Hey guys forth chapter already, so this is the standard routine in which I say that I don't own Naruto, remember you that the one who owns it is Masashi Kishimoto and ask you guys to leave a review when you finish reading, it helps me improve and it is quite satisfying to receive them so please review.
Chapter 4: Ends and beginnings
Near the border of Fire country
In the outskirts of a small village, on top of a hill 5 cloaked figures lay motionless, their faces mostly hidden by the shadows, from their position they had a clear view over the village, they were in complete silence except for an annoying sound of metal sliding against metal that could be heard every few seconds, the noise came from a big figure that stood almost 8 feet tall, despite the cloak there was no hiding the mountain of muscles that formed this mysterious men, his companions seemed mostly not bothered by his actions unless a feminine figure that stood at 5´9, after a few minutes of the man making that noise she just couldn't take this any longer.
"Can you stop with that damn sound Iwao or will I have to explain to our master why I came back with one less member of my squad!" She said with a harsh voice that made the other three figures flinch.
The cloaked giant now identified as Iwao smiled a little "Sorry just sharpening my blades Hime." He said with a sarcastic and malicious tone that would scare most people but only made Hime frown under her cloak.
"Our mission is vital for our master so don't screw this up" She said with a certain edge to her voice "As soon as Koumori returns you can have your fun." And almost as if on cue another figure showed up.
"Speaking of the devil, here he is, so what kind of intel do you have about the village?" Hime asked him as he got near them.
"It is a pretty small village there are 30 shinobis, 8 jounins, 10 chunnins and 12 genins but there are only two jounins who seem to be worth of the title and there are among them 3 medic shinobis."Koumori said, his voice betrayed no emotion as he gave his comrades his report about the enemy forces inside the village.
"Okay we will take them out first, Iwao, be silent our goal is to obliterate the village, to the last man, woman and child, Koumori our master gave you a second mission so you better leave now and get ready for it." she said in a commanding tone.
"Hahaha that is what I wanted to hear!" Iwao said licking his lips.
"Okay Osamu-san, you appear to be much better tonight, so if you would be so kind as to wait for me to bring your medication and promise to not push your body too hard for the next week or so, we will declare you right now free from this hospital, ain't that right Atsukol" said a grinning Tadau Susumu as he finished checking on his last charge that night with the help of his shunin assistant, a sweet girl with a talent for medical jutsus.
"I appreciate the help doctor, I got to admit that as much as I enjoy having sweet Atsuko taking care of me, I'm really eager to go back home to my kids." The middle aged man joked in good nature making the girl with short black hair laugh.
"Well if you like to visit me so much try to get hurt or sick more often." Atsuko said making the man laugh.
"Well as tempting as it is, I think I will pass the offer my sweet." The man said grinning at her.
"So Atsuko, would you be as kind as to go get the medication for your old sensei not to tire his old bones?" Asked a grinning Tadau.
"Oh no sir, I've been working the whole day, now all I want is to go to my soft bed as soon as my shift is over, where are Akio and Haru anyway, those two better not be trying to run away from their shift again with that 'I got lost on the road of life' excuse again." She said with a frown.
"Well at least the two of them will be responsible to organize the medical supplies that Konoha will be bringing to us in a few hours" Tadau said smiling to her
"Besides I'm sure that those two wouldn't dream to unleash your fury again Atsuko." said Osamu as Tadau went up the stairs to the third floor where they kept the medications, as he got hold of the correct medication he though how Atsuko was 16 and improving rapidly she would be at jounin level give it a year or two, the villagers seemed much better since she became his assistant, everything about her just seemed to warm the heart of the people around her, maybe he would give her a few days off as a reward for all her hard work this last week.
It was a silent night today, actually now that he thought about it even Atsuko and Osamu had gone silent all of a sudden, 'well Atsuko must be more tired than I imagined if she ran out of things to talk about' he thought as he got back to the second floor and to the door that lead to Osamu's room "Hey Atsuko I…" but his speech was stolen from him at the sight in front of him, it wasn't the sight on the bed now with crimson bed sheet where stood a motionless Osamu, his throat slit open and the ghost of his smile still in his face, it was the giant man who was completely covered by a cloak except by his big tanned arm, a gauntlet with 3 claws almost from the size of Tadau's arm strapped to his forearm and the blade went through Atsuko's chest, her face demonstrating the horror and shock that she felt the seconds before her death"
With one single swing of his arm Iwao was able to take Atsuko out of his gauntlet's blade "Doctor I'm no medical shinobi, but I think this girl is not felling so well."
