I'm back, sorry for takin' so long, just realized how much being a senior sucks. Meetings for physicals, teacher conferences, Masonry competitions, job training and getting federal help for college….all in three days. Eeeerggh Anyone that wants to help with the character drawings is welcome, I can give full apparel lists. Ty!
Sabba5600: I kind of like the Kurenai team too. I'm going to use your Kurenai team and Hoytti's Asuma team, the Kakashi team will just end up with the leftovers lol. I can kind of see Anko as having an apprentice. And yes I will attempt to get Fuu in there, just gotta figure out when and how :D With Kakashi, I bet I can make other ones work, if I think of another person for the pairing you'll be in for a surprise, if not, Anko lol :) With Asuma/Kurenai….yeah lol the Choji/Ino pairing, I could see, I could also see him with Karui if Ino doesn't work out. I can definitely see Kiba with Hinata and as for Lee, I dunno, maybe Tenten or somethin...hmmm…
Precursor (Ch. 6)
For the next few months Kakashi and his not so new team went on D-rank missions, which Naruto seemed to personally like, but his teammates did not. Naruto seemed to like learning new plants or fixing up gardens for people. The mission he seemed to like the most was capturing Tora, the fire Daimyo's wife's cat. The cat absolutely hated his team the first time they met, but Naruto pulled out a can of tuna from Wave country and the cat was instantly on him cuddling. He, Sasuke and Sakura were confused but eventually gave up figuring out where Naruto pulled random things from anymore.
Tora, or as Naruto called him, the cute little fuzzy ball of love, was forced to live with a woman who did not respect the animal. She would squeeze him and stroke the poor cat way too hard, making it miserable and angry. Truly it wasn't a surprise when he figured out Naruto had woken up in the middle of the night to find Tora scratching at his door, begging to be hid from the vile woman. The morning after Naruto told him that he had been found sleeping in a clearing with a purring Tora on his stomach by the aforementioned woman. She at first did not wake him up, instead opting to watch the 'little blond kid' sleep peacefully with her precious 'Tora-chan'. Tora eventually sensed danger in the form of a fairly large woman leaning over to pick him up and bolted, scratching Naruto's face in the process. After an hour and a half of trying to retrieve her cat, the woman finally gave up and suggested Naruto take the cat, as it seemed to like him more, and that's how Tora became Naruto's new ninja animal. (nin-ken?)
Other than that they also had two, month long C-rank missions and were about to go on their third one. The first one, in Wave country, was Kakashi's nightmare, being as it changed to an A-rank mission halfway through, and ended up with them eventually fighting a nukenin by the name of Zabuza. The second was to Takigakure, a village hidden by a waterfall. The village itself was beautiful, but according to Naruto, something more amazing resided within the village. The only hint he would give to his teammates was that Ms. Seven looks like heaven. Kakashi wondered who Ms. Seven was.
Right now they were going to get their promised third C-rank mission, thanks to Naruto's bet with the Third, who lost, unsurprisingly. He watched as Sasuke tried to get away from a less frantic Sakura, who wanted to know his favorite color for some reason, come to think of it she had asked him that too, but he never told her. Hmmm… well then.
"Sasuke, come on, tell me what it is! Please, come on I've already asked Kakashi, and after I ask you I need to get Naruto's."
"Hnn, just ask Naruto already, I don't have a favorite color." Naruto was petting Tora, who was perched on his shoulder.
"Oh, come on everyone has a favorite color. I bet you don't wanna tell me because you think it's girly. Or you're already wearing it. Well you are wearing a dark blue shirt all the time, and now its always black pants, is it black, blue or just any dark color? Oh, please tell me its not fuschia pink! That would be horrendous!" Sasuke flinched and mumbled the word blue.
"Mine's dark green. Beautiful, yet vibrant, just like Ms. Seven."
"There he goes again." Sakura deadpanned while Naruto spouted off about how wonderful 'Ms. Seven' was when he met her, whoever she was. Kakashi shook his head,
"We're here my cute genin." Sakura deadpanned again at his words. 'Cute' was his term for trained killers, she wondered what his ninken were to him. They walked into the mission room and waited for the Third to begin speaking.
"Ah, Kakashi, I see you've brought your team in for their mission. Now I have only one available right now, but this mission's rules are specific and important. Once you accept you can not decline the missions' parameters." Kakashi started to sweat, the last time he was told that he agreed all too hastily and had to dress up as a female in a whore house that week.
