That was when her brain went into overdrive and she realized the man had used the jutsu to escape a new spot, a spot where a piece of wood could be found. That was in the forest, where she was. That spelled trouble no matter how she looked at it, so she ran as soon as she could to get as far away from the forest as possible.

Of course, Sakura had no way of tracking her sensei. Her abilities were solely in the knowledge of shinobi abilities and techniques, not so much in the ability to do them. Tracking him through chakra sense was out of the question, and she definitely didn't have the enhanced nose of an Inuzuka.

No, Sakura was stuck with the ability any powerless girl had when in danger; two legs.

Her team-mates surely wouldn't help her, hell they probably already had the bells and were laughing as they watched her run aimlessly on the grounds from an enemy they had already beat. If she ever got her hands on them..or if they ever let her get her hands on them, there would be hell to pay.

Little did she know, she had already fallen into Kakashi's genjutsu. The fact was she was standing in the middle of a clearing, only thinking she was running through bushes and splashing through puddles from the other day's rain.

Kakashi remained in hiding on a nearby tree branch as he knew that with Naruto's pride, he would come running soon enough. Their battle was far from over and Kakashi was afraid of how far the assassin would take it, absently brushing a hand over his headband to where his sharingan was stashed away. Realizing what he had just done, he lowered his hand and shook his head free of such thoughts.

'No matter how skilled he is, Naruto isn't strong enough for me to have to use a sharingan on him. That would just prove he's winning in the exercise anyway..'

He sensed another presence arriving in the clearing and looked down to see none other than Sasuke reveal himself from the brush. The black-haired boy eyed Sakura warily, surely wondering why she was just standing there with a glazed look on her face. Kakashi felt the boy needed more than to just observe the facets of a genjutsu on another person, perhaps he too needed to get a feel for it.

'Well, they have to learn to see through these things some time.' He validated his decision as he created the ram sign and proceeded to place the boy in the same trick as Sakura.

It was then that another Sasuke came running out of the bushes and, seeing himself with Sakura, realized that something was off. Kakashi was confused for a moment until realization dawned on him when the first 'Sasuke' disappeared in a puff of smoke and a dozen shuriken were launched at him from the opposing treeline. Kakashi leaped off the tree branch and blocked the attack with a kunai, quickly observing the grounds now turned battlefield.

Sasuke saw him now and obviously wanted to prove his worth but Kakashi wasn't about to let another ambush lead him into a two versus one. As Sasuke charged him from the front, he risked a look behind him at Sakura to see she was already gone, along with who he figured to be Naruto. As he blocked the Uchiha's first kick with his hand, he thought over the odd behavior of the assassin.

Since when did Naruto care what happened to Sakura?

It just didn't add up and Kakashi wanted to find out the motive behind the move. First though, he had to deal with the overzealous child in front of him now. Sasuke was launching jabs and kicks at his center mass but each was easily dodged or deflected, making him waste more energy each attack as he got increasingly frustrated.

In a sudden move that surprised the teacher, his student sent a kick for his face that forced both his hands up to block. With his foot now caught, Sasuke used the leverage to twist his body so he now was upside down and in clear reach of the bells. Kakashi let go of the foot to swat his hand away when Sasuke again twisted his body mid-air and kicked Kakashi straight in the stomach, sending the Jonin sliding back across the dirt.

It seemed that if Sasuke couldn't take the objective, he was quite willing to settle with hurting Kakashi instead. That was a strategy that didn't bode well for the silver-haired man.

Sasuke was breathing heavily and was hunched over, all the while smirking. Not only had he been able to get through the Jonin's defenses to touch a bell but he also landed a solid kick to his stomach. That was something not even the Namikaze had proven able to do..at least not yet. Too engrossed in his own world, Sasuke did not realize Kakashi had disappeared after going through a few hand signs.

It was only at the point where he was halfway underground that the boy realized his teacher would not be knocked out of a fight from a simple kick. Kakashi stood above him with his arms crossed and a smirk with nothing but a mocking manner to his entire person. Sasuke growled at the man as he patted him on the head and walked off to where he figured Naruto was headed.

"Sorry Sasuke, playing with you was fun and all..but you can't even make me break a sweat. Now if you will excuse me..I have to go stop your team-mates before they eat all my lunch."

The Uchiha could only watch as he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving him to slowly wriggle out from under the earth like some mutated plant. It was a shameful embarrassment to his ego, his only solace was that neither of his team-mates were watching. It seemed they were too busy breaking Kakashi's rules of eating early.