Tadau's face burned with anger for a second but he soon suppressed his emotions, he knew he needed to be focused in this fight if he wanted to win, he would not underestimate this giant who had just infiltrated the village and killed without as much as making a sound, no he knew this man was probably over his league, but if he could stall him for a few more minutes and then Akio and Haru would arrive, yeah that was his best chance so he asked the man in hope of buying some time "What is your name?"
"My name, oh how rude of me not to introduce myself, but you see a name is a bit tricky; today I go by the name of Iwao and what is your name my soon to be victim…actually what was the girl's name at that she didn't survive enough to tell me." He said as he turned his head toward the girl gesturing to where her body had fallen and formed a small pool of blood;
With his head turn toward the body Iwao was still able to quickly make a swing of his gauntlet which deflected a couple of Kunai that went straight for his chest "Ha is that…" but before he could finish his taunt both of Tadau's feet made contact with Iwao's face sending him through the wall and into another person's room, as he took some steps back he noticed that the occupants of this room were killed as well, Tadau took a kunai from his holster and was already to enter in search for Iwao when he heard a voice from behind him "Well that was an unexpected move" he heard Tadau say as he felt a foot make contact with his back sending him flying through the room and crashing into the wall.
Tadau struggled to get back up, he looked back at the approaching Iwao, he rolled to the left as a foot came crashing down on his previous position, he stopped just in time to watch as a small part of the floor cracked under the weight of his opponents strength, Tadau suddenly felt a huge amount of pain on his right shoulder and next felt as a hand wrapped itself around his neck.
"So how long until you realize no one is coming to help you?" asked a bored Iwao looking at his opponents face, there was blood dripping from his mouth and from the top of his head.
"What...what are you talking about?" Tadau asked as he put one of his arms on top of Iwao's forearm.
"I'm talking about baldy man and kid with sunglasses, actually by now I don't think anyone will be helping you." he said as eased the pressure, not wanting this to end so quickly, that was his mistake as Tadau took this chance to reach for something in his back with his left arm, he quickly used the object to punch Iwao on the face causing a big cloud of smoke to rise around them.
The surprise smoke bomb stunned Iwao who let go of Tadau who quickly disappeared and as the smoke cleared Tadau was nowhere to be found leaving behind an angry Iwao yelling and cursing as he trashed the room.
"Hime is so going to kill me" he said once he calmed down a little.
"What do you mean you lost him!" asked an enraged Hime her voice raising to a dangerous level, which made the other figures step back from her as if ready for her to just unleash her anger on anyone that was too close to her.
"As I told you once, I had him but the little coward used a smoke bomb right into my face, the useless shit didn't even try to attack me." He said to her in a monotone, even he knew when he was in trouble.
Hime closed her fists containing her anger, years of planning could go to waste because of Iwao's stupidity "I don't care if he had used freaking Amaterasu in you, you don't leave this place until you erase this jounin from the face of earth, Takeo, Tatsuo and Takeshi you are to accompany him, I can't trust this matter on his hands alone" at this the other figures stood by Iwao's side waiting for Hime to finish giving her instructions "and Iwao you know that this failure will have consequences, only one shinobi remain, begin purging the village."
3 days earlier Konoha village- 1 week after the test.
Team 9 was quickly moving, jumping through the roofs of Konoha, they had been doing this mission for the biggest part of the day and Daisuke was tired of being outsmarted by their target "Minato do you have a visual of it?"
The blond to his side quickly scanned the streets and said "The target is moving to the marketing district."
"I see it, damn we are going to lose it again!" yelled a distressed Mikoto.
"Not this time, Mikoto, you and me are going to lead the cat to that corner; Minato you position yourself there, ready to intercept the target." Daisuke gave his orders, through the last week he had become the strategist of their team.
