RotW: It's behind schedule. I know. I'm working on like five stories at once, I can only do so much with school and all the other stuff I do during the week!
Sakura: Excuses, excuses.
RotW: I am seriously considering killing you in the beginning of the Sasuke Retrieval arc…
Sakura: Eep!
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Slowly opening his eyes Kenjo looked around the room he shared with Sasuke, seeing his cousin sleeping peacefully on his bed with a big grin on his face. 'If I didn't know any better I would think he was having a wet dream… But knowing him he's probably torturing Itachi…' Sasuke briefly mumbled something that sounded like "Give me that Klondike bar you bastard…" before rolling over and pulling the covers over his head.
With a sigh Kenjo got out of bed and took a quick shower looking in the mirror at his wet hair and how it hung down in his face deciding he liked it and would worry about how to get it to stay that way later. As he made his way back to his room he thought about whether he should wear his normal outfit or his training outfit. In the end he decided on the training one which consisted of a navy blue vest with the Uchiha crest on the back with a red short sleeve t-shirt under it, he also wore body armor that was around an inch thick. He wore black ANBU style pants and his usual combat boots. (1) Glancing at clock he kept on his nightstand Kenjo saw that it was 10:00.
"Hey Sasuke, wake your lazy ass up. Its 12:45 and Takashi-sensei said to be there at one." Kenjo said nonchalantly as he pulled on a pair of knuckle gloves similar to the pair Kakashi held onto from his days as an ANBU captain. Sasuke instantly shot up and began searching for his clothes while Kenjo looked at a pocket watch he had and waited for Sasuke to realize he had been lied to.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU WAIT SO LONG TO WAKE-- is that a Klondike Bar (2)?" Sasuke asked looking over at his cousin sitting on the edge of his bed with his legs crossed.
"Last one in the complex. Oh and its 10:15," He replied as he took a bite of the delicious ice cream treat. Sasuke really didn't know what to do; on the one hand he could flip out about being lied to. On the other hand he could flip out about Kenjo having eaten the last Klondike bar. Deciding to do both Sasuke proceeded with his first rant of the day. (Yes, there will be more.)
"YOU DAMN BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL POSSESED YOU TO EAT MY LAST KLONDIKE BAR?! AND WHY THE HELL DID YOU SAY IT WAS 12:45! I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU, YOU LYING DIPSHIT!" Having finished his ice cream while Sasuke was ranting Kenjo readied himself for his impulsive cousin's attack.
'3…2…1' Kenjo counted off in his head before grabbing Sasuke as he threw himself towards him before slamming him on the bed and saying, "Hurry up and get dressed. We've wasted enough time as is. Not to mention we still have to get Naruto and that useless Haruno girl. Oh well, at least she won't be completely useless once we're chuunin."
"And why is that?" Sasuke called from behind the bathroom door.
"Because my dear cousin, Takashi-senpai said he was going to make Haruno Sakura greater than Tsunade-hime of the Densetsu no Sannin. You know, the Legendary Medic? By the way, remind me to update our bingo book collection later. I'll be downstairs."
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Walking up the small flight of stairs, Kenjo and Sasuke came to Naruto's apartment door. Kenjo began to knock on the door to wake Naruto, "Hey! Naruto wake up, we have to go to the training ground!" No answer. Sasuke moved his cousin to the side and began to bang on the door, almost causing it to splinter.
"WAKE UP DOBE! IF I HAVE TO TRAIN HARDER THAN THAT BUSHY BROWED FREAK BECAUSE OF YOU I SWEAR I'LL MAKE YOU WISH YOU WEREN'T BORN! HEY!! WAKE UP DAMN YOU!" Sasuke yelled as he continued to bang on the door. Once he stopped they heard some noises coming from inside before the door opened.
"Bout t-," Sasuke began before Naruto punched him in the face.
"Damn it teme! You have a key! And you!" Naruto yelled pointing at Kenjo, "Why the hell did you let him do that?!" Shrugging Kenjo replied in his usual calm tone.
"Because I thought it was funny. That and I didn't have to do it. Anyway, go get ready its 11:30 and my clone hasn't gotten to Sakura's house yet!"
"Fine, fine! I'll be right back."
-Five Minutes Later-
Naruto came back, not in his usual orange jumpsuit but in a red t-shirt which had the sleeves ripped off, black ANBU style pants and a white trench coat that reached his ankles and had a blood red wave pattern along the bottom with the kanji for "Fox" on his back. He wore traditional zori but also wore shin guards in a fashion similar to that of Anko.
"Are we going or what?" Naruto inquired as he locked his door. Kenjo's clone had dispersed telling him that Sakura was getting ready so they didn't bother to go by her house; they needed to get to the training ground.