What compelled them to do that, well Sasuke had no idea. It was still surprising to him that Naruto had actually helped Sakura when instead they could have worked together to take Kakashi down for the bells.

Once he got out of this trap, he would make sure Kakashi suffered a worse fate.

000

Naruto ran through the sparse areas of forest and clearings until he felt he had gotten enough distance from the two battling behind him. He looked down at his baggage, one Sakura Haruno being held in his arms like some princess in a movie. The girl was asleep even after he had released the genjutsu from her consciousness, not that it surprised him. Sakura really didn't strike him as one to be prepared for such an attack on her mind.

He knelt down and laid her out gently on the ground, taking a moment to look over her. No other wounds from Kakashi, that was good. With her just standing there in the middle of the battle it would have been quite easy for her to get hurt and that was after he had arrived.

To provide an ample distraction, Naruto had provided a shadow clone of Sasuke to throw off Kakashi into thinking the Uchiha had gotten there first. It was perfectly timed when Sasuke came running out and threw the man for a loop while Naruto threw a few shuriken and escaped with Sakura. It was wrong of Kakashi to just leave her standing there, stuck in a genjutsu, as bait for them.

So he made the decision to rescue her in a sense, although he wondered now what to do. It was obvious that if he let her, Sakura could probably sleep through the rest of the exercise and that was something he could not allow. An assassin was willing to use anything at his disposal to finish his objective and Naruto was determined to win the exercise no matter what it took, so that meant finding some way to use Sakura.

Bait would be too cruel and it was obvious she wouldn't provide much of a distraction through combat. A rumble from her stomach made him realize that even if she had some skill in fighting, she would not have the energy to make use of it. Naruto remembered the lunches Kakashi had brought and realized they were defenseless, they could allow Sakura to get her strength back and then he could interrogate her on her use to him.

For now though, waking her up would be sufficient.

He felt a certain amount of discretion would be necessary in the process, it wouldn't due for her to be angry at him as soon as she awoke. Naruto contemplated just hitting her in the gut or making a loud noise, but he felt that both of those either wouldn't be pleasant for her or be too loud and reveal their position. In the end, Naruto decided on a more entertaining approach.

They resumed the position of a princess carry until Naruto arrived at the side of the creek that ran through the training ground. He held her over it for a second, silently contemplating the consequences before shrugging and dropping her in, making a decent splash. It wasn't more than a few seconds before she surfaced, spewing water from her mouth and cursing up a storm. Naruto quickly knelt down to her level and shushed her, now only a few inches from her face.

Sakura looked into his eyes as she calmed down a bit, now realizing she wasn't alone or in danger of drowning. They were a beautiful shade of blue and she could just make out lines like whiskers over his tanned skin. This was her first look at him under his hood even if it wasn't intentional and Sakura blushed from her imagination suddenly running wild.

Naruto too got a new look at Sakura, now soaking wet in her tight red clothing and her wet hair floating in the water below her. He realized just how powerful those emerald orbs were as they looked right inside him and he found the way her pink hair glistened in the water made it a beautiful color.

The two were almost close enough to touch and it made them both blush from the proximity.

"Your hair..." Naruto mumbled, not sure how formulate what he thought to words that would do her justice.

Sakura's eyes widened as she heard him mention her hair, a sensitive subject to her. She had always been self-conscious about her pink hair, as her mother's was bright red and her father's blonde. It made her feel..different from the other kids and they capitalized on her insecurities, making fun of how she was different.

"Wha-..what about my hair?" Sakura whispered back, sounding almost desperate. She was only looking for one answer from him and then it would tell her what she wanted to know.

"Its so.." Naruto reached out to feel one of her long bangs that framed her face, making a rare smile break over his face as he felt it gently. "beau-" Sakura's elation suddenly turned to fear as a shadow was caste over Naruto from behind.

He noticed as well and did a sweeping leg kick to try and trip the new arrival but a tough kick to his head sent him flying a few feet away, now motionless. Sakura's eyes shifted from him to their opponent, none other than Kakashi; it seemed that Naruto's distracted mind left him to be unaware of Kakashi's untimely arrival until it was too late.

Sakura openly glared at the man who was almost surprised by her sudden change, from docile to hostile. Maybe the kick had been a bit over dramatic, but he needed to make sure Naruto went down for the count at least for a few minutes.

"You bastard! How dare you do that to him when he wasn't even looking!" Kakashi flinched at her strong words but recovered quickly and sighed.