"Okay! I'm splitting up now." Minato said as the other two begun making everything possible
To guide their target to the ambush point, as soon as it turned the corner Minato showed up in front of it, it tried to jump but Minato was able to capture it with his arms stretched , their target seemed to be nothing more than a old cat with brown fur except a few which were gray due to the cat's age.
"Oh very good, you finally got Tora, team I'm impressed." said a smiling Sai who seemed to be looking down at them from one of the roofs.
Daisuke looked at the cat which seemed to scratch at Minato's head furiously while trying to free itself "Damn this cat really doesn't want to go back huh?" he thought aloud.
"Damn, Mikoto get this thing please, I hate cats!" Minato said as he offered the cat for Mikoto to carry with a desperate look on his face.
After an uneasy look tough Mikoto smiled looking at Daisuke "Let's race to the hokage tower!" and as she said that she ran as fast as she could in order for her not to have to carry the cat.
Minato looked behind him to try and ask Daisuke but found the spots where he was completely empty and as he looked back to the Hokage tower he could see the last glimpses of Daisuke "Hey wait for me, you traitors!" Minato yelled after the rest of his squad.
He pouted as the cat seemed to struggle harder so he turned to his last hope and sensei "Soo Sai sensei… want…".
Before Minato could say a thing Sai looked up to the sun "Oh look at the time, we better go finish this mission." And with that said he began walking away, this made Minato's face fall a little as he began walking with his sensei and the cat toward the tower.
Naruto was having a strange sense of déjà vu right now, by his side stood both Iruka and Kakashi and as they both looked at the old Tora and how she was almost suffocated to death by its owner hug, he knew they were having the same felling. If it was any other animal Naruto might feel bad for taking this mission, but he remembered all too well his first mission to bring back Tora, which made him muse "Geez just how old is Tora, I feel old thinking like that."
Naruto was brought back from his musing, thanks to Sai asking him "So do you have any other missions Hokage-sama?" asked Sai making sure to address Naruto properly in front of his students, despite the fact that probably all of them had prior contact with Naruto.
Naruto looked at his son and his squad mates, as he tried to look serious "Well, we have the mission to babysit a merchant's five kids, clean duty in the marketing area or…"
Naruto was interrupted as he heard a groan which came from his son "Come on dad, not this stuff again!"
Sai looked at his student "Come on Minato, this missions are necessary for you, missions with a bigger rank will come with the time."
"Sensei we are ready, come on I mean we have been doing this for a whole week and besides…" Minato began complaining to his sensei, but as this went on Kakashi and Iruja were smiling and whispering to Naruto.
"Where have I seen this before eh Iruka?" asked Kakashi, even behind his mask anyone could spot a smile on his lips.
"Well I wonder Kakashi, do you have any idea Naruto?" Iruka said with a smile of his own which made Naruto face palm as he looked at his son.
"Come on I wasn't that way when I was a kid was I?" he asked with a sigh which made Minato turn his attention back to his father.
"Almost like looking in a mirror don't you think? You know what will take for him to shut up right?" Kakashi asked with a small smile as he looked at his former student.
Naruto looked at his son who was ranting by now, both his team mates despite being silent, he could see they wanted Minato to win this argument a lot, he sighed as he said under his breath "Hinata will have my head for this." He thought grimly as he said "Okay."
Minato stopped in mid bantering as he looked at his father "What?"
"Yeah we got a mission I think you might be able to handle, you will travel to a small village located in the border of the Fire country and bring them some medical supplies that they need, the road is not really that much guarded so stay on your guards for bandit attacks, the rest of your specifics are in this scroll" Naruto said as he threw the scroll to Sai who got it and began reading.
Minato opened a smile "Really, thanks dad, we won't let you down you will see." He said as he gave Naruto a hug.
"I know you won't son." As he said that he turned his head toward Mikoto and Daisuke with a grin "I know all of you will make me proud." He then broke the hug "tell your mom I will be late today".
"Yes dad I'll tell her." Minato said as he joined his team and left with Sai.
Once outside Sai opened the scroll and begun reading through it, all his students looked at him with a look that betrayed how anxious they were, as he finished it they could not refrain from bombarding him with questions.
"When do we leave?".
"What are the details?"
"How long will we stay out of the village?"