When they arrived they saw no one was there so they all relaxed until Naruto heard three kunai whizzing through the air.
"Down, now!" He hissed dropping to the ground; Kenjo narrowed his eyes and threw three of his own kunai to meet the others as he ducked.
"Well at least your reflexes aren't complete garbage. This might be a tad more interesting than I thought." Takashi grumbled jumping out of a tree behind three boys except today his hair was black with what seemed to be an odd shade of purple scattered throughout, "Hey blondie, you emulating Anko-neechan or something?"
"For your information, she gave these to me! And a couple of scrolls on chakra control and some minor jutsu." Naruto replied, only slightly affronted. Kenjo suppressed a sigh as he pulled out his pocket watch and saw that it was 11:40. 'That pink haired bimbo better not wait until one to show up…' all three of the genin thought at once.
"Seeing as the fangirl isn't here yet, we'll start the training I've prepared for each of you after I see a small demonstration of your respective skills." Takashi said, suppressing a yawn as he rested his hand on the katana at his waist. Lifting his hand slowly he pointed directly at Kenjo, licking his lips he began to speak in a low dangerous tone Naruto instantly associated with Anko. 'Yep, they're related…'
"You're first, Uchiha Kenjo." Kenjo closed his eyes and let a light smirk show.
"Let's do this, Takashi-Senpai" Kenjo's smirk instantly faded as he opened his eyes to reveal his red orbs, tomoe spinning wildly.
"Don't underestimate me just because we're almost the same age." The two vanished from sight and the sight Naruto and Sasuke found them selves looking upon was Takashi having Kenjo's right leg in his grasp, preventing it from reaching him. Kenjo swung his left leg up at the opposite side of Takashi's head only for him to block that as well. Letting out a low growl Kenjo grabbed a kunai from his pouch and as he threw it Takashi let him go and blocked the flying knife with his katana.
"You're not half bad. Ready for round two?" Takashi taunted spreading his arms and bowing slightly as a way of saying "Come get me". Kenjo ignored him and dropped into a style Takashi hadn't seen before. Faster than you could blink, Kenjo was upon Takashi. The speed of his attacks combined with his Sharingan made it difficult for Takashi to dodge.
"Give me so space will you?!" Takashi cried forcing Kenjo away from him, only for Kenjo to continue his assault a second later, attacking Takashi with a series of lightning fast kicks aimed for head. Deciding he was bored with Kenjo even though he was probably the best on the team, Takashi caught one of Kenjo's arms and dropped to the ground so Kenjo was face down yet his arm was straight up, in a position to be dislocated or broken depending on what Takashi felt like.
"You seem to specialize in taijutsu, either that or you don't like to waste chakra on jutsu." He yawned letting go of Kenjo's arm, "Uchiha two you're up."
"Uchiha two? I have a name Takashi-sensei!" Sasuke called charging his teacher, kunai in each hand. Sasuke threw them one after the other only for Takashi to block with his katana as he predicted. 'So repetitive…' Sasuke thought and he dropped for a sweep kick after another volley of kunai.
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Takashi now stood in front of the four (3) panting genin with a clipboard making some adjustments to their schedules.
"Ok, everyone strip down to their under clothes." Takashi commanded not bothering to look up from his clipboard thus failing to notice the four face vault.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN STRIP?! THERE IS NO WAY IN THE SEVEN HELLS YOU COULD GET ME TO DO THAT IN FRONT OF YOU!" Sakura yelled as the boys picked themselves up.
"But Sasuke is here." Takashi responded making Naruto and Kenjo sweat drop as Sakura seemed to really think about it.
"No. No fucking way will you get me to take my shirt, let alone my pants off while a FANGIRL is around!" Sasuke shouted. Kenjo and Naruto had already taken off their clothes and gotten the seals put on their arms and legs so they were trying to stand back up.
"Here's an idea…" Takashi started to say before Kakashi knocked out Sasuke and Sakura.
-An Hour Later-
"What the hell happened… And why can't I move?!" Sasuke shouted groggily as he saw Naruto and Kenjo coming towards the training ground barely able to move.
"There -pant- you crazy son -pant- of a bitch! We did all 500 God forsaken laps!" Naruto shouted in between pants.
"In an hour?" Takashi asked genuinely surprised.
"When you have to run from ANBU you tend to run around the village a lot Takashi-Senpai." Kenjo replied using the patented "Uchiha Death Glare" for once in his life.
"Alright then. Oh and Sasuke the reason I needed you to take your clothes off was so I could put that gravity seal on you. It works like regular weights except it distributes weight evenly throughout your body. Naruto has 50 lbs on each limb and then 100 lbs on his torso, Kenjo as well as you have the same. Sakura has the least with 25 lbs on each limb and then 50 on her torso. Gravity seals are controlled by your chakra, so if you increase the flow to it the weight will increase. The same would ordinarily be true of the reverse but I put another seal which will prevent you from decreasing it until I say you're used to the weight. In other words, get up to your normal speed with the weight and I'll allow you take the weight off in battle, but nothing else." Takashi paused as if in thought, "However I would reinforce my bed if I was you."