"Sorry Sakura, but he's a ninja just like you are. I waited for him to drop his guard when he was speaking with you and made sure I only knocked him out. I'm not planning to kill any of you, remember?" Sakura wasn't satisfied by the answer and made to get out of the river and give him a beating but Kakashi was already walking over to collect Naruto when she got out.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing with him!" Kakashi threw Naruto over his shoulder and started walking over to the posts, ignoring her.

Sakura was fuming at this point and it was then that Sasuke made his appearance, coming out of the trees. To his surprise he found Naruto knocked out cold and Sakura looking like she was going to kill Kakashi. Before he could process what was going on, Kakashi walked past him and turned around to look at Sakura.

"Well, you two coming? Its almost noon and you failed to get a bell." Sasuke gritted his teeth and Sakura had forgotten about the bells at this point, only wanting to have Naruto awake again so he could finish what he was saying.

"Well, if you don't want lunch then you can hang out here and go home after noon. If you do want lunch, then come on." Kakashi began to lead the defeated squad to what was sure to be Team 7's first and last failed mission.

000

Naruto awoke only a few minutes after being knocked unconscious, cursing himself for letting his guard down. It was because he allowed his feelings to interfere with the mission and made him lose touch with his concentration. He promised it would not happen again, however, it would be difficult if he was to be forced on a team with the girl named Sakura Haruno.

To avoid from being noticed, he kept his head down to hide his face as he realized he was tied to a stump. It seemed noon had come along as he shifted his eyes left and right to see Sasuke and Sakura eating their lunches with defeated looks on their faces. It seemed as if Team 7 had already given in, but Naruto was not Team 7; he was an assassin. Pride would not allow this capture to stand and Naruto swore he would make Kakashi pay.

All he needed was for the man to make a single sound for him to pinpoint his location, then he would have his revenge. A sinister energy began to flow through his veins as thoughts of death and revenge filled his mind, some by his own thoughts and others by an unknown entity.

There! Naruto could hear his breathing just a few feet in front of him, a deadly smirk settled over his face. He wouldn't kill him, he promised himself, just cause a lot of pain.

Kakashi was surveying his students as they quietly ate their lunches, or in Naruto's case, stood tied to a stump. He held no allusions that once the boy woke, he would be quite angry at his situation, but luckily that had not happened yet. Hopefully he could contain himself long enough to allow Kakashi to explain.

What happened next happened so quick that Kakashi would never have been able to stop it, even if he did know what was to come.

As if the rope was made of paper, Naruto ripped straight through it and made a dash for Kakashi with his hidden blade out and ready to slice. He sent his arm lurching forward with the blade so that it would impale the older man's shoulder, a sure way of disabling his arm. Kakashi made to grab it as the other two could only watch in surprise and horror as the assassin made his deadly retaliation.

Kakashi caught Naruto's wrist and attempted to twist it only to find it was as hard as steel, making his grip slip. Naruto's hood had covered his face from Kakashi's view up until now but the boy looked up at his face and allowed him to see red orbs before the boy launched a few needles from his mouth that embedded themselves in his neck.

Before Kakashi could even bring his spare hand up to remove the needles, his entire body felt like it was made of jello and he fell back just as the knife sliced through flesh. Naruto smiled maniacally at the sight of his blood on his hidden blade and brought it to his face to look at even closer. Kakashi's eyes widened in fear as he realized he really couldn't move, the needles must have had a poison of some sort.

He was completely defenseless to the Kyuubi-influenced Naruto.

Sasuke was smirking like crazy at the sight of Kakashi being downed by his partner, he knew that Naruto had been beaten too easily. What he couldn't see was that Naruto was about on the verge of cackling evilly over the blood on his blade, nor could he actually see just how bad the wound in his sensei's shoulder was.

Sakura was glad that Naruto had defeated Kakashi but..after the first few seconds of laying on him and still not getting up, Sakura knew something was wrong. Even though she was frightened almost to the point of not being able to move, she knew she had to go over and stop him before he did anything else. Maybe he would listen to her..or maybe he wouldn't. He had smiled at her though, a friendly caring smile that she knew was genuine, it was nothing like the fake ones the other kids would give her when she was young.

He really did care about her and now Sakura was going to show she cared too.

Crawling over to the two, she now saw the extent of Kakashi's injury and how scared he looked at the moment. Three little metal shards glistened in the sunlight on his neck and she figured Naruto had shot him with needles to disable his movement, a smart move indeed. The blade to his shoulder was over the top though and it threatened to bleed straight through the jacket.

"Kakashi-sensei.." She mumbled quietly in concern for the man and turned her attention to Naruto who now had his blade ready for another slice, this time at the neck.