"What are the parameters? If I may ask…."
"All you have to do on this mission, is have Naruto cover his hair, the entire time. Meaning even while sleeping or in the shower. Sakura can cover hers too, but hers is optional, same for you Kakashi." Naruto pointed to his bandana headband and said,
"We don't really have to worry about that since I wear this every day."
"Yes, Naruto, but you take yours off when you shower and sleep. On the mission you can't as it will compromise the mission, resulting in failure." The Third explained.
"I'm still wondering why it would compromise the mission. The only place that those parameters would be able to screw up a ….mission….is...No! We cannot go there, I don't think they would be ready if the parameters were compromised!" Hiruzen shook his head.
"You will be travelling close to it but are not to enter the country. You will be informing your team of the reasoning of the parameters and why you are not entering the neighboring countries if you are to accept this mission. The mission is to a small village just beyond Ishi. It is a straight and narrow path from Konoha, no deviations into the neighboring countries are allowed without reasonable priorities. Do you understand and accept the mission." Kakashi looked to his students, all three were nodding at him, eventually even Tora joined in, meowing once in a while to urge him to say yes.
"Yes, sir. I understand and accept the mission, along with its parameters."
"Good, you are dismissed. Speak with your genin, you have two weeks to set off for the mission." Kakashi nodded and immediately ushered his three genin out of the room. He brought them to the Hokage monument and brought them to a hidden entrance for special meetings and evacuation in case of attack.
"Alright." He said, getting serious with his genin. "Here's the deal. The mission we just accepted is to exterminate a pest located in a village on the direct path from Konoha. It sounds easy to get to and finish, but the problem is where exactly this village is located. The village we are headed to is located in between the borders of Suna….and Iwa. Iwa as you all may know is still in bad terms with Konoha since the last ninja war. The village is just past Ishi, one of the major neutral cities in between the two countries. This little village is a so called no man's land, where nothing will grow and no one wants to live, it's been used as a battleground by Iwa and Suna when we were fighting them in the Third Shinobi World War." He paused. "In two days we will be heading out, in the time before we go I'm going to make sure you all have the gear you'll need for a two month mission, show you how to naturally disguise yourselves and give you ample time to say goodbye to your family or friends." They nodded in agreement. "You can all go now, come back here at five o'clock with your gear and we'll see what you may or may not need."
As the genin ran off to do whatever they pleased Kakashi went home to get his doomsday checklist, one he specifically made for missions like this. He was worried he may get something near Iwa and he had to make sure Naruto would not be hunted down for being a blonde from Konoha. Sakura immediately went home and packed what she thought suitable for the mission and told her mother of it, then headed over to Ino's training ground to tell her of her new mission. Sasuke went home, packed his supplies and walked out back to his home to train. Naruto immediately went to the academy and told Iruka of his mission and said his farewells to Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. He then went home and checked each and every one of his plants before packing supplies for the mission. Afterwards he headed to his garden, something about it had been bugging him for a while and he wasn't quite sure what it was. While he was gardening, Sasuke training and Kakashi having a mental breakdown into Anbu mode Sakura was talking to Ino, who she found on the way to her training ground.
"So you're going on another C-rank mission huh? Man I wish Shika and Choji were more active so we could go on more C-ranks, but Asuma-sensei is lazy too…You're so lucky Forehead." Sakura shook her head.
"No, we're not, we have to go to a country that's close to Iwa. The most hostile country to the people of Konoha right now."
"True, true, but hey, at least Sasuke-kun will be there to protect you."
"True….Hey! I can protect myself….If anything I'll need to protect Naruto, he froze up on our first mission in a dangerous situation, what if he does it again?" They arrived at team ten's training field and Sakura said goodbye to Ino, and left.
"What was that about?" Shikamaru asked lazily.
"Forehead's team has a new mission, another C-rank, but..." Asuma leaned up from the tree he was slumped against, "This time they are going to be travelling for two months to a village just between Iwa and Suna. Why can't we ever do missions that sound that badass?"
"Ino, that mission is not a joke, nor is it badass. Iwa is on a very thin line with Konoha, practically on the brink of war. Not to mention Naruto is a blonde male, going extremely close to a place that was almost decimated by our blonde male Hokage. They would take it wrong seeing a blond male Konoha ninja that close to their country, which could result in a war."
"Iwa wouldn't start a war over something as stupid as that…." Asuma looked down and shook his head.
"Ino, wars have been started over far, far less."