"Oh and Sasuke, give me 500 laps around the village. As for you two, begin the water walking exercise and don't stop until you can move on top of it like the ground. Sakura, you're up. Good, go join Sasuke for your run around the village, 500 laps."
-Two Months Later-
"This is Red Eye, I have the target in my sight. Raven, are you in position?"
"Copy that Red Eye. Foxes 1, 2, and 3, pincer in my direction. Cherry Blossom, cover me."
"Roger that Raven." All the foxes and Cherry Blossom replied.
"Go!" The three Narutos surrounded the small figure and began to push it towards one of the nets Kenjo set up throughout the village in case they were chasing enemy ninja or in this case, an escaped cat.
As the cat tried to veer to the left Sakura jumped out forcing it to run right into the trap, where Kenjo picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.
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"Hokage-sama. With all do respect, don't you think it's time my team received a higher ranked mission? We've been doing these D missions for two months, and we've been training with Takashi of the Errant Flame as well as the famed Copy Ninja Kakashi." Kenjo said, hoping diplomacy would work better than Naruto's idea of "Bitch, moan, and whine until we get what we want".
"Ever the diplomat I see Kenjo-kun. I do believe you're right though. I do happen to have a C-ranked escort mission available." Sarutobi said smiling, "You can come in now Tazuna. A fat old man holding a sake bottle walked (Read "stumbled") into the room and gave team 7 a quick once over.
"Are you kiddin' me? These kids look like they couldn't escort themselves to the bathroom, let alone a great bridge builder like me. Especially that blonde." He commented failing to notice Kenjo, Sasuke, and Naruto disappear due to being a civilian. Kakashi noticed too late (4) and the Hokage wasn't in a position to stop them.
Narrowing his eyes, Kenjo noticed a figure moving into stop them and moved around him as he re-appeared behind Tazuna pressing a kunai to his throat. Naruto and Sasuke were being held back by Takashi yelling death threats at Tazuna.
"I think you'll find my team to be more than capable of protecting you from some petty bandits, wouldn't you agree, Takashi-sensei?" Kenjo said, and eerie smile on his face as he tightened his grip on the kunai.
"You must be slipping Takashi-kun, letting young Kenjo here out maneuver you like that." The Hokage chided the grin of an old friendly uncle on his aged visage.
"He used the sharingan, and I allowed him to pass me. Fear is a powerful thing; Anko-neechan taught me that." Takashi responded, releasing his grip on Naruto and Sasuke, "Oh and Kenjo, you can't kill our client, let him go before he pees on himself."
"Hai, hai Takashi-senpai." Kenjo replied removing his kunai, "I'll be at the complex packing. At the gate in an hour? Oh and Kakashi-sensei, if you're late, I'll burn that book of yours with my Endan." Kenjo said disappearing with the shunshin.
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"Where are your things you three?" Sakura asked as her last three teammates arrived, with nothing other than their usual things. With a grin Naruto held up a scroll.
"Kenjo sealed our stuff up in these scrolls so we won't be weighed down at all! Considering we're already wearing these damn weights. Which, might I add increased today!" Naruto responded, ending with a glare at Takashi.
Muttering something about seals Kenjo began walking out of the village.
"Kenjo I know you're the farthest along on the team but where are you going?" Kakashi asked as the rest of the team followed him out.
"I've been to Nami no Kuni before. I know how to get from here to there and then Suna in three days." Kenjo replied nonchalantly. The group continued on in near silence, near because Sakura would occasionally ask Sasuke for a date when they got back or ask Kenjo for pointers on a variety of things, from Sasuke's favorite things to training.
"Hey Tazuna-San? How come you didn't hire a team from Nami? Doesn't your country have a ninja force?" Sakura asked having finally given up on the Uchiha cousins.
"Nami is a small country. They don't have a militarial force, and I was around Konoha on business so it wouldn't make any sense even if they did." Tazuna replied.
"You see Sakura only the Five Great Shinobi Nations have actual ninja villages. Those nations are Hi no Kuni: The Land of Fire, which we're in, Kaminari no Kuni: The Land of Lightning, Mizu no Kuni: The Land of Water, Tsuchi no Kuni: The Land of Earth, and Kaze no Kuni: The Land of Wind. The villages are, Konohagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure. Each of the villages are run by a Kage. Like our own Hokage, Kumo's Raikage, Kiri's Mizukage, Iwa's Tsuchikage, and Suna's Kazekage. Do you understand now?" Kakashi said in his sensei voice. Nodding Sakura continued on, adding more knowledge to that massive brain behind her massive forehead. (Ten-head.)