"Did you think you had beaten me, Kakashi?..I will show you just how far one can go before death takes them.." Sakura realized what Naruto was foreshadowing in his whispers and grabbed onto his back, gripping him tightly and turning his attention away from their teacher.

"Please stop Naruto! You've beaten sensei already...here look!" She was crying as she showed him the two bells she had taken the liberty of grabbing from Kakashi's belt. "We won see..you don't have to..to fight anymore!" Sakura didn't like seeing him like this, this scary being; she wanted him to smile again.

Naruto broke the unknown entity's hold over him after he was grabbed by Sakura, seeing her cry just made him feel worse. He began to move out of her hold off of Kakashi and turned to look at her, just sitting there and crying while holding those two pitiful bells. Those bells..no the exercise had made him show his killer instincts his father had warned to leave only for assassinations; he had made Kakashi into his target and that was something he was never supposed to do.

Sakura just watched as he got up and walked over to Kakashi's neck and pulled the three needles out. He then unzipped the Jonin's jacket and pulled it back so he could see the wound seeping through the undershirt. The hidden blade once again came out, making Kakashi and Sakura fear another attack but instead the boy used it to cut away the shirt from the wound and quickly make a gauze for it.

Sakura and Kakashi were amazed at his multiple skills as he showed off his medical expertise of treatment on the field. Naruto confirmed to them he had not hit any vital arteries or veins and that once Kakashi's feeling returned to him in the next few minutes, he could safely make it to the hospital.

The assassin walked over to the sniffling Sakura and knelt down to her level, silently and gently taking the bells from her hands and placing them in his pocket for a moment. He then grabbed both of her hands and held them over his own as he kissed them in silent apology for scaring her. Sakura missed the original intention of it after he kissed them and blushed uncontrollably, forgetting her tears instead for the beating of her heart.

"I'm sorry for scaring you Sakura, I shouldn't have done what I did to Kakashi." Sakura was staring at him dreamily, except she was in her own world as she mumbled her response.

"Well as long as you are sorry.." That's all Naruto could hear as he got up and walked over to Kakashi again who was lying down, just watching him interact with Sakura.

"..as long as you're sorry its alright that you forgot our anniversary, I'll forgive you if you give me a massage." She giggled to herself and sighed dreamily again as for the first time she daydreamed about a different boy than Sasuke.

"Kakashi.." Naruto knelt down to his teacher and produced the two bells, laying them down next to the man. "It seems I failed this test of teamwork and I almost got you killed. I guess I still need more training to keep my killer instincts inside me, along with a few other things. Until then, I'd only be a danger to these two or anyone working with me and I won't allow that. Please allow these two to pass, they don't deserve the shame of returning to the academy when they weren't even given the chance to have a real team-mate." Kakashi's eyes widened, Naruto had realized the value of the exercise from the start?

"Where will you go now?" He had to ask because it sounded like Naruto wasn't going to forgive himself for this incident.

"I will return to my compound and I doubt I will leave again..for a very long time." Naruto took a lasting look at Sakura as if to take a mental picture before shaking his head; Kakashi swore he could see a smile under his shaded hood as he looked at her.

By the time Kakashi could move and order the two other genin home, Naruto was long gone. He would postpone the results of the test until a few days later, that should give him time to think about what exactly to do in this situation. It would also give him time to recuperate from the wound given to him by Naruto and acknowledge the fact he really isn't the boy from when they lived together.

Naruto was a true assassin like his father, his performance that day proved what happened when you combine his skills with Kyuubi's influence.

If he could not control that blood lust, Kakashi's shoulder paled in comparison to the fate of Konoha.

000

2 Weeks Later

Namikaze Compound

Naruto sat in a meditative stance in the basement of the main building where his ancestors lay buried. This place helped him focus with its peace and quiet and gave him an odd feeling of recuperation when either his body or mind was tired. He felt that it would be the best place for the mental conditioning he had been putting himself under as both training and punishment for his attack on the Jonin Kakashi.

It was practice of putting up mental barriers that would not allow him to so readily react to assassin 'stimuli' in the environment, giving him time to rationally make a decision. It was also training to better control Kyuubi's power and influence over his body as he realized all too well how dangerous the beast was. His father had let him know of its presence inside him early in the training and made sure Naruto knew that his everyday would be a constant struggle for power with the fox.

So far it had yet to interact with him directly but its release of chakra two weeks ago revealed it was very much awake and very much observant of the world around them. To stop Kyuubi, Naruto had to first keep his own emotions in check before he could hope to tame the beast itself.

