-1Naruto of the Sound
I don't own Naruto or its characters
Chapter 4: First Real Mission
Sitting on a large wagon, Naruto Uzumaki leaned back a bit leaning against the back a small piece of wood which was right behind him. Naruto slowly raised both of his hands above his head, and let out a long sigh. As the young shinobi looked around, a small smile graced his face. He looked at the beautiful sky that stretched above him. He then looked at the simple dirt path, that he was currently traveling on. He noticed, some trees to both sides of the path, all looking a dark green color. The two things he could not see though, were the other wagons which were located on the one behind where he was, and his teammates who where spread out amongst the wagons. So far on the trip, nothing had taken place, everything was quite enjoyable, and the view in some places was amazing. This would have been a great trip, if it had not been a mission.
Naruto remembered back to three days before this moment, he had talked his way into the Otokage's office, and literally talked his and his team into a c ranked mission. It had not been a easy thing to pull off either. In fact the old man would not buy anything for a long time, until Asuma happened to walk by, and supported his side of the argument. Still, this was a shinobi mission, it was to be something excepting with fighting, and stuff. This mission so far was boring, nothing big had happened yet, it had been really quiet. In fact, Naruto wondered why they even need the shinobi for the help. It was not like anyone was around to attack, and this caravan was only carrying trade good, which they were going to take to a village over in Grass Country.
In the other wagons, the other 3 members of Team Asuma were also enjoying the day. Choji was munching on some food which one of the members of the caravan was kind enough to give him. Shikamaru was leaning back, half a sleep as he looked at the few clouds in the sky from time to time. Then Asuma was some what looking towards the rear of the wagons, paying attention, but at the same time enjoying his cigarette. Even the members of the caravan were relaxed enjoying the great weather, and the nice simple path, they were now traveling on.
A few hours later, after another great day of rest, the caravan pulled over into a small grassy area surrounded by thick trees. Naruto jumped out of the caravan as soon as it came to a stop. Naruto moved towards the center of the caravan which was circled up. He soon noticed Asuma, Choji and Shikamaru who were moving at various speeds to the central location.
"I want you three to scout out the area, and then comeback, we will have some training later today," Asuma said dismissing the 3 of them.
Naruto didn't have a chance to do much, but just nodded before going to his assigned section around the caravan. Naruto had done this about 10 times during the mission, and not a single one of the times, did he find anything other then some simple wildlife. Naruto jumped quickly from tree to tree, checking everything in his region for signs of movement thought the area. He wanted to get the assignment over with quickly, and luckily he knew how to do so. He had used a couple of shadow clones to search as well, each of them searching the ground. The search thus went by quickly, and as with every other time, that he gone out on a search, he found nothing. Another boring no action assignment in a no action mission. Man this was not what he wanted. Now he would have to do more training, Asuma had made sure that they all knew charka control before they started the mission, and made sure that they had a basic understanding of tactics, and tracking as well.
Naruto got back to the caravan, and noticed that some how he was the last person back again. How in the world, did Choji, and Shikamaru always finish their assignments faster then he had.
"Oh, Naruto, did you find anything?: Choji asked with a smile.
"Nope, same old same old, how about you two?"
"Nothing here, how about you Shikamaru, find anything worth while?"
"No, nothing," Shikamaru said in a flat unemotional tone.
"Ahh, there is my team, good to see you all got back, and in a decent time, not bad," Asuma said appearing out of no where, "I think we can wait till after the dinner to have our training."
Naruto smiled as he walked with his team to a large pit area that had been dug by the members of the caravan, while they were out searching the forest near where they had set up for the night. Naruto could smell the camp food that was being cooked, he could at least smell some type of soup. Soup seemed to be the main dish of the people who worked on this convoy, they had eaten some variation of the stuff for the last 3 days, and at every meal.
The old man who was cooking must of notice him approach because he turned the second he had landed with a bowl of soup in his hands.
"Well now, sunny, this here is not the most fanciful meal, but it is the best the old hands can make."
"No worry, old man, I am sure it will be enough," Naruto said taking the bowl before walking to find a place to sit and eat the soup.
The first taste of the soup was decent, it was a basic soup with various vegetables thrown in. Naruto noticed the other members of his team getting their soup now. Each of them looking quiet please to be able to eat something after then end of a long day. Choji looked especially pleased to be able to have a meal. Naruto was about to walk over and say something when he heard a funny sound coming from behind him. He looked up at his teammates, and gave them a signal, and a second later there was a small explosion that was set off just a bit away from the caravan.