The group continued on in silence until they came to a small puddle that only Takashi, Kakashi, and Kenjo noticed. He cast a glance upon the two older men and received and nod from both as he subtly pulled out a kunai. Two figures rose from the puddle and rushed the group from the rear and wrapped the chain that bound them together around Kakashi before tearing him to pieces.
"One little pig." One of the men said as his partner rushed Takashi before wrapping the chain around him as well, causing him to suffer the same fate as Kakashi.
"Two little pigs." the other said as Kenjo threw his kunai and stuck their chain to a tree as he appeared on it and axe kicked one of them causing the chain to break as Sasuke rushed the other one. He threw a punch aimed for his opponent's head, only for him to drop below it and swipe at him with the claw attached to his arm, barely missing.
As Naruto and Sakura watched the two Uchiha, Naruto just hardly saw a third figure jump from the bushes behind them and rush towards Tazuna. Reacting on pure instinct he moved behind Tazuna and blocked his enemy's katana with his kunai as he pulled a second kunai from the pouch on his thigh and slashed across his enemy's side. Hissing in pain the man backed up and began speaking, "You little shit. I'll rip your head off for that!" As soon as he finished speaking he was upon Naruto slashing with speeds he could barely keep up with until he forced Kaido away from him and shouted to his teammates, "Release your seals so we can finish this!"
"Right!" The two Uchiha replied in unison as the backed away from their targets. The three genin closed their eyes and made flashed through a string of hand signs ending in tiger, opened their eyes and shouted, "SOUGON FUU (5), KAI!" The three disappeared and were attacking their enemies with rapid slashes from their kunai before ending with a palm strike to their stomachs sending them flying and knocking them unconscious. Jumping from the brush Kakashi and Takashi reappeared in front of the young genin.
"Not bad for you guys' first actual fight. Though you didn't release the seals completely or permanently for that matter. You only temporarily reduced the weight, though I suppose I should congratulate you on that." Takashi said as he rounded up the three unconscious ninja.
"I haven't been reading up on seals for nothing. I've already recreated the seal and have been testing ways to remove the weight. Well anyway, let's get going, we still have to escort Tazuna-san to wave." Kenjo said as he, Sasuke, and Naruto began walking their original direction.
"Hey wait you three! There's no way this is a C-Rank mission! We're supposed to defend him from animals and bandits, not other shinobi! Those three had to be at least chuunin!" Sakura shouted, trying to wimp out on the mission.
"So? We have a duty as shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato to see all missions through to the end. You can turn back and go home Haruno, but I am a shinobi first. Are you willing to leave Tazuna-san out here alone, KNOWING that other shinobi are after his head?" he replied looking at Sakura with unrestrained scorn in his eyes, "Though I must wonder, why did you lie to us Tazuna-san?"
"I trust you've heard of Gatou, the wealthy shipping business man." Tazuna said his eyes somewhat downcast.
"The Gatou?! From that shipping company? He hired these ninja?" Takashi asked after looking down from the clouds.
"Yeah… He officially runs that to appear legit, short, but legit. But in secret he uses thugs and ninja to take over countries, businesses, you name it. About a year ago he began to monopolize the ports of Nami until he owned them all. He has a strangle hold on the country and has used violence and examples to instill fear in the locals…" Tazuna replied still looking down.
"I still don't get it; if you knew the mission was so dangerous why hire a genin team?" Kakashi asked throwing in his two cents.
"Are you stupid or just slow Hatake? It's obvious Nami is poor, so why would he have the money for a B-rank mission, let alone an A-rank one?" Takashi shot back making the boys, minus Sasuke who just smirked, start to snicker at seeing Kakashi get owned by a 15 year old.
"Why are we still standing here? Let's get to Nami!" Naruto shouted, impatience taking over as he started down their original path.
"I have to agree with the dobe on this, let's move." Sasuke added managing to look bored following Naruto, with Sakura following him.
"Hehe. Gotta love those two, well LET'S MOVE!" Kenjo shouted pumping a fist in the air. The two Jounin and one old drunk simply sighed and sweat dropped before following the children at a leisurely pace.
(1) I changed it to combat boots because I can't picture "zori boots" anymore.
(2) Naruto Abridged
(3) Sakura showed up during Naruto's go.
(4) One guess why…
(5) Literally "Gravity Seal, Release". Original.
Ok, I've had this chapter nearly done for the longest I just couldn't remember, or find the time to look for, the exchange between Tazuna and the team, sorry! But I said this would be on hiatus anyway so I don't really care. The next will be quicker hopefully. I've got 9 stories churning in my head so yeah…