Sai raised his hand making his students quiet down a little "In order, we leave tomorrow morning, the details just tell us that the village has a small shinobi force, once we deliver it to them, the medicine will be their responsibility and we will stay four to five days away from the village, so have a good night of rest today and pack your gear to travel light, you are dismissed." Sai said as he went away from his team.
"So what do we do now?" asked Daisuke as he looked at his two friends waiting for an answer.
"Well we do what he said, go rest and get our stuff ready, right?" Mikoto said as she looked at the direction of her house.
"Hey guy why we don't hang out at my house today huh?" asked Minato with a grin, clearly excited about having their first mission .
Daisuke smiled but Mikoto frowned "We got to be ready for tomorrow, so it is not a good idea for me to stay at your house."
Minato smiled "Come on Mikoto just bring your stuff to my home and you can get ready there, we can have a sleepover or something like that. Outside missions, we have been really growing apart, even you Daisuke have disappeared to do who knows what after our missions and training sessions."
"You just want to see her in her pajamas Minato you perv" Daisuke said with an evil grin as his friend blushed.
"Hey it's not like that man come on, you know I…I mean I…"Minato stammered trying to get the words out of his mouth.
Mikoto on the other hand got red… but for different reasons, as she turned to Minato and punched him in the face sending him flying over to a wall "YOU PERV!" she yelled as she stormed away.
Daisuke was sitting in the kitchen of Minato's house where his friend currently with a purple eye stood in a chair while his mother Hinata brought a bag with ice to her son "You should really think about what you say son." She scolded but in Daisuke's opinion even when his friend's mother scolded him, she was still the gentlest person he knew.
"It was Daisuke's fault mom, I didn't mean anything!" he tried to argue his case but to no avail as his mother sighed and put a small smile on her face.
"You are just like your father I swear, so how was the day of my two brave ninjas?" she asked making Minato groan and Daisuke blush at the treatment, up until this day he was not used to how warm the whole family treated him, Hinata and Naruto had been there for the biggest part of his life together with the whole family.
"We had to chase after a cat." Daisuke said as he snapped out of his thoughts and noticed Minato would consider his groan as an appropriate answer.
Hinata only smiled as she began putting plates on the table "Tora is still alive, we had to hunt her down a lot of times when we were genins, they used to say that a team who caught Tora would have good luck."
"We don't need luck mom we're awesome, actually we just got our first C rank mission!" Minato yelled proudly to his mother.
Daisuke noticed as for a moment Hinata's face expressed a deep worry but it quickly vanished as a weak smile took her face "That is great honey, when do you leave?"
"We leave tomorrow morning mom!" Minato said in pure joy.
"Don't forget to follow your sensei's instructions okay and take care, now call your brother and sister for dinner." Hinata said as she begun with Daisuke's help to put the food on the table.
"Okay mom" Minato said and shouted "Hey Jiraya, Aki dinner on the table!" he said and soon heard laughs and the sound of small footsteps getting to the kitchen.
"Yeah I won Jiraya, I will sit next to mom." Said a girl with short blonde hair, wearing a sleeveless black shirt and orange pants, her whisker marks, byakugan and huge grin as she showed her tongue to her brother marked her as the younger daughter of the couple;
"Whatever, I'm sitting on Kushina's side then." Said a boy with spiky dark blue hair and a shy smile on his face as he mentioned sitting by Kushina's side. He wore a long sleeved white shirt and blue pants, his whisker marks pointed him as Aki's twin brother Jiraya.
"Oh sorry honey, your sister went on a mission with Itachi just this afternoon." Hinata said with a smile as she saw Aki make a kiss face at this piece of information.
"Oh okay, then I want to sit next to Daisuke" he said lifting his hands to his chest level and pressing his fingers together in a way that Hinata knew too well, she understood that all of them saw Daisuke as a brother just as much as Minato.
"Hey why none of you want to sit next to me!" asked Minato faking hurt.
"You're lame brother!" Aki said grinning.
"You are too loud brother." said Jiraya shyly.
"Oh you know what now I'm really hurt!" Minato said turning his head making everybody laugh at his reaction.
Mikoto heard a knock on her door, this time she knew it wasn't Itachi, he had left on a mission. So as soon as she said "Come in." she was not surprised to see her mother, holding her 4 years old sister Izumi.