Naruto moved into action without even thinking about it. He jumped up and moved throw a path between two of the wagons. As soon as he got past one of the wagons, he noticed what it was. There was a handful of bandits moving towards the wagon. Naruto quickly formed a handful of shadow clones, and picked out a bandit to take on. Naruto moved in on that single bandit, close the distance between himself and the bandit extremely quick. Naruto went in with a straight up haymaker, which the bandit was able to block. At this time, Naruto noticed his teammates also joining the action. Choji had had come into the fight in his huge ball form slamming into some of the bandits, Shikamaru used the limited sunlight to create shadows to bind the bandits, but Asuma seemed content with just watching how his team performed.
Naruto was able to take out the bandit quickly due to the bandit being frozen from Shikamaru's jutsu. The fight looked like it would be wrapped up quickly, and the action part of the mission would be really short. Still as the thought that, he noticed Asuma suddenly move past him towards the trees. Naruto looked and wondered what his teacher was doing. A second later, he noticed what had taken place, his teacher was now fighting some other man, as he came into the clear, he noticed that this man was wearing a headband with a rock. The rock had a scratch mark through the rock, meaning he was a missing-nin. Naruto also noticed another group that was moving away from the caravan.
"Sensei, are we to follow them," Choji asked Asuma, who had finished off the missing-nin rather quickly.
"Yes, we can't have them getting rainforests later, it would be more of a problem," Asuma said signaling the group to follow, " I will remain back here to make sure that no one attacks when you leave, and then I will follow you in short time."
Naruto jet his way though the woods, followed by Choji and Shikamaru. Naruto was surprised that the bandits were actually moving pretty quickly too. This would know be a race, who would run out of energy faster. After a bit of this though, Naruto knew he had to come up with a plan of action, they were covering a lot of ground, and he was sure if they moved to far, that they might have help. Naruto quickly formed a group of shadow clones, and used one burst of speed to get in front of the group. Each of the Naruto's then engaged the bandits in one on one combat, to prevent them from advancing till the others caught up. It was over when Shikamaru caught up, he used the rest of his chakra on a the web of shadows the trees created, to trap the bandits, and then Choji, and the Naruto clones were able to make quick work of the bandits. Everything seemed to be in order, until they noticed a group of bandits running at them in panic. Something odd was happening now, and all three of the gennin knew it,. The panicked bandits were easy to take down, but something had to scare them into the panic, because they were running towards them, and not a way. That meant something, or someone else had to be in the forest. Asuma had gotten to the scene a second later, but from the wrong direction for it to have been him. The answer was taken care of a second later, when four shinobi dropped out of a tree.
Naruto took a close look at these shinobi, three of them looked to be gennin like himself, and one was more then likely their jounin sensei. Of the three younger shinobi, he noticed two of them were boys, and one was a girl. The girl was noticeable because she had pink hair, which was something one didn't see every day. Then the two boys also would be pretty easy to pick out of a line up in the future. One was wearing a blue shirt, with black hair, that that stuck up a bit in the back, and the other one was wearing a hood over his head, with marks under his eyes, and a small white dog nearby him. Their jounin teacher though could be noticed from his round glasses and blue bandana that he had over his hair. The next thing, he noticed, was that these shinobi were leaf.
"Hmm.. Interesting to find you type out here so far, Ebisu," Asuma said keep a close eye on his one time ally, "You do know that your team crossed the border a little bit back their."
"Yeah, I am sure of it, but we were in chase of a group of bandits. You wouldn't happen to know anything about them. Now would you, Asuma, or your father would either, right?"
"No, we were in chase of the bandits too, but my boys, managed to catch, and defeat them within their own borders," Asuma countered.
"Hmm…fine, well, we will be off, until later Asuma Sarutobi."
Naruto had been measuring up the 3 young shinobi, to no avail, when the team suddenly was gone, off following their sensei.
"Good work, that was quick a impressive display," Asuma said with a smile, "We better get going back to the caravan, something tells me, the rest of the trip won't be so action packed."
A/N- well, I think it was a ok chapter. I hope you liked it, and if you can't tell the leaf team was Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba. Thanks for reading, and if you feel like it, leave a review. Till later.