That was what he was trying to do, at least until he heard a faint knock on his gate.

Even in his focused condition, Naruto still kept his senses on high alert. The knock still surprised him, not by the fact that he heard it but because of the simple fact someone had located the compound and actually dared to visit him. The only person that knew where it was a Namikaze and possibly the Third. The Hokage sounded like an unlikely culprit due to age but also made the most sense because of how he left the training exercise after technically joining the ninja force; in a way it could be seen as going AWOL.

Either way, a second knock meant they weren't leaving so he got up in a bit of agitated state and made his way through the house and outside to the large door.

The knocking had not grown in sound nor frequency, just the occasional hard tap required to make a sound on the large wooden door. Naruto sighed and opened up the gate with a strong yank on the handles revealing the teeming forest life around the hidden compound. He was taken by surprise though as the visitors were not who he was expecting.

Kakashi, Sasuke, and even Sakura were all standing in front of his gate waiting for him to open it. Kakashi greeted him with an 'eye-smile' and wave while Sasuke just stood there with his hands in his pockets. Sakura had a light blush as she waved and gave a nervous 'hello' to the Namikaze heir.

Naruto was confused, what were they doing here?

"What are you doing here?" 'Better yet how do you even know where 'here' is?'

"We've come to get you for Team 7's first official mission of course!" Kakashi explained with a little too excited tone that utterly confused Naruto.

"But I'm not part of-" Kakashi held up a hand and sent Naruto a look that showed he was being serious.

"I talked it over with the Hokage, we both feel like while this team could use some work it still has the most potential to succeed." 'Or fail.'

"That's why even after you left you are still considered a member of Team 7. Now then, are you ready for a delivery mission?" Kakashi was disappointed that all his effort in building up the suspense was met with sighs of disappointment or the usual blank stare from Naruto.

"Great..just when I thought life was getting interesting.." Sakura complained out loud.

"Tch. Figures we don't get a real mission because Kakashi here made us late to pick up our mission for the day." Sasuke rolled his eyes but kept his annoyance in check as usual.

Naruto just sighed and joined them outside the compound, silently closing the door as quiet fell over them.

"Well where's the package, let's get this over with." Naruto seemed somewhat depressed about their first mission together and it brought the group down.

Kakashi produced a scroll that had the client's package sealed within. Naruto eyed it for a moment before Kakashi placed it back safely within his vest's chest pockets. The other two genin fell into step as Kakashi began to lead them out of the forest and toward their destination, Grass Country.

"We are to deliver this package to our allies in Kusagakure, you see we are in sort of an alliance with them since before the Third Shinobi War. We often pass general knowledge back and forth during peace time to keep relations high. We are returning some documents and books back to Grass Country after having them on loan." Naruto just listened and accepted the mission as sounding pretty routine, Sakura raised her hand regardless.

"So Kakashi-sensei..our allies in Kusagakure, they are ninja too?" Kakashi looked at her as they walked at a leisurely pace and nodded.

"Yes Sakura, they are well known for their use of flora in their techniques. The weakness is that their jutsu are most effective with Grass' own plant species, so if their ninja leave their home country the jutsu effectiveness is lost." Sakura seemed to accept the explanation but pressed him for the real answer she wanted.

"Does..does that mean we won't have to fight any ninjas?" Naruto could tell by her voice, she was scared.

It unnerved him, what shinobi was afraid of fighting, of death?

Kakashi realized she needed comfort and patted her head playfully, earning him a glare.

"Don't worry Sakura, its just a C-rank. The worst we might find is a highwayman, no ninja to worry about." Sakura breathed a sigh of relief and Sasuke's mood seemed to drop a bit.

Naruto didn't really much care as long as the mission got over with and done quickly. He had better things to do than be entertained as the favored village pet which was obviously the only reason why they allowed him to stay on Team 7 after what happened. They didn't want to lose his cooperation yet because they still needed him.

Naruto would give them the satisfaction of playing along..for now.

Kakashi eyed Naruto as they walked, wondering what he was thinking with what had just happened. Surely he was surprised and most likely suspicious, but it seems as though no memories of Kakashi from before sprang up.

He wouldn't give up though if there was a chance that Naruto still remembered him and he would do everything he could to make Naruto drop his suspicions and show that both he and Konoha meant him no harm, no ulterior motive.

'Minato-sensei..I wish you were here to give me guidance. What would you do in this situation?'

000

Yeah, I got tired of Wave so we'll see where this takes us. Let's hope I pull this off well and I hope you enjoyed the chapter and character development.

Review please.