Sakura smiled at her daughter "Hey honey, I heard you got your first important mission." She said, although she had a gentle smile in her face, Mikoto could clearly see the worry and as her mother sat on the corner of her bed she exposed this felling as she asked Mikoto "How are you felling?"
Mikoto cast her face down so her mother couldn't see the insecurity in her face "Mom, do you think we are ready, I mean I wanted this mission, but should we have waited a little more?" she asked her mom wanting her advice.
Sakura smiled, as much as her daughter tried to act always calm like Itachi did she just couldn't hide her fear, fear of not measuring up to her brothers and to her father, so she tried to answer her in a reassuring way "Don't worry honey, in fact it was just like that when me, your father and Naruto first became a team" she said with a smile as she remembered the old times. "Look I trust Sai, he was a part of team 7 and he is realy strong and experient, so trust him okay, follow his orders to the letter and you will do just fine."
Mikoto was surprised with that piece of information, since she didn't knew her parents had been just as eager for their first mission of higher rank. Now that she stopped to think, she had a hard time to think of her father and mother as little genins instead of two of the strongest shinobis in the village "But mom I haven't even awakened my sharingan yet, both Itachi and Obito had awakened by this time."
Sakura understood now, it was her sharingan, not awakening as fast as her brothers, it was something her daughter wanted so bad but seemed unable to reach it "Honey, when it comes the time your sharingan will awake, your father didn't awaken his sharingan before he became a genin so don't be in a hurry." With that she kissed her daughters forehead gently.
"Thanks mom, so where are the guys?" she asked referring to her brothers and father.
"Well your father will probably arrive late; both your brothers are on missions and as you can see Izumi is not ready to let go of me yet" she said smiling as she gestured to the baby in her arms "Now go to sleep, you don't want to get late tomorrow, do you?" eith that she left the room.
Mikoto collapsed on the bed and begun the impossible task of trying to fall asleep, a task that she would only succeed several hours later.
Naruto stood on top of the Hokage monument, looking over the village with a small smile until a voice caught his attention "So a Mission rank C for team 9, why am I not surprise Dobe?"
Only one person called him Dobe and as he looked back he was not surprised to find that very same person Uchiha Sasuke, Captain of Anbu and his most trusted friend "They already all grown up heh Teme, wasn't it yesterday that I took Kushina to play with Itachi?"
His friend sat by his side and let out a sigh "Yeah and now another Uchiha and Namikaze Uzumaki team has been made, glad to see your kids don't behave so much like you Dobe"
"Yeah well glad to see your kids don't have a stick up their ass like you Teme" he said, but despite the words both had a smile on their lips since it was already routine for them.
"Worried about our kids big mission tomorrow?" Sasuke asked as he looked down at the village he once swore to destroy, as this though came to his mind, he felt ashamed for a moment.
"Me, nah…I mean sure I'm nervous, but then I still get nervous when Kushina leave the village for a mission, Minato is growing up, I guess I won't be able to keep him in the safety of the village forever." He said to Sasuke.
"Relax, he is with an Uchiha, Mikoto will keep your son out of trouble."Sasuke said and on second thoughts added "Besides what kind of precaution have you taken?"
Naruto smiled "You know me too well Teme, I sent a team to the border for a mission and just sent a hawk asking them to work as back up if needed, the hawk will take a day to reach them and they are one day and a half away from the village, so I trust it will be okay…besides, they have Sai with them." Naruto said.
"If I knew having kids would be this complicated, I would reconstruct my clan a lot slower" Sasuke said with a sigh which made Naruto smile.
"Come on Teme, you don't mean it, admit it you enjoy seeing them running around and I doubt you were thinking about your clan while with Sakura." He said earning a slap on the back of the head.
"Shut up Dobe" Said a frowning Sasuke, but the frown soon melted away into a smile "But yeah I guess you are right, the time of our generation is coming to an end."
"Yeah" Naruto said as he looked up at the moon "Now the will of fire will be passed to our kids."
Hey guys please tell me how this chapter went, it is bigger than the rest and slower besides I had a hard time with finding an ending to it so review and see ya next chapter.